K2 VALTELLINA
It runs on July 4th, same format, unchanged course, lots of passion and some news, for a young race that in a few years has been able to carve out space among the most important and spectacular only up races of reference at national level and beyond .
The K2 Valtellina was born from a wonderful collaboration between the Amici Sciatori and the Gruppo Podistico Talamona to relaunch the vertical challenge that for years has fascinated all lovers of mountain running and who dream of reaching the summit from the center of the country in the shortest possible time by trying to break that incredible record set years ago by Enrico Tirinzoni.
Since this year the K2 Valtellina Team has been created, that is a small group of people from these two associations who, thanks to the passion, friendship and the desire to relaunch this event, find and feel regularly engaging in unison, each with his skills and knowledge taking time away from their days, but which in these two years have been the fundamental pawns for the growth and success of the race.
We underline and thank the common commitment of many other local associations such as the Civil Protection, the Talamona’s Alpini group and the Proloco, in addition to the active participation of all the inhabitants of Talamona, who collaborate in the cleaning and maintenance of the path that climbs steeply towards the summit, in fact throughout the year those who own huts in the various mountain pastures where we pass automatically they take care directly to keep the path clean and in excellent condition, which is not only the race track but a permanently marked route that anyone can take to make an interesting excursion in beautiful places.
The last edition was won by the strong ski mountaineer Michele Boscacci of the CS Army – Team LA Sportiva with a record time of 1h22’24 ”, followed by Micha Steiner Team Salomon and William Boffelli Team Crazy Idea.
In the race in pink second seal for the Camuna Corinna Ghirardi who set the new record of 1h42’06 “, followed by the star of the CS Army and daughter of art Giulia Murada and the strong athlete of the VAM Team Michela Brambilla.
The big news of the 2020 edition is the inclusion of the competition in the Challenged VK2, the International Vertical Race circuit that includes five of the most important and spectacular Italian only up races of at least 2000 meters of elevation gain.
After the success of last year we also confirm the Double Vertical Challenged, that is the twinning with the Grignone Vertical Extreme, the Lecco event of only ascent from Pasturo to the Grignone summit. In order to bind
these two races, Team K2 Valtellina and Team Pasturo will give away two forms of Bitto to the winners of the circuit and a super finisher gadget to all the athletes who complete the two competitions.
K2 Valtellina is not just sport and competition, but thanks to the adrenaline-pumping route marked permanently, it has become a destination for hikers and training ground for many local skyrunners, who have thus been able to discover and appreciate this little-known Orobic side. Special event that aims to combine sport, nature and tourism, expanding the package of events and experiences in a territory, that of the Lower Valtellina, rich in resources in terms of sports, tourism and food and wine.
Our K2 Valtellina has already set up a Green organization since last year, i.e. reducing waste and pollution, we have permanently marked the route with a few but fundamental gray metal signs engraved with low environmental impact and on the day of the race the route will be marked with reusable flags created by the organization to avoid any posting of plastic strips and other accessories that are normally used at competitions, which visually dirty the environment and then risk staying in the woods by mistake and polluting for years.
We are collaborating with two interesting realities in the area, the first Elia Silvestri E-bike Rental & Tours who rents electric bicycles, which would lead the way for the initial part of the track and then give way to Andrea Fistolera who runs a Trial school in Delebio, this year he will be the first and only Italian to participate in the world of electric trials, he will lead us in the last part of the journey with an electric motorcycle. These two realities promote a different way of experiencing the mountains than usual but respecting nature and not polluting, giving the possibility to those who do not have the necessary physical preparation to move and play sports with these green vehicles.
We confess that it is a great commitment to organize this event, because behind the scenes we are regularly all year round and step by step we study the strategies and collaborations, as well as define all the logistics and material and carry out a fundamental program. promotion both on social media and on local and national newspapers.