Dufourspitze, highest peak (15,203 feet [4,634 m]) of Switzerland and second highest of the Alps, lying 28 miles (45 km) south-southwest of Brig in the Monte Rosa Massif of the Pennine Alps near the Italian border. The summit of the mountain was first reached by an English party in 1855. The peak was named after General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, the head of the survey that first fixed instrumentally the positions of several Monte Rosa peaks.