During my many years in the mountains and my numerous trips abroad, I’ve had the good fortune of living quite a few adventures. Today I’ll tell you my most recent adventure, so you think about how an alpine guide earns a living, especially if you think he does so in the most casual manner, without any effort, having only fun spending his days in the beautiful fresh air.

Prologue
June 2008: An unexpected e-mail informs me of the arrival of Tony. “Terrific” I’m thinking. Beyond being an excellent client, Tony Scott is above all a friend and an unusual person; born on the 21^st of June 1944 in Stockton, On Tees, in the countryside on the north of England, he attends the west Hartlepool College of Art and the Sunderland Art School. In the 80’s Tony starts his career as a film producer. His success comes with the film Top Gun, which is followed by many others (Beverly Hills Cop - Revenge - True Romance - Crimson Tide - Enemy of the State - Spy Game - Domino -Déjà Vu). His latest work will come out in 2009: The Talking of Pelham 1 2 3. Notwithstanding his high social standing, Tony always behaves like a regular person without putting on airs. But Tony is also a true alpinist, who in his youth has climbed with friends many peaks in the Alps and in the Dolomites; climbing routes that even now are test pieces. This time he will be coming to Cortina with the family: his wife Donna, his two twins 8 year old Max and Frank, and the babysitter Lucy; and all of them want to climb. Obviously, we will need more Guides, and so I ask my friends and colleagues Davide Alberti, and Paolo Da Pozzo to give me a hand. They accept gladly.

The Scott family arrives on the 20^th of June and the next day we are on the Five Towers outside Cortina, the ideal place to get your climbing legs back after a long period of inactivity, in Tony’s case, and to see how the rest of the party will do on those walls. Over the next few days Paolo and Davide will be guiding Donna, Lucy and children, while I will tie in with Tony: everyday something more demanding, going from the Campanile Dulfer in the Cadini di Misurina, to the Via Cassin on the Cima Piccolissima di Lavaredo, to eventually crown the end of his vacation with a classic and difficult route on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Tony is good, you can see that he knows his way around the cliffs, but the fact that he climbs only occasionally and his 64 years are elements that cannot help but affect his performance.

Forty years ago, with a friend, he climbed the famous Via Comici–Dimai, on the great north wall of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, and he would like to repeat it. I’m a little reluctant; I think that route is too difficult for his present state of fitness. Ultimately we decide to take with us Paolo as an additional guide: if Tony finds himself in a difficult spot, on a route such as this one, two guides guarantee greater safety. We also decide that, if necessary, a helicopter will pick us up at the top. Even if easy, the descent route is long, and could be very long and very tiring if undertaken by someone already exhausted from the climb. Thus we alert the pilot to be ready, and we set the time of departure the next morning at 5:00.