Seven years of the Mount Cervino record 

When I was little, a poster of the Mount Cervino decorated the wall of my room. Its pyramidal shape had me hypnotized and dreaming about it, not imagining that one day I would be ready for the challenge of climbing to its summit at 4,476 meters. One of my childhood idols is Bruno Brunod, born in the Aosta Valley (Italy), a town very close to the Cervino. He is a legend of mountain races and held the mountain record since 1995 with a time of 3 hours and 14 minutes.

Almost two decades later, I was about to try and beat that record. I decided to take the route that Brunod had taken to make his mark, the classic Aresta Lion route with the start and finish point marked out in the Cervinia church square. The date chosen for the attempt would be August 21, 2013. During the previous days, I made several trainings in order to examine each part of the route and not lose any detail.

RELIVE THE CHALLENGE IN 'DÉJAME VIVIR'

The climb consists of three different stages. The first one is mostly an area of dirt roads very similar to those you can find in trail running races. The second stage is a very technical snow climb, where concentration must be at its highest. Finally, the last obstacle to reach the top is a kilometre formed by several stretches of third and fourth grade climbing with fixed ropes.

In the film Déjame vivir, you will be able to enjoy the ins and outs of the challenge, for me, the most difficult of mountaineering because of the time to beat and the technical difficulty involved in the Cervino.

Déjame Vivir in English from Summits of My Life on Vimeo.

But I wasn't alone, Bruno Brunod kept me company the days before, as did my usual team. One of the most special moments was the last leg of the descent, as Brunod wanted to ride with me to remind me that it was possible to beat his record, as he had predicted the day before. It was. I crowned the summit in 1h 56' 15", which allowed me to descend more calmly. In total, I covered the 17.48 km in 2h 52'02" and I surpassed, 18 years later, my referent by 22 minutes. A magical challenge, the third one in Summits of My Life.