La cordata vincente

Bruno Detassis is one of Dolomite mountaineering’s great figures and is also star of theatre production La cordata vincente; Banda sociale di Zambana, Filodrammatica and the SOSAT choir pay tribute to Bruno Detassis, Lord of the Brenta Dolomites. The show is produced by Zambana Local Council and by the Autonomous Province of Trento, and was devised by Rosario Fichera. It was written and directed by Antonia Dalpiaz.

Bruno Detassis was born in Trento in June 1910 into a family of workers (his father Antonio, a carpenter, was a key figure in the city’s trade unions). He was the founder of a great mountaineering tradition that was dominated by his exceptional personality for half a century. He opened up more than 200 routes through the Dolomites, including the north face of the Brenta Alta in August 1934 with mountain guides Enrico Giordani and Ulisse Battistata. He also traced the famous Via delle Guide (Route of the Guides) through Crozzon sul Brenta with Enrico Giordani in 1935 and a new route on the west pillar of the Cima Tosa with Giorgio Graffer in 1937. His many ascents on the Trento Dolomites (from the Brenta to the Pala Group) followed a meeting in the 1930s with Ettore Castiglioni, who was involved in drawing up the first mountain guides for the I Monti d’Italia series. Detassis was also one of Trento’s first skiing instructors; he trained in the early 1930s at the Hans Noebl school in Sestriere (where he met his wife Nella Christian, who was also a ski instructor). He left Piedmont in 1939 for Madonna di Campiglio to run a local ski school. From 1949 he ran the Brentei mountain shelter at the heart of the Brenta Dolomites. He also distinguished himself in a number of mountain rescues. He led Trento’s first expedition to Patagonia in December 1957.