Direttissima (climbing)

As Direttissima ( Italian for "shortest distance" ) is in mountaineering a direct, detour loose rise referred to the peak that aligns to the line of slope from the top to the bottom. While the normal route seeks the path of least resistance, those who walk a Direttissima face the difficulties that the mountain presents “directly”.

The term comes from the Italian climber Emilio Comici :

"I would like to climb a route one day and drop a drop of water from the summit - and this shows me where my route was."

Often numerous climbing routes lead to the top of a mountain, and it often takes days of studying the mountain to determine which route is or might be suitable. Sometimes a planned route turns out to be impracticable or inexpedient when attempting a climb. The alpinist who decides to climb a summit or a wall using the Direttissima is only allowed to leave the vertical line to the summit insignificantly during his ascent. There are many direttissimes that may never be climbed; one of them is the Kangshung east face direttissima of Mount Everest (partly because of its avalanche danger) .

A well-known rock face in Europe with several difficult direttissimes is the almost vertical north face of the Eiger , which can only be accessed by very experienced climbers. The pursuit of a direttissima has lost its importance since the 1980s at the latest, since the focus was no longer on route guidance, but rather on the style of ascent .