The Rocciamelone (Piedmontese Rociamlon, French Rochemelon) is located on the southern edge of the Grajischen Alps and towers over the city of Susa to about 3000 meters. As a result, he was long considered the highest mountain in the Alps.
The first ascent was made in the Middle Ages by Bonifacio Rotario d'Asti in the form of a pilgrimage as thanks for having escaped from slavery among the Turks. In memory of the first climber, the refuge is called at 2854 m altitude on the southern flank of Rocciamelone (normal rise) Rifugio Cà d'Asti.
At the summit today stands a statue of the Virgin Mary and a chapel (with bivouac room), the highest in the Alps. The pilgrimage to the Madonna della Neve takes place every year on the 5th of August. For this purpose, a sack of sand is carried by the pilgrims from the hut to the summit. Pope John Paul II wrote a greeting address for the centenary of the Marian statue at the summit in 1999.
The summit is one of the easiest "three and a half thousand meters" thanks to the developed path and therefore offers a view that is hardly reachable for mountain hikers and covers large parts of the French Alps and the entire Lombardy-Piedmontese Alps - from the Ligurian Alps to Monte Viso ( Cottian Alps) in the south over the Mont Blanc, the Gran Paradiso and the Monte Rosa in the north to the Bernina group and the Adamello in the northeast.