Peter Moser Aurai BY M A R TA M A N ZO N I
PHOTOS BY ROBERTO DE PELLEGRIN
Aurai, from pre-Latine "Aur", a grassy area around waters, from which comes Lagorai.
The first thing I understand about Peter Moser is that for Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and the elite of Silicon Valley, Peter Moser, simply does not exist. No trace of him on the World Wide Web. Today's revolutionaries don't have social media. The second thing I understand about Peter Moser is that he loves Lagorai as much as I do. Except that he, one of the best Mountain Guides in the area, knows it like the back of his hand. “There is Cima d’Asta, my kingdom. Behind there is the farm where I live, lost in the mountains” he tells me, pointing to the summit located between the Tesino Plateau, the Valsugana and the Vanoi Valley. In February 2020, before the world stopped, Peter Moser, the irreducible, linked all the peaks of more than thousand meters of the Lagorai-Cima d'Asta chain. Crests at the edge of the sky, steep and very exposed slopes, technical swooping descents, unpublished ski mountaineering routes. Every day he covered more than six/seven thousand meters in altitude, climbing crests strictly in alpine style, light and essential. "I only had a little water and a few peanuts with me, which I often didn't even eat. I didn't have a set time, I didn't
care about the record, it was just an excuse to be out in my environment. I knew that I would have to adapt to the conditions I found at high altitude, navigating by sight. The program was just an idea. In the end, however, it took me fourteen days”. A journey of exploration of the soul and uncontaminated nature. As adventure companions, deer, eagles, chamois and wolves. The snow under the feet, the wind in the hair, looking at the horizon and, in the ears, the sound of breath. “I am very jealous of my home mountains. Lagorai is the last wild outpost of Trentino, far from the tourism spotlight, and I want it to remain as it is. It is unique and it has a priceless value. It is a no man's land. Its origin is volcanic, if you look at it from above it is made up of huge ridges that line up as far as the eye can see. Here the only resort is the Cermis and there is only one road, closed in winter. For the most part it is not even a Natural Park, if you think about it it is indicative: it means that are the mountaineers who have preserved it intact, the same as millennia of years ago". An eagle dances at the zenith, circling curiously above our heads. It is the only friend we would meet
56
during the day. It seems that humanity has never existed here. “I move in silence, as an animal, following my own instinct. The mountain must not notice my passage. If I notice footprints of a wolf, I go the other way, in order to not to interfere. I'm even sorry to leave my mark on the snow. I dive into the mountains and become part of them. Do you think that if there had been thirty other people with us, today would have been such a special day anyway?” The question, of course, is rhetorical. And it is impossible not to agree with the implicit answer. “The mountains are not for everyone. I know I'm selfish, but that's the way it is. It takes a gradual, respectful approach. If I find that a person does not share my values, I prefer to avoid that company. I happened to say no to a client who had offered me a large amount of money to climb three classic Northern Alps because I realized that he was just a collector”. Peter Moser, South Tyrolean roots written in the surname, a son of an artist of the mountains, self-taught. Improvising is his mantra. “My family is made of farmers, I have no mountaineering relatives. At first, it was the simple consequence of a re-
