Davide Sassudelli paraglides off Campanile Basso in Brenta Dolomites

On Sunday 27 February 2022 23-year-old aspirant mountain guide Davide Sassudelli made a dream come true and combined his two great loves, mountaineering and flying, by making what is likely to be the first paraglide flight from the summit of Campanile Basso in the Brenta Dolomites.

In order to reach the top of the iconic needle Sassudelli climbed with Matteo Pavana and Stefano Piatti; on Saturday 26 February the three set off from Andalo with skis on their backs and climbed up to Bocca di Brenta where they broke a trail through the Bocchette Alte in preparation for the ascent the next day.

At 6:00 am on Sunday they set off the Rifugio Tosa winter bivouac and retraced their steps along the famous Bocchette to the start of the Normal route. They then climbed Via Preuss, the most classic of Dolomite climbs established on the peak's east face by legendary Austrian climber Paul Preuss. Despite having been first ascended in solo in 1911, in winter it still remains a challenging undertaking. Sassudelli explained "Getting to the top on February 27 was much more difficult than I expected, the grade V climbed by Preuss, in the shadow, at -15 degrees, covered in snow, with gloves and boots... felt like grade VIII."

On reaching the summit the trio was greeted by the warmth of the sun and a 10-15km/h light breeze, meaning that conditions for a take-off were already perfect. So ideal that, after having rung the bell and prepared the paraglider, at around 14:00 Sassudelli inflated the wing and took off, without even having had time to turn on the helmet camera!

The 23-year-old landed close to Andalo 24 minutes later, while Pavana and Piatti descended down the line of ascent and returned safely to the Ciclamino hut at Molveno at 21:30. For all concerned this winter climb turned out to be a fantastic experience, in particular for Sassudelli who described it as "a dream now become reality."

The first flight from Campanile Basso was carried out over 30 years ago, in winter 1990 by Mauro Dalla Brida who, after 2 bivouacs on the face with his friends, managed to take off with his hang glider. In September 2015 Maurizio Di Palma made the first BASE Jump, leaping off the summit with his wingsuit.