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
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
Published in Mountain Ledger
Snow
A Night with the Snow Removal Crew of Stelvio Pass
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
Soccorso Alpino Valdostano on the Grandes Jorasses
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
Courmayeur, Italy, in Late Spring
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
The Rifugio Bonatti as It Turns Eighteen
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
The Italian IGM and the Courmayeur Sheets
Inside the Istituto Geografico Militare's Aosta Valley project, where a 1934 mapping convention is being slowly reconciled with modern lidar.
Guides
Women in the Trade: Three Guides in the Aosta Valley
In a valley where the guide trade was male for two centuries, three women now work full seasons.
Huts & Refuges
A Winter Month Alone at Cabane de Moiry
The CAS Moiry hut closes to guests in October. A winter caretaker spent November 2025 there alone, by invitation of the Sierre section.
Routes
The Tour du Mont Blanc Over Eleven Days: A Walking Rhythm
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
Mürren Before the Lifts Open, in Late Autumn
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
The Eiger Nordwand Recovery of March 1936
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
Walter Bonatti and the Long Argument of K2, 1954
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
A Day on the Aiguilles with Jean-Luc Pochon
One spring day on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi with a Chamonix guide of thirty-one years.
Mountain Towns
Chamonix in October, Off-Season
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.