We welcome the young climber from Biella, Matteo Sella, already selected among the emerging talents of the CAI Eagle Team, to the Ferrino athletes' team.
Matteo was born in Biella in 1996, at the foot of the Pennine Alps, descending from a figure that evokes the very origins of Italian mountaineering. The Biellese Quintino Sella was indeed the founder of the Italian Alpine Club, and Vittorio Sella was one of the great fathers of mountain photography, whose black and white images still continue to inspire and enchant mountain enthusiasts today.
Certainly, in the twenty-seven-year-old Matteo's love for climbing, there is also a bit of the legacy of these ancestors, an inheritance that he has embraced since he was a boy, carrying it with him through the many ascents he has made in the Alps and in extra-European mountains, from Patagonia to the Yosemite Valley, passing through the great peaks of the Andes.
Matteo, how did your passion for the mountains begin and when?
My approach to the mountains started from a very young age because my parents and grandparents all loved this environment. We always went skiing every winter and went for walks. Mountains but also the sea... in short, there was a family passion for spending leisure time in nature. It wasn't a sporting approach, but rather a way to be together in beauty. As a child, sports for me was mainly artistic gymnastics, which I practiced competitively for about eight years.
When did your passion for climbing and mountaineering begin?
It was a gradual process. Despite the commitment that gymnastics required of me, I never gave up on going hiking, especially with my father. Slowly, the dream of climbing a 4000-meter peak was born in me. Fueling this dream were mainly the photographs of our ancestor Vittorio Sella, the great mountain photographer from Biella, which were hung around my house everywhere. I was fascinated by the mysterious world of high altitude that those images depicted so wonderfully. Pursuing this dream, at the age of 12, I went with my father to climb Gran Paradiso, and from there things continued, involving me more and more: more climbs at high altitude, then at 16 years old, the first trad climbing on rock in Valle dell’Orco and on Mont Blanc.
So it was a progressive but inexorable approach...
Yes, once I discovered this passion, it never left me. I remember the years of high school when, with a friend a little older than me, who already had a driver's license, we spent every weekend in Valle dell'Orco, climbing in cracks, our great passion.
From Valle dell'Orco, your activity continued with many beautiful climbs in the Alps and also in extra-European mountains. But what type of mountaineering do you like the most, and what terrain suits you best?
Mont Blanc is a perfect example of the terrain I like, namely an environment where altitude is important, and where you need to be able to move both on rock and ice. I like things that require a certain level of commitment, the great traditional routes, trad climbing without bolts, multi-day climbs, in distant places with long approaches... Then, actually, I love everything about the mountains! I like to live them, to be inside them. I am also a paragliding pilot, and I don't necessarily have to climb to savor certain special moments.
Among the various climbs you have done, which ones have been the most significant for you?
That's a difficult question to answer... But certainly, among the climbs that I hold dear to my heart is the Central Pillar of Freney, climbed last summer with my father and brother. Something truly special for us.
What is the experience of being part of the Eagle Team giving you?
A lot on different levels. Meeting the other 15 teammates is certainly an opening to many potential adventures in the future. Then I am growing and learning a lot technically and in terms of my experience. But it's also an experience that is making me reflect a lot, from a more "philosophical" perspective, on the sense of mountaineering today: what are the new frontiers that can be opened? What spaces are left for adventure? Fascinating questions, perhaps without answers, but it's nice to share them with the other guys from the Eagle Team, who share my burning passion.
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