MOUNTAIN GUIDE
SILVESTRO
FRANCHINI

Thanks to the teachings I received from the mountains, I created the concept of STYLE-MINIMAL-ANIMAL that tells my way of living life and going to the mountains:

• animal because I aspire to the naturalness of movement that belongs to wild animals, always at ease in the environment around them.

• minimal because I aspire to eliminate everything superfluous to bring only the essentials with me.

 

Mountaineering practiced with constancy and dedication becomes a lifestyle.
Mountaineering becomes a school that teaches you to respect nature, to be tidy, to keep yourself healthy to have a body that is always ready and efficient, mountaineering has taught me the importance of having a style.
It is not possible to say who the best mountaineer is, there are too many variables that nature offers and the styles that a mountaineer can choose to tackle a mountain are too many and varied.
Style is instrumental in decreeing the success or failure of an ascension.
Each mountaineer chooses a style based on the conditions of him and the mountain, based on his abilities, and on his financial and material availability.
The serious mountaineer has the honesty and humility in stating what style he used in making a certain ascension.
In my mountaineering career I have tried different styles and over the years I have understood how I like to tackle the mountains.
Over the years our level has risen and we have begun to tackle increasingly challenging routes, first on rock and then on ice and mixed.
The more difficult the wall is and the more it needs technical means to climb, in tackling a very demanding ice and mixed route I realized how heavy my harness was to the point that I was falling from how much material was attached to it.
That day I was armed with steel ice axes and crampons, ice and rock bolts, carabiners and friends to fit into the cracks, I was so charged that it was impossible for me to move with ease on the wall without counting the pain in facing the approach and the descent with a backpack loaded beyond belief.
Not to mention the length of the preparations for the material required for such an ascension.
More or less in the same period I felt the thrill of facing a less difficult wall but with less equipment.
In mountaineering, the less material and technical means are used, the more pure, better and more daring the style is.
Moving in the mountains on vertical walls with the equipment that is usually used for a simple walk put me in contact with nature much more than tackling a very difficult route with a lot of material and gave me much more satisfaction.
With this style I faced one of my longest days in the mountains and of which I am most proud, my concatenation of the Brenta skyline, a line that I created with my imagination and imagination in which 16 mountains alternate, to climb them I traveled about 4000 meters of difference in height uphill facing climbing difficulties up to the VI °, all this in 16 hours.
Carrying during this day and in its preparation are the bare minimum I felt like an animal in its natural environment, I did not even want to bring rock shoes, chamois do not need to stop and change the hooves when the wall they face it rears up, if the wall becomes too difficult they change their itinerary by crossing the wall and finding a variant that they can climb safely and without falling.
I didn't even want to bring the Chalk to leave no sign of my passage.
However, I cannot afford to face the mountains naked, over the years I have learned to bring the minimum that also guarantees you the safety in facing some unexpected, and that allows you to move independently, without the need for assistance and external help.
This is the way I prefer to move in the mountains.
During one of these climbs, nature suggested to me the term that ideally describes this way of facing life: #STYLEMINIMALEANIMALE
In minimal-animal style today we can cover all the classic mountain itineraries, alone or with some climbing partner, the rope and the material will only be needed for safety, we will not rely on the material to overcome the challenging passages, but it will be our ability and lightness that will allow us to overcome difficulties.
This way of acting in the mountains pushed me to bring these values ​​into my everyday life.
When I get ready for a trip or a trip I try to bring only the essentials and when furnishing my home I try not to have anything superfluous.
This translates into order, time saving, efficiency and effectiveness qualities that happen to be found in all good mountaineers but which are also convenient in everyday life.
The pants and shoes I choose must fit on several occasions so that I don't have to choose which ones are best to wear, the animal is comfortable everywhere and if something makes it difficult it adapts, if it feels a bit cold it can stand it how she can handle a bit of heat without the need to undress.
So nothing will ever be perfect in every circumstance and occasion, the only perfect thing we are not but not for others, each of us is the perfect being for himself.
With the minimal-animal style I pursue the goal of being at ease in every situation, nothing I carry with me must be bulky but at the same time the bare minimum will always be with me.
I try to bring the minimal animal style with me even when I'm not in nature.
The first few times I traveled I had too many things with me, feeling cumbersome and slow, if you have too many things you risk not finding the ones you need and being messy, now to feel at ease in the airport and on the plane I have learned what I have to and what not to bring with me, my pants must have pockets to have ready access to airfare and passport, another pocket for money and smartphone an e-book and a charger is all I need and I carry with me.
If I travel by bus in addition to this I also bring water with me.
At home I try to eliminate all the superfluous, I orient my purchases on durable and quality products, the more things you have and the more doubts arise about what and should and should not be used, the more things you have and the more physical spaces are lost and temporal.
Living minimal means having more time for yourself.
An animal in its habitat never seems out of place, it always knows what to do and always appears at ease.
I have these characteristics in mind and I want to make them become a lifestyle not when I move in the mountains but to bring them into everyday life.