THE VOICE OF THE MOUNTAIN

“Ask me why I go to the mountains. Ask me why, when the rest is tight, the only way is the path. Ask me.

- Why?

- Because in the mountains you can't waste your breath on useless words. You have to keep it to get to the top, and the rest is silence or kind words.

Because the only weight is the backpack. There is no burden on the heart.

Because everyone, if they wish, can reach the top. Just one step after another.

Because you meet people who still find a moment to say goodbye.

Because there are no trappings: there is you and there is your body, which you must keep and take care of, if you want to have the strength. There is the sky with its moods. Don't mess with rain, wind, snow or night. You have to be very careful, and go back to that primitive stage where nature and its movements were part of your life, an integral part of your daily life. You cannot snub nature in the mountains: it pulls you by the sleeve, asks you to look at it, to study it, to be present to it.

In the mountains you can and must be present to yourself, without distractions.

Perhaps this is why, over so many peaks, mobile phones and the internet work in fits and starts… it is nature that tells you:
“Forget the superfluous. Stay with friends. Stay with the animals. Stay with yourself. You don't need anything else".

There are nights like the one just passed when the mountain calls me and does it with a more intense voice than the others. There is a bond between me and the rock, which is not made of strength and resistance, but its texture has always been engraved in my blood with small rivulets of icy air that smear my flesh with inexplicable tremors of love .