The Hippopotamus on the Mountain: An impossible journey of the Italian soldiers of the WWI

High in the Adamello range, where the wind howls and the snow never truly melts, stands an ancient sentinel of war—a cannon known as “L'Ippopotamo.” For nearly a century, climbers ascending Cresta Croce at 3,300 meters have stumbled upon this rusting relic, a silent witness to a feat of sheer determination and madness.

The Impossible Journey

In the bitter winter of 1916, Italy was locked in a brutal struggle against Austria-Hungary along the icy peaks of the Alps. Among the weapons dragged into this frozen hell was the Cannone G149, a medium-caliber cast-iron artillery piece, already outdated from its service in the 1911 Libyan War. But every gun counted in the Adamello, where the front was defensive.

On February 9, the cannon—weighing over 13,000 pounds (ca. 6 t)—began its impossible journey from Temù, pulled by horses on its own treads as far as Malga Caldea in Val d’Avio. Then, it was dismantled. The barrel alone weighed 6,600 pounds (ca. 3 t).

Sixty artillerymen, thirteen engineers, and two hundred soldiers labored to drag its pieces on custom-made sleds. They moved only at night or in storms, erasing their tracks to avoid Austrian eyes. Where the slopes grew treacherous, they used winches called “capre” (goats) to multiply their strength.

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