Mattia Bertoncini: “È una faccenda umile la corsa”

We persist in looking for a motivation at any cost, in the strenuous search for a universal explanation. It is often the simplest answer that hides the truth.

“Sir, why are you running? Are you doing this for world peace? Are you doing this for women’s right? Or for the environment? Or for animals?”

“I just felt like running.” said Forrest.

“They couldn’t believe that one could run so fast, for no particular reason” he added.

In this dialogue taken from the famous movie Forrest Gump by Robert Zemeckis, there’s an example of a man capable of extraordinary undertakings, without forced motivations to justify the purpose, the only thing that counts for him stands out strongly: his will.

Today I have the feeling that intention is no longer a sufficient reason to move us. There seems to be a higher purpose, at any cost. As if the elegance of the alternating movement of legs and arms were not enough for running. Forrest ran because he wanted to run. And there is nothing stupid about this. On the contrary, in the obsessive search for a purpose at all costs, I find nonsense. And a little bit of sadness. A man with physical disability and low intelligence was the character played by Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. Mattia is in no way inferior to anyone, but he is full of that simplicity that too often, today, I am unable to find.

I know Mattia first of all because he is from Valsesia. Then also because of his silent fame that precedes him. A hard worker: he runs a lot, he says little, he thinks well. He never speaks without thinking, his running has taught him that it is better to save oxygen for his legs. In Valsesia, especially if you venture under the largest massif of the Alps, it may happen that something remains in your heart. For me, every time, it is a lesson to remember. Here it all begins at low altitude, between green woods and easy trails. You pass through pastures and a cows, shelters and tourists in order to arrive on expanses of granite rock. Up there there is almost no one, some beaks, chamois if you are lucky and a few expert climbers. Beyond, just a wall of ice and stone: deep crevasses, hanging seracs and unstable rocks await those who set the summit of Monte Rosa as their destination.

With Mattia I went on a trek right there, where what begins as a narrow green tongue then opens onto a glacial basin guarded by Punta Giordani, the Pyramid Vincent, Punta Parrot and again by the noble Punta Gnifetti.

– The excursion may have ended before of what you will read, but in these days let my imagination fly, it’s all I have left. –

“In the mountains, everyone has their own environment. Beyond the green of the mountains, there is a hole left by an asteroid, with the rubble still moving: it is the place for a few people. This is the basin of the Piode Glacier. A refuge before the climb. A shelter among the giants.
”

Mattia told me a lot of stories, moving like the landscape. In the green of the trees, on the trail walked by many people, he remained on the surface. Shyly he began to tell me about himself: “I’m Mattia Bertoncini and I live in Valsesia. Before running, I fell in love with the mountains. My grandparents have always had animals and my mom used to take me up there, among cows and goats, when I was just forty days old. From when I was a child until I was seventeen my summers were in the pastures, when I was not at school I was there. I liked to live as a breeder, a shepherd.” This is the 1500 meters’ Mattia.

Mattia is almost as small as me. My difficulty in following in his footsteps is not justified by my short legs this time. We gain altitude quickly, approaching the first mountain pastures and he, who probably feels more at ease, continues: “The passion for the mountains understood as exploration, as a discovery through the journey, was passed on to me by my father who was an alpinist.”

In the tone of his voice, as the green begins to mix with the first boulders of gneiss, I can perceive excitement. Mattia’s story goes up with us.

“My father climbed many peaks when he was young. I was eleven when he first took me to Gnifetti, Tagliaferro and Corno Bianco.”

Challenging Valsesia’s classics climbs for expert hikers, often with passages on ropes. In short, not that bad for an eleven years old.

He bends down to tie a shoe and with a spontaneous movement he passes his fingers on the rock still wet with as if to thank it: “Probably from those little big climbs with dad I realized that those spaces belonged to me.”

I have the impression of starting to feel more present Mattia at high altitudes. I let him go on while we leave the last refuge behind us before the big hole: Barba Ferrero. The last outpost before the granite and glacial amphitheater that awaits us.

In the mountains there is a well-marked watershed between the lowlands and the highlands. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. An invisible barrier that can be misleading. It is generally located above 2500 meters, but there is no precise rule. Like the famous Dante’s gate, beyond which only “the lost people” are.

In my mind Mattia, as Virgil, explains to me that from now on I must abandon all suspicion. Only in this way, just like Virgil and Dante, we will be able to enter the secret things, that is, the places separated from the world.

We are exactly on that border line and the sounds change with us too. The distant shouting of the holidaymakers gives way to the ticking of our poles on the hard stone.

Further down, in the green, bees buzz, goats bleat and cows bellow. Up here, in the streaked gray, only a few bellowing in the distance, a roe deer and marmots whistling near and far.

Beyond that, the mountain will probably sing and some hawks, an eagle, perhaps even a bearded vulture, and nothing more will shout. Meanwhile Mattia accelerates his pace without realizing it and his story becomes dense.

“However, I haven’t always run. I started with football, can you believe it? But it didn’t take me long to realize it wasn’t my sport. I have always preferred to take on my responsibilities, for better or for worse. A team sport does not fully allow this. I changed my mind and took part in some cross country races with the school and then I finally started, thanks to athletics, to run.”

I feel that there is still something missing from the story. As if Mattia had found the “what”: running. But not yet the “where”. Meanwhile, we continue to climb and he finally slows down to drink. We are almost in the center of the big hole. The presence of the surrounding walls becomes heavier and heavier, but we are light. Mattia looks around and take a deep breath…

“In the end, the first to really push me was Carluccio Chiara. -Come on, come and run with us! Come and try! – he told me. He has given me a lot and I feel I owe him a lot.” he says closing the water bottle.

“You know…” he goes on almost whispering: “They practiced mountain running.”

That sentence whispered right in the center of the hollow echoes right into the cracks of our mountains and comes back to me. I feel it strong.

I don’t have time to drink because Mattia has already left. The Mattia of 3000 meters. I understand from his footsteps that his real arena is beyond that basin, outside that amphitheater. It is his own stage without spectators. Alone. Up. In the silence of ridges.

As expected, all around me I hear nothing but my panting and our feet stepping on rocking stones. Granite blends with white flows, “our” Rosa welcomes us.

Moreover, the name “rosa”, that means “pink, given to the massif we love so much does not refer to the color of its peaks at dawn. In ancient language it meant “ice”. In truth, it was and is the Ice Mountain.

Towards the exit from the infinite hole, a red parallelepiped shines, it is the Resegotti Hut.

Unexpectedly, just when the fixed ropes begin to face the steepest part of the basin, Mattia adds:

“I grew up a lot in those early years up and down the mountains and all of a sudden, when I was sixteen, I got hooked. I wanted to start running seriously. I realized that I do really well, that I had some potential, perhaps.”

It climbs the final slope with enthusiasm. The fixed ropes become the handrail of the stairs of an apartment building, he knows they are there, but he doesn’t need them. I prefer to enjoy the show from below, letting him perform. Here it is finally: the Mattia of 4000 meters. The sky runner.

In short:

In 2017 Salomon asked him to join its Team: the humble Valsesian shepherd becomes Salomon Ambassador.

In 2018 the first call-up to the Under 23 World Cup from which he will bring home:

– 3° place in Vertical (2018)

– 3° place in Sky Race (2018)

– 2° place in Combined (2018)

– 3° place in Sky Race (2019)