Ms Rita Baldo’s passion reminds me of a midsummer night’s dream; risen like an immense dawn among the glaciers of the Stelvio Pass. Born in 1930, Rita has a sweet voice and her eyes are still bright with the memories of snows and glaciers. It was up there, in 1949 that «we left at night, on a truck, and when we reached our destination, it was an incredible snow-field: really amazing. The moon was so huge; I’ve never seen anything quite like that. I was awed by its glare; it was like ‘love at first sight’. And ever since, I never missed even a single mountain excursion organized by the CAI (Italian Alpine Club) of Bolzano! » – Rita tells me. She was born in Trento but her family moved to Bolzano when she was 5.
In love with her man and her mountains. Ms Baldo’s words accompany us while we page through an old photo-album with pictures in black and white, depicting Rita with her friends, and her husband, Mario Casanova, (born in 1923) on the peaks of Trentino South Tyrol. «We used to reach the mountains at night, and then – very early in the morning - we put on our skis and off we went, downhill among glaciers, mountain ranges, the Cevedale – and then off to the Venezia peak for the second descent...
«It all started with a CAI excursion to the Stelvio Pass. We were meant to leave in the evening, to reach Mount Spiriti and Mount Cristallo the next day. I remember I put on my brother’s plus fours and a military windbreaker. Then I saw that moon, the bright snow and I fell in love. It was an instant fascination. The first time I put the skis on, I really enjoyed it … of course, I did fell off a couple of times!»
Rita learnt to ski from Mario, a mountaineering companion who later became her husband. With him, she was never afraid, - she tells me - her eyes still sparkling with love. Mario taught her the snowplough turn and then the Christiania, one of the techniques first used by the Tyrolean ski schools around the 20’s and 30’s. At the end of the 40’s nobody used to own a car; the transfers to the alpine huts in which Mario and Rita took part with their friends were on board trucks; sitting in the cargo box. On a lucky day, they had a tarpaulin to screen themselves against the wind. «Our skis were made of wood - Rita recalls hers were 2.15 m. long – My first pair didn’t even have metal edges, therefore I had to put a lot of strength in it. Also, we had to carry them over the shoulder until the moment to put them on. Of course, we only had one pair of boots, which we used all year round; to ski, we slid the boots into the ski bindings. Our anoraks were made of poplin (or tabbinet)» – which, Rita explains, was a light cotton fabric, thickly woven and stout; it provided perfect protection against the wind and did not make you sweat. It was really cold, skiing on long trousers and a wool jumper, but ski-lifts were rare, so you had to do a lot of hiking and walking, and did warm up along the way. «We even didn’t have any ski gaiters – boldly points out the South Tyrolean alpinist – As far as I can remember, nobody had them and I made my first ski leggings out of an old rubber raincoat».

A bunch of Edelweiss and stars for her wedding bouquet
High mountains, the stage, where Rita and Mario celebrated their wedding on September 23rd 1954: In the pictures we see them wearing ski trousers, a jumper and wool gloves. Rita is happy, a surprise in her hands: The bouquet of Edelweiss her friends picked for her. Her wedding veil – she confesses – was second-hand, borrowed from somebody’s Communion.
It is an experience of times gone by, not only because today Edelweiss are a protected species. Rita and Mario decided to marry up among their beloved mountains after enjoying together one of the most amazing excursions she still remembers today: A summer camp on the Ortles peaks. The group spent two weeks camping, at the foot of the Solda. Almost nothing has stayed the same. Not even the tents «Everyone carried their sheet, - remarks Rita – and we used to clip two together, but usually buttons and buttonholes didn’t match. Then Mario used to take some pine branches, which are flexible, and used them to pin the two sheets. Also our tents had no floor, and we slept on the meadows. When we reached the peak of the Ortles we liked it so much that we decided we’d get married right there, at 3,000 meters. It is still remembered as the most beautiful wedding, also because it was snowing. We had to walk four hours to reach the chapel on the Solda, that’s why some of our friends didn’t come. There were no helicopters in those days! I had taken a bunch of carnations, while our friends carried up a crucifix. We had our wedding breakfast at the Payer mountain refuge, at 3,029 meters. They opened for us that day; the summer season was already over, (they usually closed around mid-September), but we married on 23rd, and the weather was still good. Keep in mind that the carriers were needed for everything; there were no ski-lifts: All we ate and drank had been loaded on their backs, including the firewood for cooking».

A mountain of memories
Rita’s memories of her trekking take us up to the Vajolet Towers, to the Puster Valley, along excursions and camping starting from Bolzano on heavy bikes, a rucksack on the back, along dozens of kilometers of dirt roads. She has crossed the Sandner Pass, up to the Carlo Alberto refuge, slept on the ground, climbed mountains without harness, only heavy hemp ropes. She has conquered Mount Pelmo with her husband and friends, skirted Lake Misurina, crossed the Campolongo Pass and climbed the Marmolada starting from Alba di Canazei, on pistes marked on foot by the Alpini, without groomers or snowcats.
We leaf through the last pictures and a mix of sorrow and regret emerges from Rita’s words: Sorrow for her husband Mario’s death and regret for the changes the mountains have undergone. It’s almost time to go. Rita shows me her membership card of the Compagnia Tigrotti (Tiger Cubs Club) of Bolzano, issued in 1951, where I read “Special bad habit: eternal smile”. Many years have passed, but Rita’s smile is unaltered.

If you wish to see more pictures taken during Rita and Mario’s mountain excursions you can visit the online photo exhibition taken from the Casanova family archive on
http://www.altoadige-suedtirol.it/foto/mostra .php?foto=neve