Mountains, mountains, mountains, I love you!

The most famous three words in mountaineering are attributed to a young pipe-smoking alpinist who was considered one of the best of his time.  When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory answered, "Because it's there."  He died on its north face in 1924 and his body was discovered 75 years later.

Another young pipe-smoking alpinist, used five words to describe his climbing motivation: "to feel that pure joy."  Like George Mallory, Giorgio Frassati was well aware of the risks one took going into the mountains.  It wasn't uncommon for him to take out a life-insurance policy before undertaking a particularly challenging climb.

In August of 1923, he reflected on the risk-reward aspect of his passion for the mountains in a letter to his good friend Antonio Severi.  The president of the Catholic mountaineering association, Loretz, had recently fallen to his death before his sister's eyes on the Chateau des Dames - a peak Pier Giorgio scaled without any trouble two years earlier. Contemplating this, he wrote:

"...and so the moral is: when one goes into the mountains one should sort out one’s conscience first, because one never knows if one will return.  But despite all this I’m not afraid and on the contrary I want to climb the mountains more than ever, to conquer the most daring peaks; to feel that pure joy, which one can only have in the mountains."

One of the first facts anyone gets to know about Pier Giorgio is his love for the mountains.  From early childhood, he was going on long excursions with family and friends.  He could stare at the peak of Mount Mucrone from his bedroom window at the summer home in Pollone.  Mountain ranges provided the backdrop for his hometown of Turin.  "Every day that goes by I fall deeply in love with the mountains," he wrote to Severi, "their charm attracts me."  The beauty of his sentiments can make it all too easy to forget the danger that accompanied each of his climbs.

During my stay in Pollone in 2018, I was able to climb nearby Mount Camino with the help of a newly-ordained priest from France.  Pere Marc Adrien had such a devotion to Blessed Frassati that he obtained permission to celebrate Mass in Pollone before beginning his first assignment in the archdiocese of Lyon. Having grown up around mountains, Pere Marc could practically leap from rock to rock.  It was a humbling experience for me to so often have to take his hand on the descent when my knees reached their limit of endurance.

Although it was an overcast day and the view wasn't as clear as we had hoped, we enjoyed the stillness and stopped awhile to listen for the whisper of God.  In the small chapel at the top of the mountain where so many arrive to give thanks and seek protection for the descent, a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes adorned the altar.
Even a climb as simple (for some) and straightforward as the hike to the top of Mount Camino can give you a taste of that pure joy Pier Giorgio said he only had in the mountains.  In those mountains, his mountains, you are beckoned by the same spirit that led him higher and higher in a quest to better hear the voice of God.  Carefully seeking footing on the way down, you are reminded that just one wrong step can have serious consequences. Mallory and Loretz are just two examples.

Notwithstanding the cavalier quote he is known for, it's safe to say that George Mallory was drawn to the mountains for other reasons.  After all, the mountains are more than just there.  They are more even than a metaphor for life.  They are classrooms of contemplation of the Creator.  In this, Giorgio Frassati was one of the best students of his time.  And probably ours.

"I’m always ready because every day I fall in love with the mountains more and more and, if my studies would allow me to do it, I would spend entire days on the mountains contemplating in that pure air the Greatness of the Creator." - Pier Giorgio Frassati

Verso l'alto!   ///cmw