The practice of alpine summer farming and transhumance deeply changed and redesigned the landscape of the high altitudes in the Alps. Despite its great importance, it is still not clear when humans first adopted this subsistence strategy and what were the triggering factors leading to its development. In this context a case study from the Italian-Austrian eastern Alps is presented. In the frame of the research conducted on the Neolithic Alpine Iceman (5300-5100 yr cal BC) palynological analyses provided a first indication of possible pasture activity during the Neolithic in the mountain area where the Iceman was discovered. It has therefore been suggested that the Iceman had been involved in a local vertical transhumance between the Vinschgau valley bottom (his site of origin) and the high altitudes north of the main Alpine ridge. In order to scrutinize this hypothesis a multi-proxy study has been developed, aiming to reconstruct the former environmental and climatic situation of the Vinschgau, as well as the entity of the human occupation and the subsistence strategy in use at that time. In the valley the study focuses on the Copper Age site of Latsch (potential village of origin of the Iceman), while in the uplands pollen and fire history analyses are performed together with archaeological excavations on an altitudinal transect following the traditional transhumance route. Results of the investigation on Latsch will be presented, including macro-remains, charcoals and isotopic analyses carried out on bones and teeth. Moreover, new results of paleoecological and archaeological analyses on the sites along the transhumance route will be discussed.