
History
Cerro Fitz Roy 1952: The French-Italian First Ascent
Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone climbed Cerro Fitz Roy in February 1952 in conditions that the Patagonian guides of the period considered unclimbable.
Towns editor
Lucia Marengo grew up in the Aosta Valley and writes about the towns at the foot of the Mont Blanc massif from a flat above her family's bookshop.
Beats

History
Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone climbed Cerro Fitz Roy in February 1952 in conditions that the Patagonian guides of the period considered unclimbable.

Snow
Each May, a small team of road workers cuts the Stelvio Pass open from both sides, a kilometre at a time, through walls of snow that can stand five metres high.

Rescues
A spring storm on the Walker Spur caught two French climbers at the second band. The Aosta Valley rescue service brought them off the wall by long-line in a four-hour window between weather systems.

Mountain Towns
Between the close of the ski lifts on the Cresta d'Arp and the opening of the via ferrata routes above Val Vény, a town of 2,800 at the foot of Mont Blanc takes its annual breath. A report from the Via Roma and the Skyway terminal.

Huts & Refuges
Built in 1998 on the high balcony route of the Val Ferret, the Rifugio Bonatti has become a familiar name to walkers of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Cartography
Inside the Istituto Geografico Militare's Aosta Valley project, where a 1934 mapping convention is being slowly reconciled with modern lidar.

Guides
In a valley where the guide trade was male for two centuries, three women now work full seasons.

Huts & Refuges
The CAS Moiry hut closes to guests in October. A winter caretaker spent November 2025 there alone, by invitation of the Sierre section.

Routes
An honest account of the Tour du Mont Blanc completed in eleven walking days in early June, written for trekkers planning their first long alpine circuit.

Mountain Towns
On a car-free shelf at 1,650 m, an Oberland village waits out the six-week gap between summer hikers and the first skiers. A report from the Hotel Eiger and the train down to Lauterbrunnen.

Rescues
Toni Kurz died fifteen metres from his rescuers on the morning of July 22, 1936. The recovery of his body, and of the three men who had died above him, took six weeks and changed what mountain rescue meant in the Bernese Oberland.

History
An Italian expedition placed two men on the summit of K2 in July 1954. The dispute about how they got there took the next fifty-three years to resolve.

Guides
One spring day on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi with a Chamonix guide of thirty-one years.

Mountain Towns
Between the last alpinists of summer and the first skiers of winter, the valley empties for six weeks. A report from the rue du Docteur Paccard and the small huts above it.