New Matterhorn South Face route by François Cazzanelli, Marco Farina, Francesco Ratti

On 11 and 12 September an Italian trio comprised of François Cazzanelli, Marco Farina and Francesco Ratti made the first ascent of L’amitié up the south face of the Matterhorn. The new route has been dedicated to Roberto Ferraris, a friend of theirs who died prematurely in winter 2019. The new line tackles 16 pitches past difficulties up to 6c, with two pitches still to be freed, ideally in September conditions permitting.

On his facebook page Cazzanelli, who with Ferraris, Farina, Ratti and Emrik Favre established Diretta allo Scudo on Matterhorn’s South Face in 2018, said:

"This new route, in addition to being simply stupendous, has an equally beautiful story behind it. During our mountain guides course, Francesco Ratti, Marco Farina and I came up with the idea of ​​dedicating a route to our close friend Roberto Ferraris. Where? It was obvious! On the south face of the Matterhorn, where we had all had some great adventures together. After carefully studying the wall we discovered a compact shield of rock to the left of Pilastro di Fiori. This pillar is slightly more pronounced and features an obvious, overhanging red prow at the top.
Once we’d decided on what to climb, all we needed to do was find the right moment without commitments and good weather. No mean task especially because the weather this summer was quite unstable and a thousand commitments all overlapped! Finally on 11-12 September during two foggy days we managed to establish L’Amitié 650 . 16 pitches 6c obligatory? Max. The name didn’t come about by chance. Amitié serves as a reminder of the friendship that bound us to Roby and it was this that prompted us to grit our teeth to complete this project. The route tops out on a small ridge that connects the pillar to the south face. We have decided to rename this pillar Pilastro Roberto Ferrari."