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Part I of III: Not your typical snowboarder, not your typical mountaineer 
The hardest thing for Emilio this fall might not be the task of climbing and snowboarding down Cho Oyu, but saying good-bye to his wife and three children, “For my wife it is hard, she will need someone to help with the children, but she is very happy for me.” She is also involved in alpinism and a good climber herself, so she knows what this means for Emilio. As for his kids, they’ll get to see him every day when he updates his freeridespirit.com website with news about the day and pictures. After speaking with Emilio, it became clear that he is not your typical mountaineer or your typical snowboarder.“You must remember, I am a snowboarder before a mountaineer” Emilio is especially happy about this expedition because along with having a great partner, Marco Zaffaroni, there will also be another group of snowboarders on Cho Oyu this season. “It will be fun to meet other persons with the same goal…there are many freeride and freestyle boarders who only want to go down, and there are many climbers, but they just want to go up – it is difficult to find people with the same ideas as me.” Epic lines Though there is a language barrier between ExplorersWeb and Emilio, it was not very difficult to understand how Emilio takes perspective on his climb/ride. Not only does snowboarding open up both ascents and descents, but also there are some great lines at 8000 meters. Plus, he likes the challenge that the thin air affords him. When speaking of Cho Oyu, he never failed to mention lines on the mountain itself and on other surrounding peaks. When he looks at a mountain, he sees opportunities for epic descents. Tomorrow Emilio’s thoughts on how snowboarding changes mountaineering and his feelings on oxygen Freeridespirit's Italian Homepage... |