Mike Kosterlitz in Arco for the Climbing Ambassador

"I look forward to watching the Rock Master climbing competition. I’m curious to see how far rock climbing has developed from my days! Yes, I’m really curious…" These were the words uttered by someone who has been driven by curiosity for all his life: legendary Mike Kosterlitz, whom we picked up yesterday at the airport in Milan together with his wife Karin Berit, as they travelled to Italy to celebrate the 12th Arco Rock Legends and receive the prestigious Dryarn Climbing Ambassador award on Friday evening.

As everyone no doubt knows, John Michael Kosterlitz had left his mark climbing in the 70s, with landmark climbs in the Valle dell’Orco and across the Alps before being forced to abandon climbing for health reasons at the apex of his career. Ever since then he devoted himself completely to his research that earned him… the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016.

Kosterlitz has now returned to Italy in order to receive the Climbing Ambassador prize of the Arco Rock Legends Awards. To celebrate him worthily, and to remember the most important climbing achievements of the last 12 months at the crags and in competitions, the Arco Rock Legends will put on an absolutely unique show. The evening will in fact be celebrated with music by the Bottega Baltazar group (comprised of Giorgio Gobbo, Graziano Colella and Sergio Marchesini) who will play for the first time ever with Debora Petrina, while images of a year’s worth of great climbing and competitions will flick across the silver screen.

This special quartet will propose a first-class musical and climbing show, presented by Kay Rush (and directed by Vinicio Stefanello / planetmountain.com), that will relive the legendary climbs of the ’60's and ’70's and also those of present day, represented by Stefano Ghisolfi, Margo Hayes, Adam Ondra (nominated for the Wild Climb Rock Award) and Shauna Coxsey, Janja Garnbret and Domen Škofič (nominated for the La Sportiva Competition Award). The evening promises to be absolutely unique, and should not to be missed.

Arco Rock Legends is obviously part of the 31st Rock Master Festival which begins tomorrow (Thursday, August 24th) with Rock Junior, the climbing competition for Under 14 climbers, and then continues on Friday morning with the Rock Master competition which also acts as the fourth stage of the Lead and Speed ​​World Cup. Saturday continues with the Lead, Boulder and Duel comps and the evening finishes ins type with Siete Venas, the Rock Band from El Chalten at the foot of Cerro Torre in Patagonia. Sunday is dedicated once again to the youngest climbers and their families still with Rock Junior.