Marco Pedrini

Marco Pedrini, born in 1958 in Lugano and died in August 1986 in Drus, is a Swiss climber and mountaineer. He made the first free climbs on difficult routes in the Mont-Blanc massif as well as the first solo on Cerro Torre in 1985. Pedrini, started mountaineering in 1976, at the age of 18: "I had a strong attraction for risky sports and thrills". In 1980, he opened a new route in Stetind, Norway, in addition to repeating the English route in Trollryggen in 14 hours and solo. We immediately see its tendency to innovate, between a new route and a first in free climbing: it will be talked about for routes opened from above and for Spits placed where no one wanted them. He will also do the first winter of the Cassin route on the northeast face of Piz Badile with Danilo Gianinazzi and Michel Piola. July 11, 1982: free premiere of the Bonatti pillar (southwest pillar of the Drus) with Claudio Camerani. July 9, 1983: first free run of the Directissime Américaine on the west face of Les Drus with Sergio Vicari, with a few assists. July 21, 1983: free premiere of the Panoramix variant at the Grand Capucin with Sergio Vicari. November 26, 1985: solo first climb of Cerro Torre in Patagonia via the Compressor Route. This premiere was filmed and was the subject of a reference film in the world of mountaineering: "Cerro Torre - Cumbre". Marco Pedrini died on the way down after finishing August 16, 1986 the 1st solo of the Direct American route on the west face of the Aiguille du Dru on the Mont Blanc Massif route. Nobody knows exactly how the accident happened, but he was found by friends who went to look for him at the foot of the face, with the abseiling rope still in the figure 8 descender.