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PURE, TRUE, IMMENSE, UNIQUE. THE MOUNTAIN.

#SALEWAEVENTS

A few days have passed since what I can safely say was one of the most intense and real mountain experiences in my life. Those of you who have followed the event online may think that the Alta Via was just a normal week of mountain walking, yet I can fully attest to the fact that it was much more than that. You can’t let the one hundred and fifty kilometres covered or the height difference (nearly equal to the real altitude of the world’s highest mountain) be the only focus, as it goes beyond mere appearances. This project really gets inside of you. It makes you excited. It gives you goose bumps days after because it literally marks you. It forces you to find your limits and allows you to be at one with that real, pure mountain.

It’s not that mountain that we all know, the one we've all read about and admire. Rather, it’s purity, it’s authenticity and beauty. Inevitably our love for the mountain grows even more, becoming immense.

In the end, all of those miles clocked up are nothing but an outline, proof of the real distances covered. What really matters is that the ALTA VIA makes you fully understand the value of humans and the real role of a person in society. And so, in a period such as the present one, where we're all overwhelmed by frenzy, stress and technology, we find ourselves far away from the city din, from the endlessly ringing phones and the rush of people. We're completely immersed in our bodies, with the mind and the spirit coming face to face with mother nature.

The effort along the most testing paths and the heat, on occasion excessive for the time of year, are of little interest to us. For this project is a real panacea for every one us, as is crossing some of the best known valleys in the entire Alpine region, all the while striving to keep our distance from mass tourism, far from the cities. We finally come back to living by the rhythm of the sun. Our steps are at times fast, or sometimes slow for the steepest slopes, and we gradually mark the passage of time with bright eyes drinking in the splendour that the Dolomites of Alto Adige can offer.

And so, even though the miles are mounting up day after day, you hardly feel the effort because of what the Alta Via brings with it: a real family. It seems crazy to say it but, just like that, people who up until a few days ago didn’t even know each other are now bound by a deep friendship. It’s a magic in every sense of the word which, I’m sure, only the mountain can create.

Far from "modern civilization" everything acquires another flavour and another value. Simplicity becomes the key to happiness. An ancient coin-operated telephone in an alpine shelter off the beaten track is used once again to get in touch with loved ones. It's pure alpine romance. Even a “viva the greyness" shouted over laughter and a nice glass of beer on the back of hours of walking and hot sun becomes a day by day, mile by mile ritual. It may almost seem trivial, yet up here at an altitude of over two thousand metres, it has a special, unique resonance.

Walter Bonatti once said, “See that if someone has to get here, to follow their own dreams, not to be there confused, amidst humans who are there to have fun or in any case to try something that has nothing to do with what I am searching for.

That's right. Although we had come many miles and had many still left to travel, getting up at four in the morning to go and enjoy the sunrise at the top of a peak where everything transforms amidst a sea of oranges, reds and yellows was no problem at all. And you are surrounded by an incredible positive energy because everyone has maximum respect for the mountain. Only through sacrifice, and with our eyes shining with the emotion of seeing those first rays of sun, could we say, “THANK YOU".

Pure.

True.

Immense.

Unique.

The mountain.

It's those very mountains that have written the history of mountaineering. They lie in wait as if to welcome us, to mark out a path along our journey, along our Alta Via that is constantly changing, day by day. It’s incredible to look back and see how what was our goal has now become a memory that lies behind us; a memory of those beautiful, intense and pure things that appeal to everyone who experiences or frequents the mountain.

The Alta Via allows you to become one with it and experience it to the full. Indeed, it makes you go further and discover it from every perspective. As such, you find yourself crossing a natural park or forest, or happily pedalling up a steep path by e-bike to understand how you can also experience it on two wheels while saving a bit of energy too. But it’s not just that, because if you love adrenaline you’re spoiled for choice. You’re able to be the lucky person who will fly over the highest peaks on a paraglider, enjoying incredible and unique atmospheres. You can breathe in and experience strong and intense emotions flying over the Alta Badia and admire the Marmolada and the Piz Boè, to name but a few. Or you can experience the intense emotions of a via ferrata in Val Gardena surrounded by vertical walls and the silence of the high mountain.

So this new Alta Via mountain route allows you to enjoy the real mountain, crossing valleys, sleeping in front of some of the most famous mountains of the Alps and trying every kind of experience possible, always with the utmost respect for nature and the purity of the mountain.

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