Mezzalama Trophy

The Mezzalama Trophy (Italian: Trofeo Mezzalama, French: Trophée Mezzalama, a.k.a. white marathon[1]) is an Italian high altitude ski mountaineering competition in upper Valtournenche and Ayas valleys, in Aosta Valley.

Mezzalama Trophy
DateApril
LocationItaly Aosta Valley
Event typeSki mountaineering
Established1933
Official siteTrofeo Mezzalama

The Mezzalama Trophy, which belongs to the "big three of ski mountaineering" (French: les grandes trois de ski de montagne) besides the two other best-known and classical ski mountaineering events, the Patrouille des Glaciers and the Pierra Menta, is the highest alpine ski mountaineering competition of the world. The event in the Monte Rosa's massif was named in honor of the mountain guide Ottorino Mezzalama.[2]

The Mezzalama Trophy is a stage of La Grande Course that includes the most important ski mountaineering competitions of the season.

History

The Mezzalama Trophy Foundation was founded by friends of Ottorino Mezzalama in 1933 in his memory,[3] one of them was Mario Corti. The race was held every year from 1933 and to 1938. Entry was open only to men; the first female participant is presumed to be Paula Wiesinger, who had been invited to view the race in 1935. When Giusto Gervasutti withdrew due to injury, she put on his military uniform and cap and, wearing sunglasses, ran instead of him, but was discovered at a checkpoint.[4] The 1935 Trofeo Mezzalama was filmed by Mario Craveri in his film "Maratona Bianca".[5]

After 1938 the race was discontinued (except that in 1940 a platonic race was carried out under the name marcia nazionale Ottorino Mezzalama by the Ski Club Torino).[1] Further races were held in 1971, 1973, 1975, and in 1978,[6] and the Mezzalama Trophy was revived as a regular biennial race with the eleventh race in 1997.[7]

Breuil-Cervinia (starting point)

In 1975, the Mezzalama Trophy was held as World Championship of Skimountaineering. 33 civilian teams, 12 mountain guide teams and 11 military teams participated in this event.[8] In that year, the first female team competed officially.[9] Together with the Pierra Menta and the Tour du Rutor event, the Mezzalama Trophy is part of the Trophée des Alpes (French for Alps' Trophy) series.

Editions and winners

The list shows the winning teams for each edition of the Trofeo Mezzalama.

In 1934, all competing teams were overtaken by the German reserve racer Anderl Heckmair, who started as a single racer one and a half hours after the teams left.[10]

Edition Date Ranking Male teams Female teams
1st May 28, 1933[11] Italy Luigi Carrel Italy Antonio Gaspard Italy Piero Maquignaz
2nd May 19, 1934[12] Italy Alberto Chenoz Italy Francesco Chenoz Italy Bartolomeo Carrel
3rd May 26, 1935[13] Italy Cap. Enrico Silvestri Italy Serg. Carlo Ronc Italy Alp. Attilio Chenoz
4th June 13, 1936[13] Italy Ten. Francesco Vida Italy Serg. Carlo Ronc Italy Serg. Luigi Perenni
5th June 19, 1937[13] Italy Ten. Giuseppe Fabre Italy Serg. Luigi Perenni Italy Alp. Anselmo Viviani
6th June 11, 1938[14] Italy Aristide Compagnoni Italy Severino Confortola Italy Silvio Confortola
7th September 11, 1971[15] Italy Gianfranco Stella Italy Aldo Stella Italy Roberto Stella
8th June 1, 1973[16] Italy Gianfranco Stella Italy Aldo Stella Italy Palmiro Serafini
1st World Championship
9th edition on May 10, 1975[17][18]		 Category: "civilian teams"
Italy Renzo Meynet Italy Osvaldo Ronc Italy Mirko Stangalino
Category: "military teams"
Italy Angelo Genuin Italy Bruno Bonaldi Italy Luigi "Gigi" Weiss
Category: "mountain guide teams"
Italy Oreste Squinobal Italy Arturo Squinobal Italy Lorenzo Squinobal
10th April 29, 1978[17] Category: "civilian teams"
Austria Rudolf Kapeller Austria Karl Sinzinger Austria Josef Hones
Category: "military teams"
Italy Mario Varesco Italy Fabio Cavagnet Italy Elvio Venturini
Category: "mountain guide teams"
Italy Arturo Squinobal Italy Lorenzo Squinobal Italy Danilo Barell
11th 1997[19][20] Italy Fabio Meraldi Italy Enrico Pedrini Italy Omar Oprandi Italy Bice Bones Italy Brunella Parolini Italy Fabiana Battel
12th 1999[20][21] Italy Fulvio Mazzocchi Italy Leonardo Follis Italy Luciano Fontana Italy Gloriana Pellissier France Danielle Hacquard France Véronique Lathuraz
13th 2001[20][22] Italy Graziano Boscacci Italy Ivan Murada Switzerland Heinz Blatter Italy Gloriana Pellissier Italy Arianna Follis Switzerland Alexia Zuberer
14th 2003[20][23] Switzerland Damien Farquet Switzerland Rico Elmer Switzerland Rolf Zurbrügg Switzerland Cristina Favre-Moretti Italy Arianna Follis Italy Chiara Raso
15th 2005[20][24] France Stéphane Brosse France Patrick Blanc Italy Guido Giacomelli Italy Gloriana Pellissier Italy Christiane Nex Switzerland Natascia Leonardi Cortesi
16th 2007[20][25] Italy Guido Giacomelli Italy Jean Pellissier Switzerland Florent Troillet Italy Gloriana Pellissier Italy Roberta Pedranzini Italy Francesca Martinelli
17th 2009[26] Italy Manfred Reichegger Italy Matteo Eydallin Italy Denis Trento Italy Francesca Martinelli Italy Roberta Pedranzini France Laëtitia Roux
18th 2011[27][28] Spain Kilian Jornet Burgada France William Bon Mardion France Didier Blanc Italy Francesca Martinelli Italy Roberta Pedranzini Italy Gloriana Pellissier
19th 2013[29][30] Italy Manfred Reichegger Italy Damiano Lenzi Italy Matteo Eydallin Italy Laura Besseghini Italy Raffaella Rossi Italy Elena Nicolini
20th 2015[31] Italy Matteo Eydallin Italy Michele Boscacci Italy Damiano Lenzi Sweden Emelie Forsberg France Axelle Mollaret Switzerland Jennifer Fiechter
21st 2017[32][33] Italy Matteo Eydallin Italy Michele Boscacci Italy Damiano Lenzi Sweden Emelie Forsberg France Laetitia Roux Switzerland Jennifer Fiechter

Literature
  • Umberto Pelazza, Antonio Vizzi: Il Trofeo Mezzalama 1933-1997 : Storia e leggenda della sci-alpinistica piu alta del mondo (Italian) (Aosta) - ed. La Vallee, 1999
  • Rolf Majcen: Bergauf - Abenteuer Ausdauersport (German) ISBN 978-3-900533-39-7

References
  1. Le tappe dealla leggendaria "maratona bianca" Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine (Italian)
  2. Trofeo Mezzalama 2007: 16. Auflage des Klassikers am 29. April (German), M2b, April 26, 2007.
  3. "Presentation". Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  4. Paula Wiesinger (German), FemBio.
  5. Trofeo Mezzalama, il fascino di una leggenda che si rinnova (Italian), La Stampa, April 15, 2009.
  6. La rinascita degli anni Settanta Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine (Italian), p. 4.
  7. "Trofeo Mezzalama (Mezzalama Trophy)". NEWSPOWER Trento. Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  8. Le tappe della leggendaria “maratona bianca” (Italian).
  9. Giuseppe Martelli: altre notizie degli alpini bolognesi romagnoli (Italian), November 15, 2005.
  10. Trofeo Mezzalama - Ein Hochgebirgswettlauf der Sonderklasse Archived 2011-10-07 at the Wayback Machine (German), p. 44.
  11. Rielaborazione storia libro Camisasca Archived 2012-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
  12. The winners of the 1934 edition, planetmountain.com.
  13. "Centro Addestramento Alpino ::: ASIVA". Archived from the original on 2011-10-24. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  14. Compagnoni Aristide, Severino e Ottavio Archived 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine (Italian).
  15. http://www.webalice.it/giulorma/mezzalama_ottorino.htm
  16. Gianfranco Stella Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  17. Albo d'oro
  18. Genuin Angelo Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Cavalcata da leggenda Trionfo da Skyrunners, May 4, 1997.
  20. Men's best three and best women since 1997 Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  21. La Forestale da record trionfa nel Mezzalama (Italian), April 25, 1999.
  22. "2001 Trofeo Mezzalama" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-09. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  23. "2003 Trofeo Mezzalama" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-04-09. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  24. 2005 Trofeo Mezzalama
  25. 2007 Trofeo Mezzalama
  26. 2009 Trofeo Mezzalama
  27. 2011 Trofeo Mezzalama - men results Archived 2012-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
  28. 2011 Trofeo Mezzalama - women results
  29. 2013 Trofeo Mezzalama - men results
  30. 2013 Trofeo Mezzalama - women results
  31. "Classifica Trofeo Mezzalama 2015 Femminile - Women". La Grande Course. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  32. "Classifica XXI Trofeo Mezzalama 2017 Maschile - Men". La Grande Course. 2017-04-22. Archived from the original on 2017-06-11. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
  33. "Classifica XXI Trofeo Mezzalama 2017 Femminile - Women". La Grande Course. 2017-04-22. Archived from the original on 2017-06-11. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
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