He began his career as a mountaineer on his home mountain, the Matterhorn, climbing new routes and repeating various prestigious ones. After growing up in the shadow of this mountain, it was right here where Hervé completed various extreme solo ascents. The most noteworthy of these ascents include the first solo ascent of the Via Casarotto Grassi in 2002 (ED, 1300m), the first solo ascent in 2005 of the Via Deffeyes (ED, 1300m) completed in under four hours, and in 2007 the first solo ascent of the Spigolo dei fiori on the Via Machetto route: all routes on the south face of the Matterhorn. A further noteworthy ascent was the first solo ascent and first repetition of the Via Direttissima which was first climbed in 1983 by his father Marco.