Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Alps are among the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching about 1200 km from Nice on the Mediterranean to Trieste on the Adriatic and Vienna. They cross eight countries: Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia.
The Alps were formed by the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates, a process that began in the late Cretaceous Period as part of an orogeny that started about 300 million years ago. Extreme compression thrust marine sedimentary rocks upward into folded peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.
Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps at 4810 m and the highest of the Western Alps. The Alpine region contains 82 peaks higher than 4000 m, with Piz Bernina at 4049 m the highest of the Eastern Alps.
Ötzi is a mummified man discovered on a glacier at the Austrian-Italian border in 1991, the oldest known human mummy. He was killed there about 5300 years ago, and his remains are exhibited at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
The Alps cover only about 11% of Europe's surface but supply up to 90% of the water reaching lowland Europe, especially to arid areas and during summer. Major rivers including the Rhine, the Rhône, the Po, and the Danube draw their headwaters from the Alps, and the runoff feeds at least 550 hydroelectric plants.
Alpine tourism began in the early 19th century as foreigners visited the scenery and stayed at spa resorts. The Winter Olympics were held three times in the Alps before World War II: Chamonix in 1924, St. Moritz in 1928, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.
Alpine glacier cover shrank from 1817 km2 in 1876 to 1342 km2 by 1973. Forty percent of Austria's glaciation has disappeared since 1850 and thirty percent of Switzerland's, while snow cover duration has fallen 5.6% per decade over the last 50 years.