In summer, when the road pass connecting Italy and Switzerland is open, the locality Montesplugapart of the municipality of Madesimo in the province of Sondrio, it is a crossing point for many tourists. In winter, the scenery changes completely. The valley, outlined by the Stuetta dam, is almost uninhabited. Only silence reigns. The landscape is completely whitewashed, snow is still a certainty here, but there are no lifts. The hand of man is not transformative, but rather exploratory. That’s why Montespluga proved to be the perfect place for Homelanda project dedicated to the mountain to be experienced in its purest formdesigned by Thomas LuzzanaCEO and founder of the Spiagames agency.
Who wants to practice ski touring at all levels, go with the snowshoes or with the splitboards (the snowboard also designed for climbing) can come here, rent the equipment, take safety training courses and go on excursions together with the Alpine guides of Mountain 360. A more aware way of experiencing the mountains, respecting of welcoming nature.
The experience with Homeland is the choice to abandon some comforts to reawaken the sense of wonder that exists in us. «Who didn’t grow up exploring the woods or the mountains behind the house, with the total freedom and light-heartedness that when you are focused only on discovery? Homeland is not just sport, it is this state of mind. This spirit brings together all the people who have a passion in common, which is not the mountain, but his soul. The Homeland project was created to revive these emotions that each of us preciously cherishes, from the most expert to the least expert sportsman». Thomas explains.
Homeland’s heated hub.
Samuel ConforfolaHomeland motivates to think about winter sports in a different way. Thomas calls him human powered, that is, oriented towards climbing with one’s own strength, enjoying direct contact with nature. Fun is opposed to performance, the freedom to the already defined tracks, the awareness to be experienced by lifts and descents. All of this right in Montespluga, on whose history rests the construction and then the abandonment of cableways, and is therefore a symbol of the failure of the old way of thinking about the mountains.
In mountain lessons
But what do you do on the weekend with Homeland? The first thing – after having rented skis, skins, boots, backpacks with airbags and a safety kit consisting of a shovel, probe and Artva – is to follow the safety camp the course to go to the mountains in safety held by Nicola Ciapponi, ski instructor and mountain guide of Mountain 360. Theory and practice to understand the winds, the type of snow, the slope, the danger of avalanches and to know how to deal with an emergency.
Any place can be home
The base camp
Samuel ConforfolaFor the evening we mounted a real base camp in the valley that opens from Montespluga. We installed the single-person tents that we would light up in the evening with head torches. On the floor, a mattress that insulates you from the cold and to sleep, you slip into a thermal sleeping bag. This is the Homeland Night Experience, always available on weekends by reservation. For someone it could be an extreme experience to try in winter, but it is the activity that best sums up the journey: enjoying the beauty of the landscape in which you are immersed, and the sense of wonder that gradually awakens. Because it is when you experience the mountain in its purity that you explore inside and outside yourself.
In the morning, we are ready to go up the slopes of the Spluga following the sun’s rays. And after a dose of healthy effort, we look at the valley, white and immaculate. We go down leaving our track in the fresh snow. But how did we get off already? In the face of beauty, time is always an internal state.
Is ski touring the future of winter sports?
Does this approach to the mountains represent a more sustainable future? Without a doubt, since the pandemic, ski mountaineering has been a discovery for many. The feeling of having reached the
will the summit without the support of the ski lifts become an aspiration for many? Many experts hope and predict that in the coming years there will be more and more ski mountaineering routes on pre-established routes. And that there will be more and more places where it will be possible to try this discipline freely but in a controlled and peaceful context: in practice, in ski resorts, but without lifts. Do you want to prepare yourself for this future? Put Montespluga on the map, at the top of Valchiavenna, where the mountain is still silent and nights under the stars.
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Source: Vanity Fair

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