Source: Interface Lift

The Alpstein massif don’t even come close to rivaling the stature of the Alps’ more snow-covered and soaring landforms, but that doesn’t make this alpine subgroup less worthy of your ogles and awes.

1492 proved a seminal year for exploration both upward and outward. As Christopher Columbus so famously sailed the ocean blue, France’s Mont Aiguille had been discovered for climbing. From then on, the French Pre-Alp plateau was considered the birthplace of mountaineering.

The Alberta, Canada gem is unique in its beauty and in its name: in no other place in North America can you find a place called Banff.