“The Glacier Caravan”: discovering the Marmolada and the Montasio glacier

When the last chapter of our logbook is published, “The Glacier Caravan” – Legambiente traveling campaign will be finished two days ago.

It was a long journey, full of km, minutes and minutes of filming, gigs and gigs occupied by the photos taken, but what filled this month the most were the reflections, the ideas, the relationships.

Through the eyes of David (photographer by Ephotomedia partner of the Caravan) we experienced excursions, monitoring, moments of denunciation, audio narrations, meetings, but above all the pain of our landscapes.

The disappearance which is characterizing our peaks is in fact the most vivid memory we have of this journey.

26 AUGUST

Ore 5:00
The day started before dawn.
David starts driving towards Milan.
Today is press conference day, and since it is the Lombardy stage, Ephoto hosts the Legambiente team at its headquarters, Superstudio 13, to give place to this final moment of the third stop.

Ore 8:00
We start with the latest setups, our latest jazz playlist playing in the background and a great desire to finally meet in a hug and a chat about this important experience.

Ore 10:00
The final details, the flags symbolizing the caravan and Legambiente, the conference begins.
The data is very strong and the images produced by David even more so.
The Forni Glacier, a former Himalayan glacierprotagonist of these last three days, is honored and greeted to leave for stage number four.
Direction: Canazei.
Departure at approximately 3.30pm.
In the camper, with David, there are Ilenia and Francesca.
The trip in their company, with chatter, music and laughter, passes very quickly, despite the length of the trip.

Arrival: around 11.30pm.

Saying goodbye to Ilenia and Francesca, David heads to the Fedaia refuge, the starting point for the next day’s excursion.
FUN FACT not too FUN: on the way he meets three intrepid deer who cross the road regardless of the danger.

It’s now around 2:00.

4th STAGE MARMOLADA GLACIER

Marmolada: let’s take a step back

27 AUGUST

The alarm goes off at 7:30.
“I get up and finally my gaze falls on the Marmolada” David tells us “a very fascinating and aesthetically powerful mountain”.

Approximately 8:00 am
The first people who will leave for this stage’s excursion arrive.
Coffee and croissants, as usual, and we go up towards the first refuge.

The day is structured into several “stations” where various glaciology experts and professors from the University of Padua explain the glacier and make interventions on the exploitation and speculation we are making of our mountains.

“The Marmolada was definitely the excursion I enjoyed the most” David confesses to us “the pace of the caravan is slower and gave me the opportunity to enjoy the view and study the shots with due calm”.

Ore 14:00
Arrival at the fifth and final location of the excursion.
Shortly thereafter, the weather changes completely, so much so that the entire view is covered in fog in less than 5 minutes.
The caravan packs their backpacks and quickly begins to descend towards the valley. Unfortunately, however, the rain beats their pace.

“This stage on a communication level was very particular.
We couldn’t go up the Marmolada. The mountain has been off limits for rescue and search operations since this year’s accident.
The words of the interviews were thought out and considered to convey a clear and precise message without neglecting the tragedy but without dwelling on it more than necessary.
It was a different and interesting job, trying to talk about the Marmolada from afar by taking a step back” David tells us.

28 AUGUST

On the second day of the excursion the route is more or less the same, with only the people and activities changing.
While on the first day David focused on the landscapes and shots of the glacier, on the second day he preferred to focus on the caravan and the interventions/flash mobs.

The fourth stage is almost over, the following day the traditional press conference to close the stage.
David dedicates himself to editing the video, in which among the fundamental themes, beyond the excursion and the history of this glacier, the use of the mountain and the need to rethink the mountain as an educational tool emerges.

“Personally, I had never really stopped to think about how we are destroying the mountains through systems and exploitation. Only in these days am I truly understanding the urgency of drastically changing habits and the need to reduce the speculation we are making about it” says David.

30 AUGUST
Woke up around 8:00 am.
We set off towards Padua. With David, in the camper, there are Ilenia and Francesca.
Leaving the valley the route takes them towards the Fedaia pass, one of the worst in the Dolomites for braking.
The camper starts to lose control while going downhill: the brakes have overheated and stopped working. After a stop and a long wait with the temperature change, the brakes recover and we set off again.
Arrival in Padua around 3:00 pm.
As scheduled, the visit to the geography museum begins at 4:00 pm and then the scientific aperitif.
The following day the final press conference will also take place at the geography museum, a very important date for the press given the situation on the Marmolada.

5th STAGE MONTASIO GLACIER

The glacier that resists

31 AUGUST

Around 3.30pm departure from Padua towards Malborghetto.

“During the car journey I was moved by looking at the Friulian mountains.
This was perhaps the stage I was most looking forward to”.
Arrival in Malborghetto for dinner time, where they meet Valter, president of the glaciological committee and professor at the Milan-Bicocca University.
Since the next day we expect about 1000 meters of altitude difference, we go to sleep early.

SEPTEMBER 1st

Wake up at 6.30am, departure from Malborghetto at 7.15am.
50 minute journey to get to the starting refuge: the landscapes along the road take our breath away.

Ore 8:30
We expected a lot of people but we definitely found more.
We are a group of about 50 people.
An initial introductory chat and we set off to go to the glacier.
The path in the woods is narrow and slippery and slipping back and forth to take pictures is quite complicated.
After about 3 hours of walking we arrive under the glacier. This is theoretically one of the few glaciers that has not lost glacial mass. The sheltered position, northern exposure and snow avalanches have protected it over the years.

Montasio’s deficit is that, almost entirely, the glacier is covered in debris, the portion of visible ice is, in fact, relatively small.
Translating with images what Vanda and the committee explained was not very easy.

David interviews Vanda and simultaneously the musician begins the salute to the glacier, starting to play the accordion so as to excite everyone.

Once the farewell to the glacier is over, I continue the interviews with Nives Meroi and her husband Romano Benet, Legambiente testimonials and mountaineers who have climbed the 8000 meters.
Finally, there are only a few of us left on the glacier and he manages to enjoy the silence of this mountain for a few moments.
It’s starting to get cold, we go down towards the valley.
A beautiful, interesting day, but also very tiring.

SEPTEMBER 2

Last day of Caravan and nostalgia begins to take over.
We have now started this adventure for 20 days. The sight of these slopes immediately alienated David from the world.

“I have met people who respect the power of these creatures, studying them and knowing them. Without having the presumption of being able to fully understand.
Already feeling at home in distant lands.
Listen to their breathing, their cry. That noise of collapses and crashes on their slopes as if they were crying real tears.
Walking on Ice Age moraines. Feel the weight of time.
Feeling the responsibility to give them credit, to talk about them and pay homage to them as they have done for us and as they still continue to do, fighting with all their strength against an enemy greater than them.
The glaciers are sending out a cry for help, each in their own way, and the possibility of being able to be a witness and spokesperson for this cry is a pride that I will carry inside.
Arriving at the front of these ice giants with out of breath and tired legs. Take a breath, look up and feel alive like them”.

David, one of the strongest moments?

“There were many encounters that stimulated me and enriched me.
The musical performances in the mountains were very touching.
Intimate non-verbal stories that made the souls of those present vibrate. Founding activities of
“La Carovana dei Ghiacciai”, where the mountain is described by experts from the scientific side and artistically interpreted by the invited musicians.
The first musician I met in the caravan, Martin Mayes, an exceptional artist and a person of extraordinary sensitivity.
The music of the saxophonist who greeted and paid homage to the Marmolada was no exception: improvising and experimenting at the mere sight of the queen of glaciers.
Last artist, Paolo Forte, who in front of Montasio gave us his interpretation of the shy glacier that hides among the mountains to protect itself”.

And stories?

“I’ll tell you a couple of them that might interest you.
On the Marmolada I stopped to sleep at the Fedaia pass. Arriving late at night I parked next to a 60s style camper. One of those vehicles that when you see it on the road you think it came out of a film from the past.
As soon as I woke up in the morning, I met the owners. Two elderly gentlemen of about 80 years old, mountain lovers. They had met years and years before right on the slopes of the Marmolada and consolidated their relationship every year by returning to enjoy that view together.
Another particular encounter, the first hotel in Val Veny, like a Wim Wenders film. The hotel staff looked like something out of the “Gran Budapest Hotel”.
Right away you realize that this place has a particular soul and spirituality.
It is not the hotel itself that gives off these sensations, but the people with their experiences and stories.
The owner, a nostalgic mountain man, who upon returning from excursions wanted to see all the photos and videos of that glacier that he had known for 40 years and to which he hadn’t been back for years.
During the last dinner of that stage we begin to chat with the cook. Always up to date on our movements and initiatives. The conversation moves on to his life and he tells us that that is his parents’ hotel.
Open only for two months a year and he is not a chef by profession but works in Rome at the Sacred Rota court.
Not least were the other employees: two foreign girls who had arrived at the hotel for the summer season. They didn’t speak Italian but every time their eyes met they smiled. They were able to move in space completely silently.
Last but not least the hotel guests. Elderly gentlemen on holiday who moved with great difficulty from the TV room to the table under the porticoes. They played cards or sang folk songs accompanied by a diamonica”.

The souvenir you will take with you home?

“I will bring with me an educational and personal growth experience on multiple fronts. Working-wise it was very interesting. Being able to describe a glacier in a dynamic way without falling into the banal, managing to show the critical issues but without taking up or telling only the problems. Finding a meeting point in storytelling between journalism and the aesthetics of these places was the personal challenge of this traveling campaign”.