Ottorino Mezzalama

Ottorino Mezzalama (born September 25, 1888 – February 23, 1931) was an Italian mountain climber, and is deemed to be one of the two pioneers of Italian ski mountaineering besides Luciano Roiti. He died in an avalanche accident in the Rochemolles Valley. The Ottorino Mezzalama Hut of the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) below Pollux as well as the famous Mezzalama Trophy competition and the Mezzalama Skyrace were named in honor of him.

Mezzalama was born in Bologna and moved with his family to Turin on March 28, 1892. In his teens he gained first experiences in mountain climbing. He was a good friend of the Swiss engineer Adolfo Kind and of the artillery Lieutenant Luciano Roiti, who published "Delle marce sulla neve" (Italian for about marching on snow), a paper about ski mountaineering in the army. All three became members of the CAI and founded the Ski Club Torino.

After he finished school, Mezzalama began his studies at the university faculty of trading and economy, but had to leave the university because he was drafted by the army in 1909. In the Italo-Turkish War he was deployed in the rank of a Sergente at the Libyan front in 1912, and was awarded for his service. After his release in 1913, he continued his university studies as well as skiing and mountain climbing.

In the course of the general Italian mobilization during World War I, he was drafted again by the army in October 1915. Together with his later friend Pietro Ghiglione, a mountain climber and writer, he served in the 3rd Alpini Regiment. Concerning to his advanced academic studies, he was made Sottotenente, became Tenente in 1916 and Capitano in 1917. During his services he was technical director of military ski training. He gave his first course at the Little St Bernard Pass,the second in the Champorcher Valley, and further ones in several alpine areas apart the conflict areas. All in all he trained about 3,000 "White Warriors from the Adamello" of 26 skiing units of 13 battalions until 1917, the year when the 3rd Alpini Regiment got the name affix "Courmayeur"

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