Presanella NE Ridge skied by Roberto and Luca Dallavalle

Those who read planetmountain.com regularly will have noticed that the Dallavalle brothers, Roberto and Luca, have enjoyed an stellar ski mountaineering season. The duo revved their engines with the amazing first descent of the south face of Cima Mandron in the Brenta Dolomites in February, while in March they skied the east face of Cima Tosa, the NW Face of Cima del Vallon and the west couloir of Cima Brenta. In April they travelled to the nearby Adamello - Presanella group to make the demanding first descent of the NW Face of Cima Scarpacò and followed this up with there NE Face of Cima di Bon, while in May they returned to Brenta Dolomites to score a big line down the NE Face of Crozzon di Val d'Agola.

Now, on 2 June 2019 to be precise, Roberto and Luca Dallavalle ascended and then skied the NE Ridge of Presanella, the historic route first climbed in 1881 usually repeated as a summer rock climb or, conditions permitting, as a mixed climb. Usually the ridge is reached from the north, but the brothers chose to ascend a less poplar gully that cuts down the SE Face and leads to the base of the mountain’s East Face in Val d’Amola.

Writing on facebook Luca Dallavalle explained "I had never considered the NE Ridge of Presanella as line that could be skied. But yesterday after climbing it and seeing the exceptional snow conditions as we reached the summit we said why not. The route is fantastic to climb but very technical to descend on skies and with a huge exposure. We skied it by briefly moving onto the north and east faces, then we continued down the gully that leads to the base of the east face. 700m drop in total; we took our skis off only once close to the summit and a second time in the gully at the base of the east face. Completed with Roberto, happy to have ended this superb season like this."

Speaking to planetmountain.com after the descent, Luca said "I rate this as something very different from all the descents I usually do, because this is a very famous route, ascended by many. Then there’s also the fact that skiing the actual ridge is a very particular due to the constant exposure."