On April 25th, I was invited to the Trento Film Festival for the presentation of the book Le vie dei sogni, a project bringing together stories of alpinism, exploration, and personal research.
Being featured in this book, and speaking about it in one of the symbolic places of mountain culture, made me reflect on something: today, alpinism no longer belongs only to the mountains.
For a long time, major ascents existed almost exclusively within the world of alpinism itself — specialized magazines, conversations between climbers, mountain festivals. Today, something is changing. More and more often, I see people far from the climbing world becoming interested in stories about exploration, risk, solitude, decision-making under pressure, and personal search.
And maybe the reason is simple: certain experiences, even when lived in extreme environments, speak about something everyone can recognize.
Over the past years, I have spent a lot of time between the Karakoram, Patagonia, and the Alps, living expeditions and climbs that demanded technical preparation, adaptability, and a strong mental component. From the solo ascent of Eternal Flame on the Trango Towers to the rope solo ascent of Riders on the Storm in Patagonia, there were moments when the mountain became much more than just climbing. It became a direct confrontation with limits, fear, and the ability to keep moving even when the sense of control starts to disappear.
But what strikes me more and more is seeing how these stories create connections even outside the mountaineering world. During festivals, talks, and conferences, the questions are often not about the grade of a route or the technical details of an ascent. Instead, they are about uncertainty, motivation, freedom, failure, responsibility, and vision.
I believe that today people are not only searching for achievement.
They are searching for authenticity.
We live in a time where many narratives are built to appear perfect, fast, and simplified. Alpinism, on the other hand, still carries something deeply real. You cannot truly fake it when you are alone on a wall in the middle of a storm, making important decisions while exhausted, cold, and far away from everything. And perhaps it is exactly this dimension of truth that continues to attract people.
That is why I believe events like the Trento Film Festival still have such an important value. They are not only places to show films or talk about expeditions. They are spaces where exploration continues to generate questions, ideas, and connections between different worlds.
In the end, the mountain remains the starting point.
But some stories manage to go far beyond the mountain itself.
Credits photos: Trento Film festival / Cristian Baldessari / Liber Menendez
