Paolo Marazzi and Luca Schiera: the Trilogy of Masino

Luca Schiera had this idea more than two years ago. The project was simple: a ring that would connect the most three difficult routes of Val Masino, a logical line between one mountain and another, climbing at high altitude.

The three routes were opened at the end of the 80s on and present many difficulties with obligatory paths and a high risk of injury. I’m talking about Elettroshock at the Luigi Amedeo peak, La Spada nella Roccia at Qualido and Delta Minox at Scingino.

A run along the entire Val di Mello. But it was necessary to train, study the routes and find how to go on after Qualido, where there is no path.

We tried it for the first time last year, but between bad weather and various commitments we closed  Elettro, La Spada and spent two days looking for a lift to get to Cavalcorto. That is the real unknown. We reached the last 50m and decided to free solo climb the rest on the day of the adventure. We hit the road on September 3rd, stopping for a few hours under Qualido and then facing the wall before dawn. We arrived in Scingino around 3pm, we began to climb but after 4 pitches I started feeling sick: hallucinations. I was wrong about everything including the simplest moves and after a few thoughts we decided to go down. We couldn’t continue the route, it was too dangerous. Perhaps it wasn’t a project within my reach.

For some time we never talk about that very first attempt. We continued climbing together, we even went to Patagonia but at the beginning of the season I looked at Luchino and said: “So? When are we trying it again?”.

He thought I had given up, he had already called another guy to try the route again. But maybe he has more fun with me or maybe he just trusts me; the fact is that we decided to try again.

We trained, we run, we rode bikes, we climbed other easier routes to try to find that perfect feeling where you fully trust the person with you. Where you don’t need a word to understand each other. Every movement does not need to be commented. I trust him, he trusts me.

We climbed Delta at the beginning of the season, shortly after we went to La Spada, reached the top and tried again the Val del Ferro traverse. We didn’t want to free solo climb the route again. We tried to follow the median ledge that crosses the Cavalcorto. We arrived almost at the end where we found a 40 meters slab that separates the ledge of grass and the gully. What to do now? That  smooth slab didn’t seem to be tackled. We would have climbed it at night and without shoes.

Suddenly our moral dropped. We neither wanted to free solo climb again nor we wanted to go down to the village and climbing back up, it would have ruined that metaphorical ring we had in mind for a long time. I was  about to go back when I suddenly heard Luchino say, “I’m going.” If he goes I have to go too. In the end it was not as extreme as it seemed. The ring exists, we just had to complete it.

We hit the road on July 16th and arrived at the base of Elettro rather quickly, we began climbing and we reached the top in two pitches, we went down and we began to walk quickly, we wanted to arrive as soon as possible under Qualido to climb it with daylight. In two hours we reached the end of the street. But from there on, we needed to put on our headlights. It was dark when we got to the Val Livincina. We started walking off the route in order to climb the pass that leads to Cavalcorto, pass it through the famous slab and go down at the beginning of Delta Minox.

Around 1am we decided to sleep, 40 minutes would have been enough to rest a bit. But the temperature that night was not so high and to save weight we didn’t bring anything to cover ourselves; it was too cold. We started walking again without stopping. Around 6am we reached the base of Delta Minox. I went on fist and Luchino covered the central section and then left the final part of the climb to me. I hated the last pitches on the slab. I feared them, they frightened me, I really had the feeling of crashing at any moment. I started climbing and don’t know how I reached the top. I couldn’t say anything to Luchino because I was crying. I tried to stop when he reached me. I didn’t want him to see me like that. But that moment didn’t last long. We left again, we had two last pitches to climb.

After about half an hour we were at the top. We had completed the most challenging experience of our lives. We conquered the three routes, the ring existed.

More than 3500 meters of positive gradient, 1200 meters of climbing, 38 pitches almost always challenging.

12 hours on foot, 7 of them off the routes.

This is our experience, our project, our dream come true.

Elettroshock – La Spada nella Roccia – Delta Minox.