Maurizio Zanolla. Manolo. The Wizard.

One of the very few climbers (the only one?) who “abandoned the race” to become part of the collective imagination: say Manolo and even a bank employee will know who you're talking of.

Is it all due to advertising? Well, not only. The Wizard's powers keep on working: they do so today just as they did thirty years ago.

The old warrior, born in Feltre in 1958, still strikes the crowds with dreadfully scary lines, younger but just as threatening and unapproachable sisters of the Via dei Piazaroi (Cima della Madonna, 1978) and Supermatita (Sass Maor, 1980). Where on earth has he drawn his powers from? One day, as we mentioned the word talent, Manolo described the «possibility of fishing for the irrational by helping oneself from an enormous reservoir».

A fantastic weapon used beyond the Columns of Hercules, where the Wizard had ventured more than once: «In many situations I pushed myself far beyond, well aware that I had burnt my bridges and that my only chance to survive was to attain the summit».

Affairs for madmen, for wizards, for the Wizard…