Matteo Della Bordella - fr
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BIO & MOUNTAINEERING CAREER
Born and raised in Varese, Lombardy, he started to visit the mountains at the age of 12 with his father Fabio, climbing several classic routes in the Alps with him.After the first few years, he developed a passion for high difficulty climbing on big walls and in 2005 he free-climbed the legendary 'Via attraverso il pesce' on the south face of the Marmolada. In the same year, climbing with Fabio Palma, he opened the challenging 'Portami Via' on the Wendenstocke limestone, which to date has only been repeated by climbers of the calibre of Ueli Steck, Simon Anthamatten and Tommy Caldwell.
In 2006, he joined the prestigious Ragni di Lecco group and, in 2008, was admitted to the Italian Academic Alpine Club.
In 2012, after receiving his PhD in engineering, he decided to abandon his academic career to devote himself full-time to mountaineering. This marked the start of an extraordinary career, which led him to become one of the strongest exponents of contemporary technical mountaineering.
His favourite terrain is the mountains and vertical walls located in remote and wild places on the planet, where he climbs at high levels of difficulty.
Here the challenge lies first of all in being able to reach one's objective (possibly with a 'by fair means' approach, on skis or by sea in a kayak) and then in trying to climb, preferably free-climbing, with equipment reduced to a minimum.
With this style, Matteo has left an indelible signature on many of the world's biggest walls, from Patagonia to Greenland, via Karakorum, India and Baffin Island. "The mountaineering that I like," he sums up, "is the essential, concrete, light mountaineering that puts the mountaineer on an equal footing with the mountain.”
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HIGHLIGHTS
2012 - Free ascent of the "Freerider" route on El Capitan, Yosemite (USA). First Italian to climb one of the great routes on El Capitan in complete free-climbing.2013 - First ascent of the south-western face of the Uli Biaho Tower (6109m), Pakistan.
2013 - First ascent of the west face of Torre Egger (2885m), internationally recognised as one of the last untouched big walls in Patagonia.
2014 - Opening of "The Great Shark Hunt" route on the face of Shark's Tooth, in Greenland. Expedition "by fair means" in complete autonomy: 420 km by kayak and 50 km on foot to get to and from the wall.
2016 - Expedition "by fair means" to Baffin Island, in which the group made the approach (180 km) on skis and opened 7 new climbing routes. Return to civilization by inflatable rafts.
2016 - First alpine-style repeat of the "Via dei Ragni" on the East Face of Fitz Roy (3359m), in Patagonia.
2017 - First ascent of the east face of Cerro Murallon (2780m), in Patagonia.
2018 - First ascent of Cerro Riso Patron Sud (2350m), in Patagonia; "by fair means" expedition in complete autonomy, with approach by kayak.
2019 - First ascent of the west face of Bhagirathi IV (6192m), Indian Himalayas.
2021 - Opening of the "Forum" route on Siren Tower (Greenland); "by fair means" expedition in complete autonomy, with 350km approach by kayak.
2022 - Opening of the "Brothers in arms" route, first alpine-style ascent of the east and north faces of Cerro Torre (3128 m), Patagonia.
2022 - Valore Alpino - nouvelle Voie sur la paroi est du Siula Grande (6344 m)
2023 - ¿Qué mirás, bobo ? une nouvelle voie sur l'Aguja Mermoz, avec un développement de 500 mètres et une difficulté maximale de 7b
2023 - Care Bear Traverse, première répétition italienne, plus de 5 kilomètres avec près de 4000 mètres de dénivelé et de difficulté jusqu'au 7a (5.11d) C1 65