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
Location Aosta Valley
Event typeSki mountaineering
Established1933
Official siteTrofeo Mezzalama

The Mezzalama Trophy, that belongs to the "big three of ski mountaineering" (French: les grandes trois de ski de montagne) besides the two other best-known and classical skimountaineering 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]  Luigi Carrel  Antonio Gaspard  Piero Maquignaz
2nd May 19, 1934[12]  Alberto Chenoz  Francesco Chenoz  Bartolomeo Carrel
3rd May 26, 1935[13]  Cap. Enrico Silvestri  Serg. Carlo Ronc  Alp. Attilio Chenoz
4th June 13, 1936[13]  Ten. Francesco Vida  Serg. Carlo Ronc  Serg. Luigi Perenni
5th June 19, 1937[13]  Ten. Giuseppe Fabre  Serg. Luigi Perenni  Alp. Anselmo Viviani
6th June 11, 1938[14]  Aristide Compagnoni  Severino Confortola  Silvio Confortola
7th September 11, 1971[15]  Gianfranco Stella  Aldo Stella  Roberto Stella
8th June 1, 1973[16]  Gianfranco Stella  Aldo Stella  Palmiro Serafini
1st World Championship
9th edition on May 10, 1975[17][18]		 Category: "civilian teams"
 Renzo Meynet  Osvaldo Ronc  Mirko Stangalino
Category: "military teams"
 Angelo Genuin  Bruno Bonaldi  Luigi "Gigi" Weiss
Category: "mountain guide teams"
 Oreste Squinobal  Arturo Squinobal  Lorenzo Squinobal
10th April 29, 1978[17] Category: "civilian teams"
 Rudolf Kapeller  Karl Sinzinger  Josef Hones
Category: "military teams"
 Mario Varesco  Fabio Cavagnet  Elvio Venturini
Category: "mountain guide teams"
 Arturo Squinobal  Lorenzo Squinobal  Danilo Barell
11th 1997[19][20]  Fabio Meraldi  Enrico Pedrini  Omar Oprandi  Bice Bones  Brunella Parolini  Fabiana Battel
12th 1999[20][21]  Fulvio Mazzocchi  Leonardo Follis  Luciano Fontana  Gloriana Pellissier  Danielle Hacquard  Véronique Lathuraz
13th 2001[20][22]  Graziano Boscacci  Ivan Murada  Heinz Blatter  Gloriana Pellissier  Arianna Follis  Alexia Zuberer
14th 2003[20][23]  Damien Farquet  Rico Elmer  Rolf Zurbrügg  Cristina Favre-Moretti  Arianna Follis  Chiara Raso
15th 2005[20][24]  Stéphane Brosse  Patrick Blanc  Guido Giacomelli  Gloriana Pellissier  Christiane Nex  Natascia Leonardi Cortesi
16th 2007[20][25]  Guido Giacomelli  Jean Pellissier  Florent Troillet  Gloriana Pellissier  Roberta Pedranzini  Francesca Martinelli
17th 2009[26]  Manfred Reichegger  Matteo Eydallin  Denis Trento  Francesca Martinelli  Roberta Pedranzini  Laëtitia Roux
18th 2011[27][28]  Kilian Jornet Burgada  William Bon Mardion  Didier Blanc  Francesca Martinelli  Roberta Pedranzini  Gloriana Pellissier
19th 2013[29][30]  Manfred Reichegger  Damiano Lenzi  Matteo Eydallin  Laura Besseghini  Raffaella Rossi  Elena Nicolini
20th 2015[31]  Matteo Eydallin  Michele Boscacci  Damiano Lenzi  Emelie Forsberg  Axelle Mollaret  Jennifer Fiechter
21st 2017[32][33]  Matteo Eydallin  Michele Boscacci  Damiano Lenzi  Emelie Forsberg  Laetitia Roux  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. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2009-04-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  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. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-10-24. Retrieved 2012-03-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. Compagnoni Aristide, Severino e Ottavio Archived 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine (Italian).
  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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