Vincent-Pyramide (4,215 m a.s.l.)

The Vincent Pyramid is the most southern of the nine 4,000-metre summits of the Monte Rosa Massif, and is located in Italy. Its first ascent was not so much inspired by sporting ambition but rather the search for high-mountain gold. The search for gold: this explains the illustrious rope group consisting of Johann Nikolaus Vincent, the owner of the gold mines of Alagna, who was a mining engineer and the first person to reach the summit, the hunter Jacques Castel and two mine workers. They climbed to the summit on the 5th August 1819 via the South-east face. The most frequently climbed route of all on the Monte Rosa Massif is from the Colle Vincent to the Vincent Pyramid. This route was first used in 1851 by the brothers Adolph and Hermann Schlagintweit and Peter Beck.

Origin of the name
The summit, with its almost vertical face in the Alanga Valley, received the name Piramide Vincent in honour of Paul Vincent, who climbed it in 1819.

Stories / legends
The Vincent-Pyramid rises in the shape of an impressive pyramid to the south of the Colle Vincent (4,087 m a.s.l.). When regarded from the (4,107 m a.s.l.),  it appears to be the “last mountain”  – everything behind it appears to fall away into a bottomless pit, which is almost correct, as Alagna (1,190 m a.s.l.) is only eight kilometres away from this 4,000-metre summit as the crow flies. (SAC)

Height	4,215 m a.s.l.
First climbed	5th August 1819
First climbed by	Johann Nikolaus Vincent with the hunter Jacques Castel and two mine workers