Maurizio Zanolla

Maurizio Zanolla, known on the climbing scene as »Manolo«, is one of the pioneers of modern rock climbing in Italy. The qualified brewer lives with his partner Christina and their two children in Trentino, in Transacqua di Fiera di Primiero, in the Dolomites, at the foot of the imposing Pale di San Martino. He has been involved in extreme rock climbing for 35 years and works as a state-qualified mountain guide and climbing instructor.

Large and small walls...

»Manolo« began rock climbing as a 16-year-old in his local mountains, the Pala Group. He quickly became one of the best Italian rock climbers and as sport climbing became popular in Italy too, he became one of the pioneers of this new form of extreme Alpinism. His first ascent of the »Supermattita« (VII+) route on the east wall of the Saas Maor in the Pala is legendary; he opened this in 1980 using very few safety hooks and even today it is still one of the most demanding free climbs in the Pala Group. However, he mainly became famous because of his successes as a sport climber. At the time he was the first Italian and he opened routes with difficult ratings of VIII., IX., X. and probably also XI. – some on his local mountain, Monte Totoga, but also in the Sarca Valley and in other Italian climbing regions. All of his first ascents have been characterised by extremely advanced physical climbing requirements and have therefore been only rarely repeated since.

»Il Mago«

Living by the motto »if you don’t keep at it, you get rusty«, at over 50 years-old, »Manolo« is still also climbing the most difficult routes – for his fiftieth birthday he gave himself the »present« of the »Bimbaluna« (9a+ ) route in the top Swiss climbing area of St. Loup. His last big coup in the Dolomites was the first ascent of »Cani Morti« (8b+) with a sheer X. difficulty rating – with only 19 intermediate belays on five long pitches. It is no wonder that on the climbing scene he also has the nickname »Il Mago« (the Magician)…