TOUR interview with Hervé Barmasse: "You never think about turning back"
Andreas Haslauer
· 21.11.2025
He is an exceptional mountaineer and mountain philosopher: Italian Hervé Barmasse, who turns 48 in December. In this interview, the climber from the Aosta Valley explains why cycling is the best aerobic basis for his alpine training and how he came to develop the "Supermaratona" road bike tour. "You can't buy emotions - you have to experience them," he says. He also wants to create something that lasts. In addition to his achievements on the Matterhorn and in the Himalayas, which are highly regarded in the mountaineering world, this now also includes the idea of the most challenging cycling marathon in the Alps.
Interview with Hervé Barmasse
TOUR: Hervé Barmasse, you grew up below the 4478 metre-high Matterhorn in a family of mountaineers. As an extreme mountaineer, how did you come to ride a road bike?
Hervé Barmasse: That's a really legitimate question (laughs). A few years ago, I received an invitation to take part in the Maratona dles Dolomites, the famous cycling marathon with a length of 138 kilometres and an altitude difference of 4,200 metres, i.e. once up and down the most famous passes in the Dolomites. I had heard of the Maratona, but didn't really know it. That's why I started to supplement my training as an alpinist with road cycling. Before that, cycling had hardly played a role in my sporting world, apart from a few fun rides with friends. Apart from that, I only followed cycling during big stage races on television. Nowadays I train on the roller in winter, which is an excellent complement to ski mountaineering and ideal for targeted training stimuli. In summer, from May to June to be precise, I ride on the road to create a good aerobic basis for my alpine training.
TOUR: So how many kilometres do you cover in a year?
Hervé Barmasse: Last year, I covered a total of 3,500 kilometres between roller training and rides on the road, 2,300 of which were before the Supermaratona. I know that's not a lot, but you have to bear in mind that I'm primarily an alpinist and the time I can dedicate to the bike is limited and alternates with other types of training.
TOUR: Do you already feel like a real racing cyclist?
Hervé Barmasse: As an athlete, I feel more and more the need to explore the world of cycling more seriously and to train in a more structured way because I can clearly see the positive effects. I'm also starting to develop a project that combines mountain, alpinism and cycling - three passions that together could tell a unique story. A page between cycling and alpinism that has never been written before, but will be very difficult to realise.
TOUR: You have to tell us about it!
Hervé Barmasse: It's still a secret. But you will certainly be the first to know about it (grins).
TOUR: Agreed. How long did it take you to complete the Supermaratona with 8,400 metres of elevation gain and almost 300 kilometres?
Hervé Barmasse: I was on the move for exactly fifteen hours, nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds. It really was my longest, but also my most beautiful and emotional ride. On the bike - it was spring at the time - I wasn't sure whether I would be able to manage these kilometres and metres of altitude on such an intense and unfortunately very cold day. On the mountain passes, the temperature was still close to freezing. But thanks to the experience I had gained in the Himalayas, everything went well.
TOUR: So are you happy with yourself?
Hervé Barmasse: Let's put it this way: I crossed the finish line with a certain buffer.
TOUR: What did you eat during the 15 hours?
Hervé Barmasse: At the beginning, I followed a nutritional plan and tried to consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour, with breaks in which I also allowed myself a plate of pasta twice. In the last 70 kilometres, I had a craving for something sweet and gave in to it with little treats like croissants and puff pastries with baked apples. I simply listened to what my body was asking for. I would have preferred ice cream, but it was just far too cold that day (laughs).
TOUR: And how much did you drink?
Hervé Barmasse: About six or seven litres. Perhaps not much, but at low temperatures and a moderate speed, that was enough.
TOUR: Your mountaineering colleague Reinhold Messner is of the opinion that it is completely absurd for a society that has made productivity and profit the measure of prosperity to climb any mountains. After all, he wouldn't be producing anything or offering any services. How do you see it?
Hervé Barmasse: It's true: From an economic or utilitarian point of view, climbing mountains has no real benefit. Fortunately, human well-being is not only measured in terms of profit or tangible results. You can't buy emotions - you have to experience them. And I have always preferred the freedom to use my time for something that may seem pointless to others, but is essential for me: climbing. Climbing is good for me: on rock and ice walls as well as on narrow ridges, I feel balanced and calm inside. What's more, there are people today who are very rich - and yet deeply unhappy. I, on the other hand, find my happiness in the simplicity of a movement: the ascent.
TOUR: How do you explain that to a non-climber?
Hervé Barmasse: When I open up a new route on my own - like on the Matterhorn, for example - I don't ask myself whether what I'm doing is of any use. I listen to myself and just concentrate on not taking a wrong step. I concentrate on staying connected with everything around me: my senses, nature, my strengths and weaknesses. Every interesting challenge - not just in sport - is an opportunity to grow and learn for life.
TOUR: Was the Supermaratona an interesting challenge in this sense? And also a useful one?
Hervé Barmasse: The Supermaratona was an incredible opportunity to challenge myself in an environment that is not my usual terrain. To leave my comfort zone. Useful or useless? I experienced cycling as if it were a climb in the Himalayas - an adventure in which you reach the goal step by step, like the summit of an eight-thousander. Not too fast and not too slow. The right step, the right pace, the right frequency. I didn't do it to break a record, but to put myself to the test. I was happier at the finish than at the start. If I had stayed at home, I wouldn't have experienced any of this. And if I didn't live my life in harmony with nature, it probably would never have occurred to me.
TOUR: What is the physical difference between an eight-thousander expedition in the Himalayas and the Supermaratona in the Dolomites?
Hervé Barmasse: Cycling is perhaps the only sport that comes close to the feeling you get when climbing a big mountain like an eight-thousander. The higher you climb, the more strenuous it becomes; the more kilometres you cover, the more you feel your body reaching its limits - and yet you never think about turning back, you just ask yourself how you can keep going. In this respect, cycling and mountains, cycling and mountaineering are one and the same.
TOUR: What is your advice to other people?
Hervé Barmasse: We only have a limited amount of time to realise our goals and dreams. So we should try to create something memorable. First and foremost for yourself. If everyone else thinks it's memorable too, then that's a good thing.
