Themed thread
The Nicolussis, guides from Molveno
Two brothers from a lakeside village opened up the hardest peaks of the Brenta.
The first ascents of the Dolomiti di Brenta almost always bear the name of a foreign or city climber, and beside it the name of a guide from Molveno. The guides are two, Bonifacio and Matteo Nicolussi, and the source says what for a long time could only be suspected: they were brothers.
They worked together at least twice, and on important peaks: on 19 August 1880 they took the Trentino climbers Annibale Apollonio and Giorgio Rossaro to the summit of Cima Brenta Alta, and on 15 September 1885 they accompanied Stefano Yocca up Cima Margherita, which at the time was called by its full name, Cima Regina Margherita.
Matteo is the one who recurs most. On 8 August 1884, after several attempts, he led Karl Schulz of Leipzig onto the Crozzon di Brenta, traversing from Cima Tosa; in the same year, on 16 July, he was with Friedrich Vogl of Munich on Cima degli Armi; and he was Edward Theodore Compton’s guide on the Torre di Brenta. Bonifacio, on 27 July 1885, opened the Campanile Alto with the Bavarian Gottfried Merzbacher, by the giant north-east chimney. Six peaks of the group, opened in five years, by two men from the same village.
6 places where you meet it
- Campanile AltoValli del NoceThe Campanile Alto reaches 2,937 metres and is a powerful, elegant tower that rises in isolation in the central part of the Dolomiti di Brenta, between the Busa degli Sfulmini to the east and the upper val Brenta to the west.
- Cima Brenta AltaValli del NoceCima Brenta Alta reaches 2,960 metres and belongs to the Catena degli Sfulmini, that line of rocky peaks shaped like needles or towers which stretches from north to south in the Brenta group.
- Cima dei ArmiValli del NoceThe Cima degli Armi, also called Cima dei Armi, reaches 2,951 metres in the central part of the Brenta group, within the Catena degli Sfulmini, between the Torre di Brenta to the south-west and the Cima Molveno to the north.
- Cima MargheritaValli del NoceCima Margherita is 2,845 metres high and lies in the southern part of the Brenta group, within the Tosa massif, between Cima Tosa and Cima Brenta Bassa; the saddle of Bocca Margherita separates it from the former, an unnamed notch from the latter.
- Crozzon di BrentaValli del NoceThe Crozzon di Brenta reaches 3,122 metres and is one of the most recognisable peaks of the Dolomiti di Brenta.
- Torre di BrentaValli del NoceThe Torre di Brenta reaches 3,014 metres and is the main peak of the Catena degli Sfulmini, as well as being one of the 86 summits in the Dolomites that exceed three thousand metres.
The links between these places come from our entries, where every fact has been checked against the sources. The entries are written one at a time: this thread will grow with them.