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For us it is the change of the season. Autumn has already decided to leave room for winter and we all are planning how to make the most of it.

Sisa will fly to Japan, Nick wants to go to the Lofoten, Ale hopes that his free days from a work that forces him in Turin will coincide with heavy snowfalls. Jonny, from Liguria, skis 5 days a year and says that his start of the season with fresh snow above his knees has already been better than any possible expectation. Marco and I would like to mix Japan Lofoten, Etna, Corum Olimpique tour of the Meje and you name it!

It’s nice to daydream.

But let’s really open our eyes. There’s 6 of us. The lifts are closed, it has snowed for almost a week in a row and there is no living soul around. We have the Milky Way for us and right now there are no Japan or Lofoten holding us back.

We decide to go for what is called “la Traversata”: crossing Sestriere and Sauze D’Oulx. Half of us are locals, local fauna of the upper Susa Valley. Half are “foreigners”. However, no one has ever done this tour before and the idea of ​​venturing into something new and different, outside your front door, gives us goosebumps.

We start from Sestriere, the first destination is the Pitre de l’Aigle 2529m. 530m difference in altitude to warm the legs before the descent towards Pragelato. The snowfalls of the previous days have made the landscape around us more fascinating. The larches are still reddish and with the white color of the snow there’s a fascinating contrast of shades. Almost two meters of snow have fallen in a short time, it is powdery, inviting as much as potentially unstable.

The chosen adventure is perfect for the current conditions since the steepest slopes are in the woods. And to be clear, it is not a fallback. Who has never skied in this undergrowth does not know what he’s missing out. Larches have tall branches and a clean trunk. Suitable for going straight, as Ale likes, to face some slaloms, the ones that our Sisa loves, or to look for a pillow line to indulge the freestyler who is in Marco.

After the wood and a crossing of a stream, begins the second climb towards Col Bourget, 2404m. We climb up open slopes, the sky is slightly veiled, the mood is high, the legs are strong, fresh from the beginning of the season, the company is excellent.

I like to think about how we found each other, some actually met before, others just yesterday. I like coincidences and opportunities and also know how to seize them. Nick wanted to freeride with Marco, Jonny was with Nick. Ale was hosting Nick and Jonny. Sisa is a friend of Marco and Ale and shares some memories of skiing clubs with Nick.

I got a job canceled at the perfect moment.

I reach Marco, go skiing with Sisa, finally get to know Nick personally. Strangers until yesterday but friends immediately. The power of sharing. Especially those experiences that leave a mark on you. They don’t have to be extreme, they don’t have to be 2000 km away from home. As long as they are true.

Once we get to Col Bourget we have two options. There is a little wind. So either we go down immediately, but make a shorter descent, or continue another half hour on the ridge towards Punta Triplex, 2507m, enjoying a longer descent. Needless to say what we have chosen unanimously.

On our way along the ridge the clouds go away and a breathtaking sunset begins to rise. The Fraiteve backlit in front of us, the Rognosa on our left and a myriad of mountains surround us. There’s also Monviso over there. Only mountains, the sunset and us.

We take the usual photo at the end of the second climb, then we face some turns under Punta Triplex and off towards the Barrakan wood. The last rays of the sunset illuminate the undergrowth. A fairytale atmosphere, and even the snow is fabulous. Another 1000 meters of descent.

Marco is from Sauze. Ale and Sisa from Cesana. You can say that these are their home places. Seeing the enthusiasm in their eyes, hearing them commenting and appreciating this experience generates as much satisfaction as the one that gave us the ride we did.

The key lies in stimulating curiosity to want to discover something new, precisely in those places that we have seen so much to almost take for granted: we take for granted their beauty without often experiencing them fully.

It is important looking far away but also realizing what is nearby. The key lies in trying to live on experiences and not on things, to be shared with those who are hungry for the same ingredients.

The legs are tired, the eyes and the heart are happy. Sisa writes me that same evening before falling asleep.

“There’s one thing that I have always repeated to myself while growing up. Every time I was about to do something, a smiley face comparable to a today’s emoji would pop up in my head telling me: there is no need to be extreme, just be consistent.

Growing up I realized that what I need are all those little things that remind me how lucky I am before I close my eyes. But not lucky with the usual rhetoric, lucky in the sense of being grateful to have been born in the part of the world where the genuineness of a mountain ride makes you drop a tear”.