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Garda Lake in four days

By Luca Albrisi

I can’t exactly tell when the idea of this trip came to my mind.
I believe that over the years the desire to “see what’s in between” has grown on me more and more intensely. Explore those places – although relatively close – that are often ignored because they are “middle lands” or “crossing lands”. Where few people go and therefore, even if close, have remained intact and preserved their essence.
For many years now I have been trying to live my little or big adventures with the primary intention of discovering what surprising things we can be close to.
Just going outdoor on a splitboard or on foot and starting my research for unknown places is a challenge that pushed me to look at neighboring spaces with a different, creative perspective.
#HomeToLake is an idea that has taken shape over the last two years, born on these basis. A very meaningful idea for me because formed with that simplicity that represents my constant research. A simple gesture like leaving the house, in the Val di Peio to run and walk towards Garda Lake. Just with a vague idea of an itinerary, the strictly necessary gears on the shoulders and in the heart a great desire to discover unusual places and be able to share moments and thoughts with those I love the most.

CHAPTER 0
Km. 0
“Nothing starts without fear”.

The days are numbered, unfortunately. And when something you have been waiting for so long risks to vanish it is not easy to keep calm.
But the weather is something we cannot have the slightest control over, which is why it remains one of the most absolute natural expressions of freedom that there is.
Feeling the heavy and uninterrupted rain on the roof of our attic leaves us little hope and raises many doubts.
The little time available for this journey makes me doubt the departure itself. Alessandra is worried knowing that if we decide to leave, it would mean merging the first two parts of our adventure. The spirit of this journey is also to perceive the fears and understand the insecurities of other people. Don’t take anything for granted except the desire to travel all together, exploring even the most inner aspects of this adventure.
The fear of “not being able to” is one of the worst traps of our life.
Since we are born you’re driven to think to perfection as a goal, to not accept imperfection as part of the reality. But that’s what we are.
We should rather learn how to fail big and accept our imperfection lightly. So, when in doubt, leave even without the certainty of arriving.
That fear often vanishes just after the first step.

CHAPTER I
“In the soul and in the legs”.

Hearing the door closing behind you is the first clear division between what has been and what will be.

The preparations, the mapping, the detailed consideration of what gears will be used and how to transport them. Everything is now behind.
In front of you there is only the experimentation of everything that has been imagined and the desire to be amazed.
Leaving is first of all leaving you preconceptions at home and enjoying all the adventures and misadventures that your “moving  through the world” brings with it.
Abandoning the known, the populated, the touristic, means immersing yourself in a natural reality where the paths sometimes disappear almost completely and where the many animals run away frightened by the human presence they are not used to.
The name Val Gelada does not seem to represent the cold of this place but rather its being hibernated in a time far away from ours. And yet, despite this distance, I feel like I recognize myself more in this place than in the bewildered aspect of that modern life that we are used to desire.
The first pass of our journey gives us the image of Brenta Dolomites reflected in the Serodoli Lake and makes me finally realize how fascinating and challenging this travel will be.
Right here, not many years ago, a real fight took place between environmentalists and an implant company that wanted to expand its ski slopes up here. The same project has been relaunched these days and I wonder if we, new generations of activists, will be able to stop it once again.
I start my descent with the will to fight for the preservation of wild areas and the bitter awareness of how often, in the collective imagination, normality is instead represented by a standardized “development” that does not take into consideration the needs of other forms of life or the importance of places.
So I promise myself to do more, to research more, to inform more. To act more.
And to try not to numb the pain in the soul that, in this moment, far exceeds the one of my legs.

CHAPTER II
“Small and ever-changing”

Our journey towards Brenta Dolomites is fast and lightweight despite the kilometres and the altitude which is not irrelevant.
Crossing the valley, the villages and the tourist flow that in this period invades them makes a strange effect on the still fresh memories of areas so little populated and on the peace that accompanies them.
Unknowingly we accelerate our pace to return to more solitary places, leaving behind the signs of civilization and, perhaps, even ours.
The many trees fallen like toothpicks, blown away by the wind, remind me how little control we can have over life and how our arrogance and carelessness can be swept away in just an instant.
The biggest mistake we make is that we consider ourselves fundamental to this world.
But the reality is that we are not.I know what the mountains represent to me, but in recent years I have been trying to understand what I do represent to them.
If I can in some way repay the meaning they have in my life. If I can repay them for all the emotions that they made me live and the moments that I will carry inside myself forever. I take look at Ale a little worried and then at my dogs who, unaware, throw me some stunned looks.
We got up very early, but we’re still here, still, waiting for the snow to soften, at least a little.
I find myself facing Tuckett full of snow, as I had never seen it before. The upper layer is as hard as my disappoint when I realize we need to change route.
I find it very difficult to understand my lack of feeling towards the “element” with which I have the best confidence and to which, at least for now, I have dedicated my life.
But basically, I think we’re here to cross, to travel and to share, not to go snowboarding.
Responsiveness to change is one of my favorite qualities and the one that fascinates me the most. For us it means retracing our steps for more than a few kilometers, and then going up from another slope. But in the end “to take the wrong road” often means only being willing to reach the same goal through a different and unforeseen route but maybe, who knows, leaner than the one we had planned.

CHAPTER III.
“Ties”

The first light of the day shines on mountain covered with snow behind me, as we cross the valley heading towards our next crossing point. I try not to think about what it would have been like and concentrate on what it will be like, even if it’s not always so easy to move our thoughts in the direction we want.
Going down and then going back up is basically a constant metaphor of life.
I stop to take some pictures and while I watch Ale and the dogs move nimbly in the distance, I really realize the majesty of these places.
I know that this trip would not have been the same without my three companions and I understand  how each day represents an incentive to improve and overcome the unexpected, all together. And if the snow had not stopped us we would not be here now.
Perhaps, after all, it didn’t betray me this time.
I am increasingly aware of the tie that unites the four of us and how we are learning to face many different challenges.
And then gravels, via ferratas and new snow slides, all together, until we arrive smiling and wagging to the Bocca di Brenta.
Beyond the pass there is no more snow but only a lot of fog that leaves in front of our eyes just a few peaks wrapped in nothing.
We take a few minutes to eat and rest knowing that, as in life as when travelling, you need to know how to wait.
Let the “nothing” passing away, convinced of the show that awaits us.
And I realize I’m happy to be here, in front of myself, in front of Ale, in front of Kaya and Maka. Faced with the constant uncertainty of this journey.
Faced with all this nature that falls into my eyes and then descends inside me, deep down.
And that, like rain, cannot be stopped.

CHAPTER IV.
Km. 130
“As water, towards water.”

I look outside the window while hearing lightning and thunder at a short distance from the hut.
I imagine all this water filling the stream that flows a few meters from here, I picture its fast journey inside the narrow canyons of the valley, then down a waterfall and then again, quickly, towards the bottom.
After all at the moment the goal of water is not very different from ours: let it go, quickly, towards the nearest lake.
I know that this imposed waiting will force us to make new trails changes, but I also know that water always finds a way.
I put my feet inside the Garda Lake and my soul is light. Throughout the trip I imagined arriving here and diving.
Instead I am just happy to look at the immensity of water and think again about these last kilometers of plain and warm. About the towns and villages we crossed reconstructing the life of the past with imagination and seeking relief in the shade of some solitary tree or in some fountain, before returning to the woods.
At the last pass I stopped to look at the valley that leads to the lake and to think about how much the known places can change appearance if reached in a different way.
How many places we take for granted by letting them flow away too quickly.
I think we should take back our right to slow down, slow down our life and the places where we live.
I think about this whole journey, about how far away is from home and how many steps we have taken to reach this lake.
I look at Ale, Kaya and Maka, tired and happy, and in this happiness I see all the adventures lived and those still to be lived together.
The last stage of a beautiful journey always brings with it a bitter excitement. Seeing an idea that takes shape knowing at the same time that it will soon vanish again and become a memory.
Because sometimes it all starts with a simple idea, like leaving home and going to the lake.
And it is all about the courage to dedicate yourself to this simple idea, just as simple is to get lost in the adventure.