The Pill Outdoor Guide FW22

EDITO

REDIVIVO MONS
The restored mountain


“Revenant” does not only mean “returned to life”, but “restored”, “renewed”.

After a fall on skis there are two ways, roughly, to deal with it: get up or stay like that until you choke with your face into the snow. Out of survival instinct, most of us, with more or less hesitation, choose the first option anyway. However, one important thing is often missing: the how. How do we put ourselves together? How do we start again?

You will forgive if I try to compare skiing with philosophy. Also because in the end, a bit of everything you do when you think is philosophy. And when you ski, you think. As you climb up on a slope, huffing and panting, recalling your innermost thoughts, it can happen that a short circuit of synapses creates unexpected connections. I will speak, with simplicity, of three great works that touch each one of us: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Nietzsche, “The Revenant” by Iñárritu and “Covid19” by all of humanity. They seem complex, but they mirror us. And they aren’t that complex anyway.

“The good savage is good by nature” this is what the Enlightenment thought argues. Nietzsche, on the other hand, tells us that the cruelty found in nature is the same as the one found in rational man. In the wild lands proposed in The Revenant, precisely, we cannot save ourselves from cruelty because it is nature itself: devoid of any morality because it only knows survival. If we translate the concept to the mountains, thinking of avalanches that swallow bodies and things and those furious storms, I find Nietzsche’s thought more fitting. Nature is cruel. Lovable I agree, but cruel. Finally, irresistible.

In a succession of cruelty, as proposed by Iñárritu in The Revenant, the confrontation with the current situation seems inevitable to me, not only on the high peaks. Not just into the wild. In the realities described first by the philosopher and then by the director, cruelty pervades everything and reappears in an eternal grueling return. Like the waves of the pandemic. Like the tragic events in the mountains that we remove in self-defense.

Tiredness derives from the repetition of cruelty, of violence, of pain that since the dawn of time has taken its role on the stage of life. “The little man returns eternally” wrote Nietzsche. Here a choice must take place. The “little man” for the philosopher is the one who lets himself be overwhelmed by cruelty, who surrenders to compassion rather than making something great out of it. As on the red seats of a theatre, seduced by the movie made famous by the golden award of DiCaprio, even in the face of the pandemic, as well as the fury of the mountains, we have been reduced to mere spectators of suffering because we are too small to bear with it. Here are the “little men”. Here is the dilemma: are we satisfied with compassion? Is judgment enough for us? Or do we prefer, in the face of all cruelty, to be able to collect ourselves, to take our fragmented selves into our hands, to be able to recompose something?

Chiara Guglielmina

What will you find Outdoor Guide? 

Ski
At the end of the 2021 season, we made a 2-day test: our crew of skiers tested and reviewed the best skis of the season, from Touring to Freeriding. In this section there is our selection of the best skis of the season.

Boots & Bindings
It wasn’t enough for us to test the skis, we wanted to go deeper by reviewing the best boots and bindings on the market. There are many interesting new features, especially in terms of weight and performance.

Mountaineering & Hiking Shoes
Unquestionably, we’re all waiting for the snow, to put our poles (and ourselves) to the test, but winter is also Moutaineering and Hiking, where the word exploration takes center stage.

Trail Running Shoes
If for many winter means dust and snow, for others like our Head Tester Filippo Caon winter means frozen feet and marble tendons. That’s why we tested the best winter trail shoes for you.

Clothing
We talk a lot about tools and technique, but if our asses are wet and cold our day is over. That’s why we’ve selected the most interesting products, with an eye to style (after all, we’re still The Pill).

Backpack
Not just for putting sandwiches and beer in, the latest generation of backpacks aim to be so much more. Small footprint for big space, inside it fits everything you need for your adventure. But which one should you choose? We’ll help you.

Expedition
Sleeping in a tent in winter? Many would advise against it, but the new generation of tents and sleeping bags allow you to get by just fine even when it’s “a little bit cold” outside.

Equipment
Artva, shovels, probes, picoes, goggles, headlamps, etc.etc. Easy to get lost in a section as big as important. We have made a careful selection of essential products for your outings.