The Pizzo Badile (3308m) is one of the six great north faces of the Alps, along with the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, the Cima Grande, the Petit Dru and the Matterhorn. summit is located in the Val Bregaglia, in the north-western part of the Bernina mountain range, on the border between Graubünden Switzerland and Lombardy Italy.

For many years, I had wanted to take a photograph of the Pizzo Badile ridge in snow-covered conditions. But I knew that it was usually made of pure rock...
So it was only through perseverance, planning and patience that I was able to take this shot. A rare photograph, taken from the air, it can be appreciated on several levels.

The inhospitablenorth ridge rips through the skies like a bolt of lightning. Completely plastered after a spring snowstorm, it falls abruptly and ends its frantic race in the abyss. I remain spellbound by the verticality of this face, which has something transcendent about it. It's much more tapered than the Eiger, and is revealed here in the contrast between snow, ice and black rock. A two-tone composition, I wanted to bring out the power of the mineral lines and the infinite strength of the sheer rock...

When I set out to meet this face that day, there was no guarantee that I would be able to take this shot. One little click, and it's all there!

Behind every "little click" is a story. My Pizzo Badile is the story of a long aesthetic quest. The one that search of exceptional shooting conditions; when nature offers us what it hardly allows. This shot reminds us that mountain conditions can reveal the world in a whole new light. All we need to do is pay attention to the signs, listen and feel nature.