of Verbania and of Vercelli) and the Valle d’Aosta (province of Aosta), and the Swiss canton of Valais (Wallis). The name pied monte literally means ‘at the foot of the mountains’.
Monte Rosa’s four highest summits (L to R): Nordend, Dufourspitze, Zumsteinspitze and Signalkuppe with the Margherita Hut just visible close to its 4559m summit
Facts and figures
The Monte Rosa massif is very large – the biggest in the Alps – with 22 peaks over 4000m. Ten of these peaks form Monte Rosa itself. The high point of Monte Rosa is the Dufourspitze, which at 4634m is the second-highest peak in the Western Alps. The official limits of the Monte Rosa massif are:
West Theodulpass (3317m)
East Monte Moro Pass (2853m)
North Schwarzberg-Weisstor, next to the Rimpfischhorn, in the Mischabelgruppe (4199m)
South Col d’Olen (2881m).
Matters are made more complicated by the fact that the massif straddles the Swiss-Italian frontier and thus many of the summits have both Italian and Swiss names (and sometimes different altitudes as the maps do not always concur!).
The northern side belongs to Switzerland and holds the greatest glaciers, such the Gorner Glacier (Gornergletscher), which is the second-largest glacier in the Alps and runs down to the Zermatt Valley (Mattertal). The Italian side is far less glaciated since it faces south and east, and here the most important is the Lys Glacier (Ghiacciaio del Lys or Ghiacciaio di Gressoney).
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Monte Rosa is its East Face, which is the highest in the Alps. There is a height difference of around 2470m between the meadows at the end of Valle Anzasca to the top of the mountain. Seen from Macugnaga, the face forms a steep and colossal barrier – virtually a Himalayan wall in the Alps. It features one of the longest couloirs of the Alps, known as the Canalone Marinelli after its first ascentionists. Also in the Monte Rosa massif, between the Nordend and the Dufourspitze, is the highest pass in the Alps – the Silbersattel (4517m).
Why ‘Rosa’?
The origin of the name ‘Rosa’ is lost in the mists of time. One version has it that the name comes from the beautiful pink colour (rosa) that tints wide glaciers and snowfields at sunset and sunrise, when the first and last light of day hits the different faces of the massif. When seen from the low valleys and big cities such as Turin and Milan Monte Rosa appears huge and magical, almost floating on a thin layer of clouds. When the sun goes down, the last rays of light bathe the mountains with a strange palette of colour. However, this interpretation could just be romantic nonsense. It seems more likely that the name ‘rosa’ comes from an ancient dialect word rouèse or roises, meaning ‘glacier’.
First ascents
The achievements of the earliest explorers of the Monte Rosa summits are undocumented how can we know … how can we know how many crystal hunters or shepherds tried to climb these peaks? But the first recorded ascent of the Monte Rosa massif is said to have taken place in 1778, when seven Italians from Gressoney went up from the south side, lured by tales of a mythical lost valley. The high point reached by this group (at about 4000m) was called the ‘stone of discovery’.
Ibex at Bettaforca with the Parrotspitze summit behind seen from Stage 3
Recent history of mountaineering on the massif is firmly linked to Italian priests: the first ascent belongs to Alagna’s priest, Pietro Giordani. He reached 4046m (now called Punta Giordani) in 1801. To Giuseppe Zumstein belongs the ascent of the Zumsteinspitze (4563m) in 1819, and to N Vincent goes the ascent of the Piramide Vincent (4215m) in 1819.
In 1842 another priest, Gnifetti (a name associated with many Monte Rosa peaks), reached the Punta Gnifetti (Signalkuppe) (4554m). In 1861 an English expedition (EN and TF Buxton and JJ Cowell) climbed Nordend (4612m) with two Guides. In July 1855 an English expedition (J Birkbeck, C Hudson, E Stephenson, and J and C Smyth), with Swiss Guides, attained the highest summit of the range, the Dufourspitze (4634m).
The first difficult route, the Nordend East, was climbed by an Italian expedition (led by Guide L Brioschi) in 1876, and the first winter ascent belongs to another Italian expedition (L Bettineschi, F Jacchini, M Pala and L Pironi) in February 1965.
Glaciers
Glaciers and glaciated mountains feature strongly all along the Tour of Monte Rosa. The valleys have been carved by the ice, and many people now come to the Alps to see what remains of these huge frozen rivers. The terrain encountered on the trek has been largely shaped by glaciers – mainly long gone – and all around are high snowy mountains. The trek has one short passage on a glacier which, although quite flat and apparently banal, should not be underestimated.
Glaciers respond to climatic changes. In cold periods with heavy snowfall glaciers expand downwards, only to retreat in warm dry periods. Over the course of the centuries the climate has changed more than once, and these fluctuations have influenced the life of the Alpine populations.
The Middle Ages were a time of relative warmth which favoured the colonisation of the Alps at increasingly high altitudes. Glaciers retreated considerably and artefacts found at now-glaciated passes are evidence that much of this terrain was ice-free for many centuries. The 16th century saw the beginning of the Little Ice Age, a cold period of heavy snowfalls which lasted three centuries, and the glaciers regained much territory. The advancing glaciers buried many of the high pastures and gave rise to fear and superstition among mountain people – the ice was literally pushing up against their front doors, and they were moved to call the priests to exorcise these demonic forces.
The mid-19th century saw the start of the warm period which has continued, with occasional colder intervals, to this day. The extent to which we are now in a natural cycle or whether the recent fast melting of the glaciers is due to the effects of modern civilisation may be debated, but there is no doubt that the current warming is very rapid.
Ancient passes
Many of the trails used by the Tour of Monte Rosa have been used for centuries for all sorts of different purposes. In the Middle Ages the Alpine climate was warmer by several degrees than it is today, and before motorised transport it was often easier and safer to go over the high mountain passes than to descend to the main valleys such as the Rhône and the Aosta. Frequently the mountain valleys were rendered impassable by deep gorges, or were prone to rockfall or landslides. While the high passes carried their own risks – bad weather, cold, exhaustion, attack from marauders – they were usually more direct and less tortuous.
There were abundant reasons for wanting to travel from one valley to the next.
Trade: in times past people bartered goods rather than dealing in money. Goods that were needed in the Alps included salt and spices, so the mountain people would take their own goods to trade. The wines from the Aosta Valley were sent over to the Valais and Tarentaise by the so-called Route des Vins (which went from Chambave to the Rhône Valley, probably across the Theodul and Collon passes).
The farmers would take their cattle over into neighbouring valleys to graze as part of the transhumance method of farming.
People travelled surprisingly long distances for work; for example much of the Alpine architecture in Switzerland is based on the work of Italian builders from the Valsesia region, near Alagna.
Sometimes people needed to migrate because they had too many enemies in their native valley, or conditions had made survival there untenable.
The Monte Moro Pass (L to R): the lift station, the Oberto Maroli hut and the golden Madonna (Stage 6)
History tantalises us with fascinating stories