The Tête Entre Deux Sauts isn't the highest mountain nearby Courmayeur. As a matter of fact, Mont Blanc (located next to that Italian town) is more than 4800 metres high, whereas the Tête Entre Deux Sauts measures 'only' 2729 metres.
But the most important thing to remember at that moment was I had organized the trip, although I wasn't the guide. I had found a young man who was quite an expert with the path, and he was going to guide the team. We were five people: the guide, me, another priest (who was helping, as me, the parish priest in that town) and a friend I had met for the first time the year before and, by chance, was visiting the area. By the way, also the parish priest wanted to go with us, but he couldn't make the whole trip: somebody had to stay in the parish! He prefered to go with us for a little while and to return to the parish early, giving us a 'day-off'.
As soon as we started to walk, I felt I couldn't finish the trip. I've never had a sporting spirit, and during the last three summer I'd spent at Courmayeur, I'd never been enthusiastic about climbing a mountain. To tell you the truth, besides my pathetic physical condition, the path was a little boring. We had the big mountains behind us, and in front of us there was only a green field. Basically, nothing interesting at all.
We arrived at Bonatti shelter, a welcoming place, and we drunk some mountain water there. I was not very sure of continuing, but, after all, I had organized the trip, so, I couldn't leave my companions there. Then, I caught my breath and we moved again.
The big mountains disappeared as we turned to the right. In front of us, there was something a bit like an old lecture hall, a huge but eroded mountainside, where a lot of rocks had fallen down I don't know how many years ago. Behind us, the blue sky was only outlined by some wild slopes.
We followed a path wich became more and more sheer. My friend that I'd met the year before decided to stop and to wait for us while we were going to the summit of the mountain. For a little while, I didn't agree with my team mates about leaving him there. But it needed to reach te summit: I had oranized the trip, so, I had to achieve the goal.
The path got more vertical. Every minute seemed an hour, and every breath the last. The summit was still far from me, but I continued. The wild wind, the hot weather and the dangerous stones on the path made everything more difficult. But we arrived at the summit. And everything changed.
Mont Blanc rose more majesticly and far away, more attractive and violent that I'd ever seen it. I wanted to shout and be still and I think my friends, too. It was a brief moment full of different feelings and I was completely content.
After we had taken some pictures, we started to go back down. Where we had left my friend, a group of cows were walking. We ran towards them (my friend, prudently, had moved to another place) and -again- we took some pictures. We sat on the rocks and had lunch.
While we was descending, I thought about the things we had just experienced. On the one hand, I had organized a trip and it was going in the right way. But, on the other hand, the reward had been bigger tha the effort I'd made. The superb scenary I'd enjoyed deserved to be seen. The memory of such wild landscape caused, in my soul, the wish of going higher, of seeing the others sides of the same mountains, of discovering the hidden wonders in their valleys.
That night, I was happy because my friends had enjoyed the hike. But I was happier still because I'd 'fallen in love' with the mountains.
Going trekking became a wish, despite my bad physical condition, and, as you can immagine, the mountains are not only these mountains, because, if I looked for a real mountain near to my city, I would have to travel about 1000 km. Since the day I climbed the Tête Entre Deux Sauts I have been thinking about other kind of mountains, near to us everyday and, like Mont Blanc when we turned right on the path, they're probably not visible -but they are there, and deserve our efforts. They will give us a deeper happiness than we can immagine.-
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