This month, Italy’s Herve Barmasse, 47, took a break from alpine-style attempts on 8,000m peaks to do the first winter traverse of all 17 points of the Grand Sasso d’Italia in the Apennines.
The non-stop solo push included 67km horizontal and 7,200 meters vertical and combined skiing with rock and ice climbing. The Grand Sasso is the highest mountain in central Italy’s Apennine range and the country’s second-highest mountain outside the Alps. Its high point, Corno Grande, is 2,912m.
Herve Barmasse on the Grand Sasso d’Italia. Photo: Herve Barmasse/Facebook
Make a challenge truly challenging
For Barmasse, the first traverse and the numbers are just details. What really matters for him is sticking to his personal code of “subtract to gain.” That means selecting a challenge and putting himself in the right conditions to make it really…challenging.
On the Grand Sasso, he wanted to do the traverse completely alone and in winter. But even that was not enough.
He first planned the traverse for last year, but there was little snow, which would have made the feat easier. Barmasse was not sure if he could honestly call it a winter ascent that year because even if the dates were right, the conditions in 2024 were spring-like. So he discarded it.
“The calendar no longer makes the difference,” he said. “Our ethics and ideals do.”
Gullies, spires, and ridges
Barmasse skiing on part of the Grand Sasso winter traverse. Photo: Herve Barmasse/Facebook
This year, a recent snowfall on the Apennines made the Grand Sasso wintry enough, even in March. Barmasse set off as soon as he saw a good weather forecast and completed the traverse on March 6-7. Significantly, he made sure he climbed on-sight.
“Until the evening before, I had not informed myself about the conditions on the route and knew almost nothing about what I was going to do,” he explained on social media. “I just had an idea and a dream.”
The traverse included several rocky spires, narrow ridges, and several steep snow gullies. Barmasse was also surprised at the large amounts of snow, which slowed down his pace but enhanced the adventure.
17 summits
Barmasses started early on March 6 from Passo delle Capannelle. He chain-climbed Monte San Franco, Monte Jenca, Pizzo Camarda, Malecoste, Monte Corvo, Pizzo Intermesoli, Giovanni Paolo II, Pizzo Cefalone, Portella, and the high point of Corno Grande, which he summited and skied down at night, PlanetMountain reported.
He then rested at Campo Imperatore hut, although he carried his own fuel and supplies and so remained self-sufficient. On the second day, moving east, Barmasse linked Monte Aquila, Brancastello, Torri di Casanova, Monte Infornace, Monte Prena, Monte Camicia, and Monte Tremoggia.
Climbing Corno Grande in the dark, with skis on his back. Photo: Herve Barmasse/Facebook
Herve Barmasse is a Matterhorn guide and one of Italy’s best-known alpinists. He has a particular soft spot for winter and solitary climbs, both in the Alps and beyond. Barmasse has opened many new routes in Pakistan and the Himalaya. With David Goettler of Germany, he launched alpine-style winter attempts on the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat in 2021 and 2022 and Dhaulagiri in 2023.
In Patagonia, he opened the highly difficult Ruta de lo Hermano on Cerro Piergiorgio with Christian Brenna in 2008. In 2011, he pioneered new routes on Mont Blanc, Monte Rossa, and the Matterhorn, the last one solo.
