MOUNTAIN’S WEEK IN LECCO

From the 21st to the 29th June the town of Lecco has become the location of a series of events bound to the mountain world. Objective of the project, to combine the various aspects of the mountain world: mountaineering, climbing, adventure, personalities, printed materials, photography and join them in a single event that represents, ideally, the celebration of a sport passion, identified with the name of Lecco.
The start was on Saturday, June 21, with the event Meeting della Montagna – Premio Grignetta d’Oro, an occasion of meeting and confrontation among mountain enthusiasts, to discuss about the present and the new trends. During the meeting the prize “Grignetta d’Oro” has been awarded for three categories of the sector: Alpinism, Communication and Mountain Work.
On Monday, June 23, starts the competition week of the World Cup 2003, that features the three officially recognized specialties: bouldering, speed and difficulty.
A big engagement, of people and means, necessary to realize an ambitious project, ripened during a few years, on the basis of the successes harvested during the past editions. A result made possible by passion and volunteering of hundreds of people, each of whom has given their contribution for the realization of the event.
Climbing competitions, like the mountaineering awards, become a reason to come together, they represent the top on an iceberg, that has a huge submerse base, made of passionates who have in their DNA the joy to go and live the mountains in each of their aspects.
The Mountain’s week becomes the symbol of this enthusiasm. It is about an important example of communication that proposes new interpreting keys for an activity certainly more interesting, if introduced through new perspectives.
Praise to the Group Ragni di Lecco, the prestigious mountaineering group from Lombardia, with more than 50 years history and responsible for the organization of the event. Congratulation, because they have been able to bring movement in the environment with an event destined to become an important reference point.
Cristian Brenna, climber from Lombardia and careful observer, tells us about “his” Lecco Week, experienced as spectator and protagonist.
Oscar Durbiano

LECCO 2003
Lecco, capital of climbing. We can define in this way the week of events and competitions that have characterized the life of the town in Lombardia from the 21st to the 28th of June. All began on Saturday the 21st, with the fourth edition of the Trophy Grignetta d’Oro, where 27 among the best alpinists of the peninsula have presented their activity of the last two years. The award in the category Alpinism has gone to “ragno” Simone Pederferri. To Andrea Gallo the award for Communication, while Giampietro Verza got the prize for Work and Mountain. These were the winners of the Grignetta d’Oro 2003. To Silvio Mondinelli instead has gone the Special Prize Ragni della Grignetta.
Very interesting and with an high level the presentations of the mountaineers, all coming with wonderful pictures and a few video tapes, sign of the times and the desire to communicate of this generation of alpinists.
The meeting ended in the wonderful stage of Villa Guzzi, in the evening of Sunday, June 22, with a dinner for all participants.

The competitions
Music and different surroundings on Monday. We are in Piazza Cermenati, especially prepared to give hospitality to the specialists of speed climbing. In the men’s field win for the Pole Tomaz Oleksy, while among the girls is Russian Anna Saoulevitch to conquer the highest step of the podium.
On Tuesday the 23rd is the time of bouldering. The first ones to start, in a deadly heat, are the girls. After a burning half final almost all specialists conquer the finals, with the exception of Natalia Perlova, winner of the World Cup last year and Stella Marchisio, just on the podium in Fiera di Primiero two weeks ago, while the other Italian specialist, Giulia Giammarco of Turin, reaches the final with a very good provisional third place.
A few hours rest and the finals begin, in which Russian Olga Bibik wins by large, topping out four of the six difficult boulders proposed by the route setters Marzio Nardi and Laurent Laporte.
Second is her compatriot Ioulia Abramtchouk, with two tops. Third on the podium French Myriam Motteau. Giulia Giammarco doesn’t confirm the optimum performance of the morning and finishes in seventh place. Same fate for Sandrine Levet, winner of the first two legs of the season, who must be satisfied here with a ninth place, after having literally dominated the qualifications.
The next day the men’s category starts and also for them the heat is unforgiving. Half final dominated by Chris Sharma, who tops out five of seven boulders. Mauro Calibani and Christian Core barely get the last ticket for the finals. Both appear tired, compared with their last performances.
The final takes place at 9 P.A., and it is straight away another music. Public like in a stadium, exciting show, beautiful, very selective moves with constant difficulties around 7c boulder. At the end really hard competition problems will challenge fingers and good will of the guys.
Great exploit of French Jerome Meyer, author of an excellent performance, rich in tactical intelligence, that allows him to spare best precious energy, to be spent in a desperate dyno on the last problem. Second Chris Sharma, who is so naïve not to touch the zone hold of the last problem. Third, with three tops, Serik Kazbekov. Mauro Calibani finishes fifth, with two tops. Meager booty for the reigning World Champion, who nevertheless remains the only one to top out the second boulder, even on the first try. The confirmation, if still needed, that we are in front of a great talent, but he still has to refine some details that make the difference, like rapidity in decoding complicated moves and also psychophysical endurance in strong pressure moments.
On Friday rest day, not only for the athletes, but also for the people of the organization.
On Saturday morning it is the turn of the difficulty. The quarterfinals end without problems, with almost all Italians coming through. On Saturday evening the first unexpected event happens, with the never missing thunderstorm that prevents the regular course of the program. The women’s half final is postponed to Sunday morning, with little pleasure of the route setters (Leonardo Di Marino, Donato Lella and Stefano Alippi), who are obliged to invent a new itinerary during the night. Anomalous half final, the one on Sunday morning, with downright three top ranking French athletes (Levet, Minoret and Pouget) excluded from the final. Final reached instead by Jenny Lavarda, who has technically improved and is always more sure of her possibilities. First one excluded from the finals is a returned Liv Sansoz, who is now in an acceptable shape again, after the physical problems that have kept her away from the competitions in the last two years. The French Champion has shown a clear delay in the timing of her training, consequence of the long interruption, but also good will and humility, fundamental aspects to aim at a return to the levels that she deserves. Will it be just a short appearance or an effective return to the competitions for her?
Rich in surprises also the men’s semifinal. The first one has the name of Alberto Gnerro, who ends the qualification with the top ranking, together with king Chabot. Alberto this time is able to climb without the psychological pressure letting him squeeze the holds stronger than necessary, and he demonstrates that when he is mentally fit he is hard to be beaten. The second surprise is the exclusion from the final of Jerome Pouvreau, reigning World Champion, one of the few who can worry Chabot. But the biggest surprise arrives during the climb of Flavio Crespi, when a quickdraw of the route disappears, consequence of pulling the rope of the preceding competitor. The competition jury, after a moment of hesitation, doesn’t stop the athlete of the Fiamme Gialle, who continues (a little puzzled) his climb that he finishes at the ninth place, first excluded from the final. Same placement for Cristian Brenna. Very good instead Dino Lagni, who ends at the provisional third place ex-equo with six other athletes.
Later in the afternoon the finals. In the women’s final Belgian Muriel Sarkany ends in front of Martina Cufar and Bettina Schöpf. Italian Jenny Lavarda closes in sixth position a competition that could have been better.
In the men’s field Chabot wins thanks to the better results of the semifinal. Same hold for Spanish Puigblanque, definitely at his ease on very overhanging structures. Lowest step of the podium for Dino Lagni, ex-equo with Euvgeny Ovtchinikov, both only one hold below the two leaders. Returns back to normality Alberto Gnerro, that means he promptly recovers the usual psychological pressure and closes eight, last of the final.

Reflections
Regarding the difficulty, in the men’s field, we see a flattening of the performance, sign that there are several athletes with similar athletic characteristics. Also in Lecco there have been fifteen athletes on three holds, and this happens always more frequently. The reason of this leveling is the exasperation of certain physical characteristics of the routes to the detriment of the technical qualities.
May be the time has come to discuss again the rules of the game, the occasion to open a debate on route setting in the competitions to try to modify some aspects, to try to bring back this sport toward its technical origin, and therefore propose itineraries where, beside sticking holds always smaller and farther, there is again the possibility to truly climb taking advantage of the personal store of technical movements.
From this point of view, in the course of the years, there has been a drying up of the technical gesture in favor of the conditional capacity. May be the moment has arrived to stop to reflect in a future perspective. May be it is necessary to make a step back, to bring climbing nearer to its origin, that doesn’t necessary means “involution”, but rather a correction of direction finalized to safeguard the show effectiveness of the event, fundamental aspect to guarantee the interest of the media for our sport.

Conclusion
Optimum outcome of this competition week: always numerous and enthusiast spectators, perfect organization of the “Ragni”. After four years the event in Lecco has become, in the general opinion, the best leg of the international circuit.
Cristian Brenna