Biography of Enrico Maioni - Rock climbing, via ferrata, hikes, ski
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Biography of Enrico Maioni
I was born in a wonderful place, Cortina di Ampezzo, where I live and work to this day.
Like many of the children born in the Ampezzo valley, when I was little I started to explore this amazing environment on Sunday walks with my parents and later on with my friends.
The surrounding mountains held a great fascination for me and the desire to reach their summits soon made itself felt. It was for this reason, when I was fourteen years old, that I started climbing with my friends. I kept it quiet from my parent at first; they considered it a dangerous activity without expert supervision.
Luckily I managed to survive the dangers of being inexperienced and reckless and, at the age of 20, was invited to join the Gruppo Scoiattoli (the "Squirrel Group"; Cortina's famous group of climbers). From that moment onwards, I began to expand my climbing portfolio, mainly in the Dolomites, but also in other ranges (climbing various ice and mixed routes in the Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa areas, and making an ascent of Denali (via West Rib) in Alaska).
The allure of the great mountains however was not enough to lure me away from my great passion, rock climbing. Having climbed many of the classic routes in the Dolomites, for a short period I dedicated myself to making solo ascents (including the Costantini-Apollonio route on the South Pillar of Tofana di Rozes in 1981).
In the early 80s, sport climbing made its appearance in the Dolomites. I started to travel abroad to sport climb and discovered a whole new world of rock climbing.
I had found a style of climbing that was perfect for me and my enthusiasm for it is still strong. This enthusiasm has helped me to climb at a fairly high grade. My best effort being a redpoint of an 5.14a, but years pass by and there is less time to dedicate to training, I no longer climb this hard.
In the meantime I attended training courses, which enabled me in time to qualify as an Alpine Guide. In 1984 I joined the Gruppo Guide Alpine Cortina (the local guides’ organization), which I am proud to be a part of and where I continue to work.
What has always been a passion, became later on in the years a job: today I guide anyone with the desire of it up on these mountains on both complicated and easy ascents, summer and winter, trying to transmit to my clients the love I nourish for this area.
Besides climbing I’m also quite passionate about IT and this is why I’ve tried to build this site: would you have any suggestion for bettering it, please feel free to communicate it to me as I will be more than happy to accept any advice.
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Below, two old movies of the annual international Mountain Guides Climbing Championship.
Arco (TN) 1995 -
Sesto (BZ) 2002 -
