[3] The Dent d'Hérens is located on the main alpine watershed between the Swiss canton of Valais on the north and the Italian region of Aosta Valley on the south.

The Dent d'Hérens lies 4 km west of the Matterhorn and north of the village of Cervinia on the Italian (south) side.

The first ascent of the mountain was by Florence Crauford Grove, William Edward Hall, Reginald Somerled Macdonald, Montagu Woodmass, Melchior Anderegg, Jean-Pierre Cachat and Peter Perren on 12 August 1863.

[5] Having climbed the face and bivouacked on the summit, the combined team of German (Gerhard Deweß and Leo Herncarek), Polish (Jerzy Hajdukiewicz and Krzysztof Berbeka) and Swiss (Eckhart Grassmann, Pierre Monkewitz and Dieter Naef) climbers suffered two falls, one of 200 metres, on the descent down the south-west face.

The injured climbers were stuck on the mountain for four days before rescue, with Berbeka later dying in hospital and Deweß and Naef requiring amputations.