21. The death of Sepp

At dawn on July 4th, 1915, on the rocky walls of Monte Paterno in the Sexten Dolomites, one of the most emblematic stories of mountain warfare during the First World War unfolds. Joseph Innerkofler, known to everyone as Sepp, a legendary mountain guide, hotel owner and profound connoisseur of these peaks, climbs through snow and rock to retake a strategic position. Sepp is no ordinary soldier: he is a fifty-year-old man who built his life among these mountains and chooses to defend them by offering himself in place of his son. Different versions surround his death during the assault on Monte Paterno, suspended between myth, propaganda and historical truth. Yet beyond how he died, what remains is the meaning of his action: a deep bond with his land and community, shattered by a war that turned friends, colleagues and fellow mountain men into adversaries. A story that restores humanity to a symbolic figure and invites us to look beyond borders, to understand the shared tragedy written into these mountains.