Hervé Barmasse solos De Amicis route on Matterhorn
- Tuesday 23rd March 2021
In early March, Hervé Barmasse soloed the De Amicis route on the Matterhorn becoming the first to solo all six ridges on the mountain.
Leaving from Breuil Cervinia on March 3rd, Hervé Barmasse reached the base of the Matterhorn and climbed via De Amicis alone, making the first solo of the route and thus becoming the first alpinist to climb the six ridges of the Matterhorn solo.
Barmasse was confident about his climb saying: "I knew I could do it and so I did it by experiencing every grip and climbing lightly where the rock was crumbly. There was only one stretch, on the famous Crétier passage, where I used the rope for a few meters; applying a technique invented by myself and that, in the event of a fall, it was anyway not certain that it would spare me from more serious consequences. But even so, this choice was considerate. In the end, everything went well and at 4.30pm I was back in Cervinia, where my parents invited me for a beer ”.
The “sextuplet” of the Matterhorn ridges was first climbed (roped) by Luigi Carrel with various partners. Marco Barmasse (Hervé's father), climbing with various guides managed, to climb them all in winter. No one, before Hervé, had managed to climb them all solo.