Living with the mountains, as a plan of life, necessita, chance, destiny.
Ten stories of women, each one different from the other, but all united like links in an incredibly strong chain.
Each with their own life, linked by the same passion and desire to live in the mountains.
All women who have chosen to walk with AKU.
Monia lives her passion completely, dividing herself between the mountains and her restaurant on Lake Iseo. In winter she climbs on ice falls and in summer she practices drytooling on the cliff (a discipline that is done with pikes on rocky walls). For Monia, every moment is the right time for a vertical escape. A strong and straightforward character, an authentic and direct person, like the shortest way to reach the top.
She has always been attracted to the disciplines related to the mountains, she experiences a “turning point” in 2011 when she, flanked by a guide, she climbs her first ice wall. Then follows a didactic course, an intense experience that brings her closer and closer to her activity and arouses in her the desire to encourage safe practice for all those who want to climb, but do not know how to approach. It is to respond to this need that she, Monia, created the group “Ice Climbing… Cuori di Ghiaccio” on Facebook, which today has over 13,000 fans.
“Escape the ordinary!” is Caroline’s motto.
In the Austrian Tyrol, the mountains are close at hand and every free moment is an opportunity to get away from civilization and look for new roads and unknown peaks. Whether it’s mountaineering, rock climbing or ski touring, her favourite thing is to have a lot of variety and a little thrill along the way. Whether with friends or alone, she always enjoys her time in the mountains. Mountaineering in general is her favourite activity, especially glacier tours with ridge climbing.
As a child, she always spent a lot of time in the mountains, with her parents and grandparents. In the past it was the Kaiserschmarrn in a hut (one of the most famous Austrian desserts) that spurred her on – now it’s the path to the summit that makes her smile. In the meantime, the peaks have become higher and higher and the paths and rock faces are getting more challenging.
It combines the love for the mountains and nature with that for writing and photography. Not always, not necessarily following an order. He is an Environmental Hiking Guide and promotes the knowledge and enhancement of parks and nature reserves in the Central Apennines for Centro Guide Walden. As soon as he finds time and the right pervasive thrust, he writes stories of a mountain that breathes, that teaches, that suffers and that landslides, the same mountain that will heal us. He loves the stories of princes explorers, young researchers and the first women to climb in long skirts and lots of petticoats.
Paraglider and lonely bicycle traveler she is in the mountains that she lives for work and for pleasure the most honest time of her. Sympathizer of changes, she has her own times and not wanting to respect them she always runs out of time.
The next step? Take all the pieces in hand: nature and its wealth, history and its values, people and their weaknesses and fit everything into a new construction.
My first trip into the mountain was decided for pure fun with no other reason than the desire for sense gratification - a feeling of height, distance, effort first and well-being later - out of pride in life and lust for the eyes. I was interested in the effect that the mountain had on me, but then suddenly everything became precious in my eyes: trees, animals, rocks, clouds. It is a knowledge process that expands my experience; the more I penetrate the life of the mountain, the more I get inside myself. So I found what I set out to find: pure love.
Francesca Nemi
My relationship with the mountains, paradoxically, intensified since I realized that, having Fibromyalgia (a disease that weakens all the muscles of the body), it was impossible for me to climb since fibromyalgia sufferers normally do not even have the strength to unscrew. the cork of a bottle. So I understood that holding the ice axes could be a way to banish from the brain the idea of this disease that doctors are so keen to remind me of: "You have to rest and you must not tire your muscles". So I realized that climbing would be my challenge to stay afloat ... It's not easy the pains are crazy, but it's all about isolating the head and when I hold the ice axes everything disappears because I enter my world of energy.
Monia Gaibotti
For me the mountains have always been a friend. With her I chatted, cried, experienced the first adventures and misadventures, I sought refuge and company. The relationship I have with her is something very intimate. It has never been a challenge or an achievement, she has always been an ally. When I was a child I used to go to a meadow near my home and often talked to a mountain. It was a game, but at the same time it was also a way of seeking contact with something that for me was never abstract or distant. I am happy that many women are discovering the mountains, they are places for tenacious and stubborn people, as we women often are.
Fulvia Girardi
Photography is his great passion, at least as much as the love for nature that he wants to explore without leaving a trace. By inventing a low-impact solution also for the preparation of food, using drying, one of the oldest methods of conservation that, with the right tools, is useful precisely in outdoor activities. Elisa is a photographer and activist for environmental commitment. You are a member of the Outdoor Manifesto group.
Croatian by birth, Venetian by love. To travel between East and West, Glorija just needs to leave the front door and with his partner Giacomo it is always time for a new departure. Together they conceived Altripiani, a cultural, anthropological and linguistic research project to broaden their horizons and those of the many who follow their stories.
Besides the stories of the people she meets, she likes to collect recipes taught to her by the women she knows in different countries. By bringing them home and adopting them in her daily life, she honors the trust and hospitality of these loved ones who for an instant or for a whole day have entered her heart.
Fulvia is an Environmental Hiking Guide and Accompagnateur en Moyenne Montagne. She was born and lives in Acceglio, a village of 20 inhabitants in Valle Maira and continues to live there because she says that: “life is marked by slow rhythms, far from the hustle and bustle of the cities, the seasons really feel passing and human relationships are still authentic ”. An already big girl and another just arrived. It is difficult to choose between a guide and a mother, but as Fulvia tells us: “it is also the task of a mother to teach her children to follow their dreams, to get up after their falls and try to build their own future”.
Photography as a form of instinct and passion. A passion to be transformed into a profession. Project carried out, with nature at the center of the lens, from the large spaces of the mountain to the infinitely small that exists in everything. The love for nature and the mountains has led her to visit the great Himalayan environments many times for trekking and mountaineering expeditions. He has followed various climbers and mountaineers in the realization of their projects and enterprises.
With the companion mountain guide Ingo lives in Val Badia, they love to spend their free time with their daughter Catherine, sharing with her love and amazement for the small and large wonders that surround them.
Born and raised in the mountains, since childhood she ate mountains for lunch and dinner. Growing up, she also grew the hunger to explore and to reach higher and higher. Hence the passion for climbing, ski mountaineering and ice. When she doesn’t climb, she skis or walks, she tidies up the aching bones and muscles of someone who, like her, can’t wait to leave.
“I experience the mountains as a breath of fresh air, when I am at high altitude I am totally at ease, I perceive the greatness and perfection of nature and this gives me an incredible sense of stillness”.
The farm where Guðný grew up borders Iceland’s Vatnajökull National Park and she knows these places like the back of her hand. From an early age, Guðný explored Öræfi on horseback and on foot, creating a deep and intimate bond between her and this part of Iceland. His curriculum is extensive, since 2014 he is a guide of the Vatnajökull National Park, for excursions on glaciers and ice climbing, jeep tours in the ice caves, kayaking and boat in the Zodiac glacial lagoon and naturalistic excursions to learn about wildlife .
Guðný is also a great storyteller and is always happy to share her experiences with her guests. In addition, she is part of the Icelandic search and rescue team, a good guarantee to stay safe in the wild Icelandic environment.
Third generation Piedmontese herdsman, she dedicates her life to the breeding of cows. She raises about 200 Piedmontese cattle, takes care of milking, feeding, transhumance and also the production of cheeses, such as the prized Nostrale d ‘Alpe. A hard job but not for her that as a child when she got a little too excited about her she was put by her mother in the pen of the calves that became her playmates. After graduating in agriculture, she remained in the family business. “Her girls”, so Roberta refers to her cows, all have a different name and personality.
You have worked in several dairies and ranches in America, England and Ireland to deepen your livestock and cheese making skills. Over the years you have continued to participate in various refresher courses on new cheese processing, such as the Onaf course (National Organization of Cheese Tasters).
A small family rural hospitality business has recently opened in the mountain pastures, a service aimed at those who want to spend a few days in the company of their family and participate in agricultural activities: visit to the dairy, milking cows, horseback riding and trekking, excursions to the high altitude pastures and also product tastings.
In the mountains I like silence, feel part of a whole much larger than me, reconnect with the primitive, dwell on the details, smell the scent of the woods, enjoy the freshness of the spring water, savor the seasons, observe wild animals and above all know stories of people with faces marked by time and nature. People even with simple stories, but with deep eyes and hardworking hands.
Glorija Blazinšek
As a woman I never thought I could not go to the mountains. I love going to high altitudes because it is good for me and I enjoy it. If you like mountain climbing, go for it. It doesn't matter if you are a woman or a man, everyone should live their passion.
Caroline Moser
For my lifestyle, the bond I have with the mountains is very important. In addition to physical activity that allows me to always keep fit, I find great well-being both from a mental point of view and, something deeper, from a spiritual level. The mountain has always helped me even in moments of discouragement and I'm sure it will continue to do so, it will lead me to know myself better, to choose the things that really make me feel good. It will always be a safe haven, a friend and a foothold to "not fall".
Roberta Colombero
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