Ludwigshöhe

Height
4,341 m

First ascent
25 August 1822 (feast day of St Louis – “Ludwig” in German)

First climbed by
Ludwig Freiherr von Welden, with helpers

Multi-faceted border peak
The Ludwigshöhe is one of the ten 4,000-metre summits of the Monte Rosa massif. It stands on the borders between Italy and Switzerland, and between the Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont regions. On the Italian side, to the south-east, the mountain falls away steeply to the Ghiacciaio delle Piode. The Monte Rosa massif has about ten peaks above 4,000 m: Dufourspitze, Grenzgipfel, Ludwigshöhe, Nordend, Parrotspitze, Schwarzhorn, Signalkuppe, Vincent Pyramid, Zumsteinspitze.

Tips for visitors

• Gornergrat

Tips for hikers

• Gornergrat: Rotenboten - Riffelberg hike
• Gornergrat: hike to the Monte Rosa hut (glacier trek, mountain guide necessary)

Ludwigshöhe: tips for mountaineers

• Mountain guide necessary
• Depending on fitness levels, suitable for single or multiple ascents in the Monte Rosa massif
• Medium difficulty

History
The Ludwigshöhe was first climbed on 25 August 1822 by a team of surveyors for purely scientific reasons. Ludwig Freiherr von Welden, the Austrian general and topographer who led the expedition, named no fewer than eight peaks in the Monte Rosa massif. As was generally the case in the early 19th century, no names or scientific descriptions existed for these. Von Welden determined the location, name and height of the summits in words, pictures and on maps. He was also the first to draw up a map of the complete Monte Rosa massif.

Origin of name
The first ascent took place on the feast day of the canonised French king Louis IX (in German: Ludwig IX), who died on 25 August 1270. Ludwig von Welden gave this, rather than his own identical name, as the reason for naming the peak Ludwigshöhe, “Ludwig’s summit”.