«Mountaineering pollutes and the Himalayas are a landfill, but I will clean it up»

The mission of the green mountaineer Matteo Della Bordella

Matteo Della Bordella, 39 years old from Varese, lives in the Canavese area with his partner Arianna Colliard.He is a mountaineering academic.Today he tells Repubblica that «going to the mountains is always a compromise between daring and giving up.If you don't dare, you're not going anywhere.But sometimes you can't push yourself any further.You have to know how to give up, know how to calculate.It's one of the most fascinating things about mountaineering."But above all he cares about the environment.Everest is submerged in waste from hundreds of expeditions:Cylinders, tents, abandoned equipment.«I believe in a more natural way of climbing, and that's the one that leaves no traces.I grew up with the idea that the less help and technology you have, the more you value your climb and your experience, which is a direct comparison between you and the mountain.Then, the first time I found the compressor on my head...".

Ropes, helicopters, drills

According to Della Bordella "if you get help from fixed ropes, guides, helicopters, drills... So many mountains have been dirtied over time".But they can be cleaned:«We are doing it with Massimo Faletti, in the Climb&Clean project.It is a transversal movement across the world.We do it on the crags, so as to involve more people.Otherwise it becomes an elitist thing, like the mountains are."Also because young mountaineers are «more extremist than me and my millennial generation, which has a feeling of rejection towards certain practices.A 25 year old already thinks that you don't have to take planes to reach a place.I have my compromise:I burn my share of Co2 on the plane.After all, the Alps are now ruined by cable cars, refuges, helicopters.The Himalayas?It's not in a good place.It is the mountain within everyone's reach, even those who understand nothing, where every means is valid.Luckily only mountaineers go to Patagonia."