The next year edition of the Mezzalama Trophy will change its direction. Competitors will start from Gressoney-La-Trinité and finish at Breuil-Cervinia. “This will be an unprecedented Mezzalama, more technical, longer, with a completely different approach!”, says organizers.
The Mezzalama Trophy is a well-known, high altitude ski mountaineering competition in the Cervinia region. Besides the two other events – the Patrouille des Glaciers and the Pierra Menta – it is the highest alpine ski mountaineering competition in the world. The 20th Mezzalama Trophy will take place on the 25th April and will commemorate 150 years since the ascent of the Matterhorn peak that is an icon of the competition. The race, established in 1933 and named in honour of the mountain guide and a pioneer of the Italian ski mountaineering, Ottorino Mezzalama, will be run backwards.
The race was once run in the opposite direction. In 1937 the Mezzalama Trophy inaugurated the Cervinia-Plan Maison cableway, which opened the new ski era in the Breuil Valley. The forthcoming Mezzalama Trophy will be challenging what Adriano Favre, technical director of the race, admits:
“There will be a completely different approach to the competition. The timings will be different. Given that the over all altitude gain will increase by about 350 metres, the technical difficulties will increase, and competitors, on 25 April, will have to be mountaineers too. Certainly those who do not have the required technical knowledge and are not used to high mountains may have some difficulties.”
Check the maps, previous results and read about history of the Mezzalama Trophy.