On the 19th of August 1573, Francesco de Marchi climbed the impervious and rocky peak of the Corno Grande, the highest mountain of the Italian Appennin range, accomplishing an epic feat for his time: reaching a peak out of curiosity. He wrote his Chronicle anticipating by 213 years the ascent of Mont Blanc accomplished by Balmat and Paccard on 8 August 1786. 450 years after the feat, the film recounts the climb, narrated by Francesco De Marchi's own words, with spectacular images of the climb among the calcareous rocks of the Corno Grande.
Mountaineer, Global Team The North Face® athlete, writer, mountain filmmaker. Hervé was born in Aosta on December 21, 1977 into a family marked by a long tradition and a passion for the mountains. Alpine guide to the Matterhorn for four generations, his name is linked to important climbs. High difficulty and exhibition routes built around the world, such as the new solo open route on the Matterhorn, the first ascent of the smooth granite slate of Cerro Piergiorgio and the new route on Cerro San Lorenzo in Patagonia, the first ascent of Beka Brakay Chhok in Pakistan and others. On his native mountain, the Gran Becca, Hervé left his mark incisively to become the mountaineer who, between new routes, first winter routes and first solos, accomplished the most feats. He recently achieved an exemplary ascent in the Himalayas by climbing the South Face of Shisha Pangma 8027m in alpine style in just 13 hours. For his activity as a mountaineer, he has obtained important recognitions including the Paolo Consiglio academic prize received four times. In 2010, during his first directorial experience, he released Linea Continua. A film that tells the story of the opening of a new route on the Matterhorn, created with his father Marco. In 2012, it was the turn of Not so far, a documentary film which tells the story of Discovering the Alps, screened in 2011 with the opening of three new routes – on Mont Blanc, Mont Rose and the Matterhorn – and which shows how even in the Alps there is still room for adventure and that the value of the experience does not depend on the mountain to be climbed but on the look of the mountaineer. The mountain inside, published by Laterza, is his first literary effort (May 2015). A book in which Hervé tells himself, his story, the passion, the effort, the emotion of climbing.