Why I Am...

I’m a mountain man but I also love the vast, broad spaces.
White spaces which bring me the undisturbed running
of the wind, spaces of endless woods which whisper
to my heart about an unknown and primeval energy,
the one of our Mother the Earth.
Spaces which hide remote nameless mountains,
those not in fashion I mean. Places where nothing
else matters but my being there, my existing,
my breathing: to find back my affinity with
the great wilderness (and therefore, with
myself), this is all I care for.
This is how my "slogan" Back to the Planet
has come to life: a way to give voice to the need to
get back to Mother Earth, a way to live mountains
and adventure, no more having to conquer them,
no more with the "No Limits Man philosophy", but
with the "philosophy of Listening and of Slow Life":
a way to find back our "lost" roots.

It is an invitation, therefore, to simplicity.
Since years my Back to the Planet style gives ground to every new ski traverse or ascent

which I act in remote, wild areas of our Planet

(I hate to call them exploits or expeditions…!) 

My climbs to big mountains and the ski traverses across polar areas,

therefore, are not only for…me;

few years ago, for example, I skied (snowshoed) across whole Alaska (from Valdez to Kaktovik),

during 5 months in the depth of winter,

a “trip” which had a specific goal:

help raise awareness in order to protect the Caribou’s calving grounds

on which the Native Gwich’in’s culture depends

since millennia, defend it from the voracious desires

of oil multinationals…  

​

I live in a log Cabin

nestled deep in the northern

Scandinavian Mountains of  Sàpmi (Lapland)

a place of stunning beauty

which I call "my "Little Alaska"...

No water inside,

we take it from the fresh mountain stream

which runs just  few feets away...

No light except from  one of candles..

No other heating than the big wood stove

and as you know..., 

with wood you warm yourself  5 times in one:

when you cut the dry tree down

when you carry it close to the house

when you split it into many smaller pieces

when you bring them inside and finally...,

when you start the fire inside the big stove!

Here I raised my kid to become ...

more Sami than a Sami boy...

and wilder than the Crows he talks to 

and the wind and the spaces

and the Native  Peoples' Spirituality

he learned to breathe

and love.

Here we also run a Mountain Lodge

for all those who might be interested to breathe

Real Wilderness

(see "Contact me")

​