A region of superb mountain grandeur where peak after peak lifts its frosty head above the clouds, where the remnants of the last great Ice Age still lie in thick fields upon the shoulders of the mountains and flow down in slow frozen rivers or leaping green streams to the valleys below; a region of tremendous distances, of high waterfalls, deep canyons, and black upsoaring cliffs; yet a region, too, of green loveliness, of grassy valleys and thick pine forests, of emerald alplands bright with flowers, of lakes, pure and brilliant in colour as precious gems.
Source: wiktionary