Alagna Valsesia - History of Mountaineering

History of Mountaineering

Alagna is one of the Alpine towns which have played a crucial role in the history of the mountaineering. The Guides Assosiation was founded in 1872 and it is the oldest in Italy second only to that of Courmayeur (1870). From the town started all the first expeditions on the close Monte Rosa; the first one was on 23rd July 1801 when Pietro Giordani, a native of Alagna, reached the summit of the peak which now is called by his name (Giordani peak, 4046m). On 1819 Zumstein reached the third highest Monte Rosa peak (Zumstein peak, 4563m). Finally between August the 8th and the 9th, the Alagna parish priest, reached, after three attempts, the fourth tallest peak of Monte Rosa and the highest in the Alagna Valley, the today called Gnifetti Peak (4559m). The mountaineering tradition is still alive: Silvio Mondinelli the second Italian climber to reach all the 14 8000m peaks of the world, has done several challenging climbs on the Alagna side of Monte Rosa. In September 2011, Hervè Barmasse and his father, have opened a new route on the south-east face of the Gnifetti peak m.4559, which is at the moment the most difficult route on this side of the massif and one of the most challenging in the entire group (+800m, VI, ED). Finally Alagna is the starting point for reaching the Capanna Margherita, the highest hut in Europe, on the Gnifetti Peak top (4559m).