Nicola Tondini

Mountaineer, alpine guide and engineer, born in 1973, he is currently an alpine guide and he runs the King Rock indoor climbing gym, which he himself designed.

He started climbing at 13 years of age and mountaineering at 16. In 1999 he became an alpine guide and in 2001 a national coach for alpine guides.

He co-founded the XMountain Alpine Guide School in 2003 and is currently its manager and a coach with a particular focus on teaching climbing, mountaineering and ski mountaineering.

His alpine guide work covers all fields: rock climbing, high mountain activities, ski mountaineering, freeriding, ice climbing, travel. Each year he regularly accompanies clients on the toughest routes in the Dolomites, such as the Via Attraverso il Pesce (the Fish Route) on the Marmolada’s south face, long-established and modern routes on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and on the north-western face of Monte Civetta.

He has also opened more than 30 new routes in the Veronese Prealps and the Dolomites, most of which of extreme difficulty: in particular, in the Dolomites the routes Colonne d’Ercole on the north-western of the Civetta (1200 m, IX) and Quo Vadis (400 m, X-) on Sass dla Crusc. Multipitches include the Testa o Croce (200 m, 8b, 7c obl.) and Via di Testa (200 m, 8b, 7c obl.) routes. His curriculum also includes first winter climbs, such as those on the north-western face of the Civetta, i.e. Capitan Skyhook and Kein Rest von Sehnsucht.

This latest venture is a direttissima on the south-western face of Cima Scotoni in Val Badia (750 m, X), whose name Non abbiate paura di sognare (Don’t be afraid to dream) reveals an urge to introduce something new to the mountaineering scene in the Dolomites.

Awards:

- Premio Biasin in 1999 as the best young mountaineer in the Veronese area

- Premio Fondazione Silla Ghedina as the best climber in the Dolomites in 2013, for the route opened on the Civetta’s north-western face

- Pelmo d’Oro in 2014 for his ongoing mountaineering activities