Nadia Tiraboschi rebolts her Via dei Cugini up Pizzo Arera

Via dei Cugini was my baptism of fire, my first taste of mountaineering exploration. Back in 1990 I made the first ascent of this route up the NW Face of this street on the northwest wall of Pizzo Arera with my brother Enzo and my cousin Ivan.

For me it was the first time on completely virgin terrain. The "seasoned" climbers said that nothing new could be done in the Bergamo Alps, but that rock face behind the house, slightly hidden away and still untouched, attracted my curiosity and my desire to try something completely new.

So, thanks to handmade pegs, forged specifically by another blacksmith cousin, we set off for this adventure. I still remember with joy of being up in that wall, searching excitedly for a possible way to go and then finally reaching that summit. And that feeling of, albeit only timidily, of being part of the mountaineering world I’d dreamt so much of.

Subsequently other routes were established on that face and I myself teamed up with with Pierangelo Maurizio to open Un pensiero per Ugo. However Via dei Cugini, with it’s not ideal in-situ pro, proved less popular than the others. Nevertheless, like a first love that you never forget, it has always represented something special for me: my first taste of true mountaineering.

A few years ago therefore I decided to climb it again, searching for the traces left behind by those three inexperienced youngsters. The rock was solid and I came across all our beautiful pegs, some of them pretty rusted, which had been waiting for me for more than a quarter of a century. It made me smile, with the experience I have nowadays, to realise how little I knew about forging a new route and, thanks to our youthful carefreeness, how run-out it was!

The route was still very beautiful and hence I got the idea of replacing the in-situ gear, so that everyone could enjoy it in safety, climbing a line that isn’t extreme but, at the same time, is never trivial either.

With some friends, who helped both economically and physically, I then completed the work, establishing eight pitches for pure alpine sport climbing.

Have fun! And ... PS: It’s not recommended for those who are allergic to bolts and safe belays.

by Nadia Tiraboschi