Climbing is his true talent, but he didn’t discover it immediately. He spent his youth on the basketball courts of the province of Venice, where he was born and raised. Mirco Grasso, born in 1993, is today one of the leading exponents of research mountaineering, investigating virgin valleys, walls, and mountains.

His passion for the mountains — or, rather, for adventure — emerged when he was 20. Adulthood drew Mirco away from basketball and brought him closer and closer to trails and vertical walls, likely in response to a need he felt. “I was looking for situations that aren’t predictable, where it’s necessary to make choices that, even when trivial, can change the course of events.” Soon Mirco Grasso began to pursue mountaineering, viewing the vertical as a journey to freedom. “There you choose the best route, you evaluate the risks, you decide the goal.”

The real turning point came when he set foot in a climbing gym for the first time. In the beginning it was curiosity, and then a true passion destined to touch every facet of his life. A discovery that continues today, in the constant evolution of style and the way in which Mirco approaches the mountains. All of which he has to balance with his job as an IT consultant in the business intelligence sector. Nevertheless, in recent years Mirco Grasso has managed to complete expeditions and climbs in Patagonia, such as the Pilar Rojo at Aguja Mermoz; in Yosemite, where he took on the west face of Mount Watkins; in Kyrgyzstan, with the ascent of Perestroika on Slesova Peak; and in Jordan, with the repetition of “Pull the Devil by the Tail” on Jabel Barrah in the Wadi Rum desert.

In 2023, he solidified his place among the world’s leading mountaineers, thanks to two top-level achievements.
Climbing with his friend Nicolò Geremia, Mirco freed the extremely difficult “Barbari nel Tao” (500 m, IX+/X), established the previous year on Spiz d’Agner, which had earned him the Silla Ghedina Foundation award for the best alpine route opened in the Dolomites.
That same year, teamed up with Giacomo Mauri, he freed the fearsome “Eternal Flame,” at 6,251 meters of elevation, in Pakistan. A rare repeat, given the usual conditions of the face and the complex approach to the Trango Towers. It is one of the hardest high-altitude routes in the world.
After the ill-fated expedition to Greenland, in December 2024 he returned to Patagonia for the fifth time. His goal was to open a new route on Fitz Roy. Despite the few windows of good weather, he established “¿Quién sigue?” on the steep east face of Aguja Val Biois, together with Alessandro Baù and Matteo Della Bordella. Together with the “spider” and Dario Eynard, he then formed a team capable of writing a new chapter in the history of climbing in the land of giants, completing the legendary “Gringos Locos” on Cerro Piergiorgio. This achievement, which closed a historic circle begun in 1995 by the team of Maurizio Giordani and Luca Maspes, was a masterpiece of perseverance and endurance, destined to fuel vertical dreams in Argentina for decades to come.
In the summer of 2025, he participated in the expedition organized by Manrico dell’Agnola to open a new line on the unclimbed Phandambiri, in Mozambique. He achieved this goal together with Samuele Mazzolini, with whom he established “O caminho do cogumelos” (7a, 19 pitches) and “Templo dos Macacos” (8a, 270m).
The Venetian climber’s latest feat was the completion of “Chiaroveggenza” (up to IX+, 900 m) on the south face of the Marmolada, in late September 2025. The vertical project, begun with his partner Nicolò Geremia six years earlier, comprises 20 beautiful pitches on the limestone of the Queen of the Dolomites, offering interesting rock where many climbers had been uninterested in pushing themselves. The route was immediately deemed the most difficult on the face.