Notes

As a general note, I highly recommend summitpost.org as a source of information and pictures for almost all of these peaks. Much of the info below is from summitpost.

For more about spire measure and reduced spire measure see the main spire measure page.

1. Mont Blanc: Not surprisingly the highest peak in the Alps is the winner in terms of spire measure. Mont Blanc wins both for sheer size and the fact that the nearby valleys are quite low. However the main summit is not the best point in terms of spire measure, since it is a rounded dome. The subpeak Mont Blanc du Courmayeur, which stands atop the tremendous Freney and Brenva Faces, is the optimal point.
2. The Eiger, while not even 4000m high, boasts the most famous north face in the alps, if not the whole world. This is a classic example of a peak ill-served by height (or prominence) listings.
3. The Matterhorn is one of the most "spirelike" of the Alpine peaks; it is tall, steep, pointy, and rises above fairly low valleys. Like the Eiger, it has a classic north face. All of these features contribute to its superb spire measure. Note that it beats its higher neighbor Monte Rosa, as it does in the popular imagination and among mountaineers.
4. Monte Antelao is the "King of the Dolomites." (The higher Marmolada is the "Queen", however it sits in higher terrain and has a relatively gentle slope on one side). Like many Dolomite peaks, Antelao is steep, rocky, and pointy; it also sits close to the edge of the Dolomite uplift and so has dramatic drops to the nearby valleys. For all of the Dolomite peaks, note the low elevations---these peaks are totally, and unfairly, ignored by an elevation-based ranking.
5. Monte Agner is the highest peak of the Pale di San Martino Group. (Note that #26, Sass Maor is also in this very fine group.) It has huge, classic North and Northwest Face routes: "Both routes are counted among the longest and highest in the whole Alps"--Summitpost.org.
6. The Weisshorn is an almost perfect pyramidal peak which commands the middle Mattertal valley, over which it has 3000m of relief. Note that this is the first peak encountered on the list which gets a significant reduction (in this case, from the Matterhorn).
7. In Les Grandes Jorasses, in the greater Mont Blanc Massif, we find the last of the three great north faces of the Alps. They also tower over the low valley on the Italian side. Note the large reduction from Mont Blanc.
8. La Meije is the second highest summit in the Ecrins group (see Barre des Ecrins, lower down) in the Dauphine Alps, narrowly missing the arbitrary 4000m mark. It is at the northern edge of the group and therefore towers over the nearby valley and the town of La Grave.
9. Monte Viso is a relatively high rocky peak in a southerly part of the French/Italian Alps, which gives it low surroundings and hence high relief. Supposedly ancient sources thought it the highest peak in the Alps.
10. Monte Civetta is one of the most famous of the Dolomite peaks: "Civetta north west face is probably the biggest rock face of the Dolomites"--Summitpost.org. Note that it gets a substantial reduction from the nearby Monte Agner.
11. Ruchen is a northern summit of the Glärnisch massif in central Switzerland. Despite its low elevation, it has a very low base and a large, steep north face. This is probably one of the lesser-known (and therefore in some ways most interesting) peaks on this list.
12. The Cime de L'Est (Eastern Summit) of the Dents du Midi (Teeth of the South) is a striking landmark of the Rhone valley as it turns north toward Lake Geneva. The Dents du Midi form one of the Gates of the Rhone, marking where the river exits the mountains. The Cime de L'Est has particularly high relief above the valley. This peak is very well-known and respected locally but is not as well-known to outsiders because of its low elevation.
13. The Scheidegg Wetterhorn, a northern summit of the Wetterhorn massif (northeast of the Eiger), has a huge, steep northwest face which towers over the Grosse Scheidegg pass. This face is overshadowed in the region only by the Eiger Nordwand (which gives a significant reduction).
14. Monte Rosa is well-known as the high point of Switzerland and one of the highest peaks of the Alps. The optimal point on the Massif for spire measure is the Signalkuppe, which sits above the massive East Face. Note the significant reduction from the Matterhorn, which, though slightly lower, is a more dominating presence when viewed from the Mattertal, due to its steepness and sharp, amazing profile.
15. Bietschhorn "is the outstanding mountain of the Lötschental"--summitpost.org. Sitting south of the Berner Oberland, it separates the secluded Lötschental Valley from the Rhone Valley to the south. In either direction (especially to the Rhone) it gets great relief. It is another peak which just misses the "magic" 4000m height.
16. Pizzo di Prata is a great example of a peak which is singled out by spire measure but ignored by other measures. It sits above the Lago di Como--Val Masino--Val Bregaglia region on the Italian/Swiss border. This is a region which is somewhat comparable to the North Cascades: long, narrow lakes in deep valleys, surrounded by steep peaks with 2000m relief. Pizzo di Prata itself has a notable 700m wall, in addition to its overall relief down to the valleys and its dramatic position at the west end of its chain.
17. Montaz (the name is in the local Friulian language) is the second most famous peak of the Julian Alps of Slovenia. Triglav is higher and much more famous, and is important in the national psyche. And Triglav certainly has a great north wall, which has trained many world-class Slovenian mountaineers. However Triglav is a huge, sprawling massif, and its base is not particularly low. So Montaz, which is pointier, and has lower valleys nearby, gets a significantly higher spire measure. This is a case where the "spirelike" nature of one peak trumps some of the impressive aspects of another. (Another case of this is Saint Elias, which beats its neighbor Logan.) For those who prefer their peaks massive, like Triglav or Logan, spire measure is admittedly not ideal.
18. Watzmann is the highest peak entirely within Germany and has large, steep relief on its north side, since it sits on the extreme northern edge of the Alps. The south peak (Südspitze) is the most dramatic summit. This peak is unfairly overshadowed for many outsiders by the less impressive but higher Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany.
19. The Grosse Windgällen (not to be confused with another Windgällen) lies on the east side of the Reuss River, and to the West of Tödi, in the region to the east of the Berner Oberland. It has a stunning 2700m of relief over the Reuss.
20. The Dom is the highest peak entirely within Switzerland. It sits directly across the Mattertal from the Weisshorn (and so is reduced greatly by it and by the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa). It has similar relief to the Weisshorn but is not quite as consistently steep. It happens to be the highest point I have climbed in Europe (I recommend the Festigrat route).
21. La Grivola lies at the northern extreme of the Gran Paradiso group. Hence it gets more relief than its 4000m neighbor, and a higher spire measure. The name means "young lady."
22. Monte Legnone, like Pizzo di Prata, is a lower-elevation peak (by overall Alps standards) but lies in a rugged area with very low valleys. It is between Valsassina and Valtellina in the Lago di Como area. Another little-known gem.
23. The Aiguille Verte is one of the most famous peaks of the greater Mont Blanc Massif. It towers over the nearby valley and the town of Argentière. It is, according to some, "the most difficult 4000m peak of the Alps"--summitpost.org. Its relief and steepness give it a very high pure spire measure; however it is reduced quite a bit by its proximity to Mont Blanc and the Grandes Jorasses.
24. The Barre des Ecrins is the most southerly 4000m peak of the Alps, and so gets high relief from the low nearby valleys. However it is beaten in spire measure by the nearby La Meije (see above) and hence is reduced significantly.
25. Austria barely makes the Top 25 with the Grosse Wiesbachhorn, in the Hohe Tauern. This peak beats its higher neighbor Grossglockner by virtue of its position closer to the low valleys. "The southeast face falls off 2418 metres---the biggest difference in height between summit and valley in the eastern alps! It has been mistaken for the highest mountain in the Hohe Tauern for a long time in mountaineering history."--Summitpost.org.

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26. Sass Maor is another great, steep peak of the Pale di San Martino Group of the Dolomites.
27. The Doldenhorn rises steeply above the town of Kandersteg on the western edge of the Berner Oberland.
28. Hohe Munde is a peak in the Telfs region of Austria with striking relief.
29. Cima Ortles is the high point of the Ortler Group in the Italian Tirol, close to Switzerland and Austria.