His father encouraged his son’s passion at an early age. Simone made his first attempts at climbing when he was 13 years old in the Bergamo Alps. It is no wonder that he became an athlete in the Italian national climbing team from 1985 to 1992 and then later became its coach. Even today, Simone practices his climbing skills in the 8a to 8b+ range as the basis for his expeditions. However, he did not become famous for his rock climbing or for his mixed climbing (up to M11) successes – but rather for his successes as a high-altitude mountain climber. In 1992, although he was not to reach the summit of Everest in his first expedition, the very next year he did succeed in the first winter ascent of Aconcagua (6962 m) in only 13 hours. In 1996, he climbed the »Super-Canaleta« on the Fitz Roy in the Alpine style in only 25 hours from the base camp to the summit and back. And in 2000, he finally stood on the summit of Everest. Today Simone can look back on ten winter expeditions: in 2005, he caused a sensation with the first winter ascent of Shisha Pangma (8027 m) across the south face with Piotr Morawski. In 2006, he successfully completed the south-north traverse of Mount Everest alone and in 2009 came his most recent sensation: the first winter ascent of Makalu (8463 m) in the Alpine style with Denis Urubko. This was an achievement, which Alpinists had been trying to achieve in vain for 30 years.