North face of Roccia Viva, by Davide Capozzi

On the 1st of June me and my friends Alfredo Canavari (snowboard), Denis Trento (skier), Alessandro Letey (skier) and Lorenzo Facelli (skier) descended the North face of Roccia Viva, in the Gran Paradiso range. This was probably a first descent on snowboard.

The North face of Roccia Viva was skied for the first time by the Italian steep skiing master Stefano De Benedetti in 1979. From the following 39 years we didn't hear of any repetition. But on May 26th it got repeated by three strong Italian skiers Mattia Varchetti, Andrea Bormida and Davide Terraneo. The day before the descent by the skiers, Alfredo went to check out the face, and conditions looked promising. But we had to wait for another snowfall to make the face ridable again.

It turned out to be a good decision!
It's always nice to repeat descents opened by Stefano De Benedetti.

/Davide Capozzi