List of prominent mountains of Switzerland
This article contains a sortable table of many of the major mountains and hills of Switzerland. The table only includes those summits that have a topographic prominence of at least above other points, and ranks them by height and prominence. Therefore it only includes mountains that might generally be regarded as 'independent' and covers most of the country, even lower areas. For a fuller list of mountains, including subsidiary points, see List of mountains of Switzerland above 3000 m and List of mountains of Switzerland above 3600 m. For a list of just the most isolated mountains, see List of most isolated mountains of Switzerland.
Along with the lakes, mountains constitute a major natural feature of Switzerland with [List of Swiss Cantons of Switzerland|cantons by elevation|most of the cantons] having summits exceeding and three of them having summits exceeding. The two main mountain ranges are the Alps and the Jura, separated by the Swiss Plateau which also includes a large number of hills. Topographically, the three most important summits of Switzerland are those of Monte Rosa, the Finsteraarhorn and Piz Bernina.
Criteria
The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation defines a summit in the Alps as independent, if the connecting ridge between it and a higher summit drops at least . There are over 4400 such summits exceeding in Switzerland. In order for a peak to qualify as an independent mountain, traditionally a prominence of at least, or 10 times the aforementioned criterion value, has been used. This is the sole criterion used for this list. Inclusion purely based on prominence is expedient for its objectivity and verifiability. It also allows the incorporation of the lowest elevation hills as well as the highest mountains, maximizing territory coverage and ensuring a reasonably even distribution throughout the country. However, this criterion has its drawbacks. For example, an impressive mountain peak dominating a valley may be connected via high ridges to a barely higher hidden summit. Among the better-known peaks absent from this list are Fletschhorn, Wetterhorn, Mont Blanc de Cheilon, Nadelhorn and Täschhorn, Piz Badile and Piz Palü. For this reason, additional country-wide lists with somewhat lower prominence cut-offs are also available: 150 m (with elevation cut-off of 3000 m).This list does not consider nor include topographic isolation. For a list of most-isolated mountains, see List of most-isolated mountains of Switzerland.
Accuracy
All mountain heights and prominences on the list are from the largest-scale maps available.However, heights sometime conflict on different scales. For example, the Fletschhorn is indicated to be,, and high on the 1:100'000, 1:50'000 and 1:25'000 Swisstopo map, respectively. The elevation given by the largest scale map is always used in this table.
Also, the deepest points in connecting ridges are not always survey points with spot elevations, so that heights have to be estimated from contour lines. For example, maps often provide heights for the place where a route passes over a ridge rather than for the lowest point of that pass.
Finally, many height indications on these maps may be not up-to-date, while glacier and firn melt has decreased the height of both peaks and key cols, quite dramatically. For example, until 2009, the Col des Maisons Blanches which lies on the Corbassière Glacier was measured to be 3,418 m, while the more recent maps show it to be high. This is the key col for the Combin de Corbassière, which, thanks to the retreat of the glacier, now appears on the list with a prominence of.
Distribution
The lists below contain 451 mountains with a prominence higher than, among which 24 are above, 64 above, 208 above, 321 above, 384 above, 417 above and 443 above. The average and median heights are respectively. Eight summits have a prominence exceeding, they are found in seven cantons. The great majority of the summits are located in the Alps, the other being located in the Jura Mountains. On average, each summit is the culminating point of an area corresponding to, which is equivalent in term of density to approximately 1.09 summits per.These 451 major summits are found in 22 different cantons. Of these, 3 cantons have summits above, 9 cantons have summits above, 15 cantons have summits above and 21 cantons have summits above. Two cantons have more than 100 summits: Grisons and Valais, while eleven cantons have less than 10 summits. 82 of the summits are on cantonal borders, 2 of which being tripoints. A number of mountains straddle borders as well, but have their summit on one side of the border. In the lists, only the exact location of the culminating point of the mountain is considered.
Missing from the lists below are the cantons with mountains with a prominence of less than, which are located either in the Upper Rhine Plain, Swiss Plateau or Randen.
By height
Canton
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 AargauBy prominence
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