The 1 April will kick off the "Chamlang Expedition 2016", the fourth shipment of the "Vertical Dreams" project of High Mountain Military Section of the Alpine Training Center of Aosta and which will have as its main objective the opening of a new route on the inviolate north face of the Himalayan mountain. To attempt the climb will be c.le magg. sc. Marco Farina and c.le magg. François Cazzanelli who, in December 2014 together with c.le m. sc. Marco Majori reached the summit of the famous Cerro Torre along the "Via dei Ragni" in Patagonia. The mountaineers, for the 2016, have instead decided to devote their attention and their preparation to the Himalayas.
The Chamlang is a mountain that reaches the altitude of 7319 mt with the western top, in addition to presenting two other peaks of lower altitude (central and eastern), all higher than the 7100 mt. Noted in the 1954 by Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Everest, the Chamlang was climbed for the first time in the 1962 by a Japanese expedition, but given the high technical difficulties there have been few expeditions which, so far, have succeeded in reach the summit. The north wall, which has attracted the attention of some of the best contemporary mountaineers, is completely untouched.
Farina and Cazzanelli have already identified in the past few months some possible lines of ascent of the imposing north side of about 2000 mt, thus finalizing their physical preparation above all to ascents on ice and mixed terrain, or the types of terrain on which they will have to test themselves in Nepal . The Chamlang represents a further step of difficulty and overall commitment of the multi-year project "Vertical Dreams", in which the SMAM mountaineers will be involved in the creation of new alpine-style routes, in increasingly difficult contexts and at ever higher altitudes.
Farina and Cazzanelli will fly to Kathmandu on April 1, then an internal flight will allow them to reach Lukla, where the one-week long trek will begin. Mountaineers will have a period of around 25 days to complete acclimatization and attempt ascension.
