Tamara Lunger at Passione Verticale in Courmayeur

One step after the next, ever upwards, toward the goal. When all is said and done this is what mountain climbing is all about. It’s both simple and fascinating. You set yourself a goal: a summit, a ridge, a path. And set off. To see what's up there. To see what lies beyond. To understand, also, if we’re capable of doing it. To enjoy those days immersed in nature. Discover its silences. Tackle the difficulties and, ultimately, confront ourselves, even our limits. Thoughts are left behind, down in the Valley, so as to breathe, according to the rhythm of one step after the next. And it makes no difference how fast the ascent is: everyone has their own goal, according to their ability and ‘pace’. It’s never easy. It’s hard work getting up there, within the clouds. You always have to reckon with a certain degree of "suffering". Often you need to go well beyond even. Because this is what the mountains are about. This is the seed of mountaineering that provides moments of happiness. That make you deserve to be up there. That allow you to breathe in the thin air.

Tamara Lunger has a special "motor". She’s a real athlete. And she can also bank on her boundless desire to put in the effort needed to reach her goal. Tamara was born in the Dolomites, in South Tyrol, with sweeping views onto the Rosengarten and Latemar. She learned from a young age to be akin with the mountains, to breathe in its air. She’s always been an active sportswoman. Double Italian discus champion. Multiple ski mountaineering champion. She loves toiling hard and has always dreamt about the highest mountains, that tallest in the world. She first climbed in the Himalayas in 2009 and has not stopped since, having discovered her vocation as a high-altitude mountaineer. That of those alpinists who climb the 8000ers, without supplementary oxygen and high altitude porters. That sort of mountaineering that sets huge demands. On the peaks "without air". In 2010 she summited summit of Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain on earth. In 2011 she viewed the world from the 7010m summit of Khan Tengri. In 2012 she climbed the 7547m high Muztagh Ata. Then, in 2014, a dream came true when she summited K2, the most difficult of all eight-thousanders. In doing so she became only the second Italian to succeed after Nives Meroi, only one one of the few women in the world to have reached the legendary 8611m altitude. Last winter Lunger, together with Simone Moro, attempted the winter ascent of Manaslu, the world’s 5th 8000er. Moro - with his extensive Himalayan experience and with three 8000 winter first ascents (Shisha Pangma, Makalu and Gasherbrum II) - certainly didn’t choose to climb with her by chance. Because Tamara has a special “motor”, is in a league of her own. And a truly exceptional love, desire to breathe in the air of those highest summits. That goes well beyond all the suffering and struggles that need enduring to conquer their beauty.

Tamara Lunger will talk about her great love for the mountains and about her climbs on the world’s highest peaks at Passione Verticale, the classic summer event organized by the Municipality of Courmayeur. The meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18 at the Jardin de l'Ange in Courmayeur!


The evening begins at 21,15 and will be transmitted live on: https://livestream.com/courmayeurmontblanc