In Marcello’s stories, the Placido route in the Presolana and the Albani hut hold a special place. Since the forecast is pushing us east, we take the opportunity to go and check it out. We are two rope teams, but moving independently. Damiano and I go to sleep in the car in Colere, while Ape and Tia will arrive during the day from Lecco. We are beneath the wall when I hear “Filo!!! Filo!!!”; I turn towards the voice and see Mattia slipping and falling on the path. In no time they catch up with us (they reached the Albani hut in 60 minutes compared to our 90), just as we are starting on the first pitch. At first we are cautious—there are thousands of pitons everywhere and we fear everything might be extreme—but soon we start skipping them without hesitation. Halfway up we let Ape pass, and shortly after we all find ourselves descending together. We briefly debate whether to call the hut and book a table for dinner in 20 minutes, but in the end we decide to go for the surprise…