The protagonists

Methodos - M4810 - I protagonisti

A team composed of 40 people - of all ages, with different exercise habits - on a two-year journey with the goal to conquer the highest European peak.

An endeavour beyond itself, and a journey of mental and physical growth that will push every one of us to a new level of awareness.

Each with their own story and their own experience, but all with the same motivation to start a journey that - no matter what the end point will wind up being - will have been worth taking.

Stay tuned and discover the stories of the Methodos’ protagonists!

M4810 - Alessio Vaccarezza

Alessio Vaccarezza

CEO Methodos Italia

“A journey with a thousand faces and opportunities, to live in the fullness of great challenges.”

It’s the journey that counts. More than the destination.

The journey of discovering places, but above all of discovering ourselves, our own mindset, and the discovery of “us” as a team. The journey of growth and movement of individual and team limits. And the journey of fun beyond fatigue, commitment, and consistency. A journey with a thousand faces and opportunities, to live in the fullness of great challenges, that when I’m old I will proudly recount to my grandkids.

Andrea Balduzzi

Andrea Balduzzi

Senior consultant Methodos Italia

We don’t want to reach a peak without first learning to recognise where it is. We want to learn to take measures, to calculate distances, and to move together in the uncertainty of the predictions and calculations that come before the journey

In the mountains, every place – every point - offers a unique view. Prospective and perception change with every step. The feeling of the walk recreates itself with every instant that passes, and even within ourselves we can feel landscapes relentlessly changing. We find ourselves riding the giant wave of metaphors, in the depths of change in work, organisation, and social dynamics. With every walk and excursion (with every outing – for me the main metaphor of the journey), we try to find the road that teaches us to interpret the world, a way to educate ourselves on how to face the many elements that characterise our life and our work, to manage compositions of elements that often seem incompatible. We don’t want to reach a peak without first learning to recognise where it is. We want to learn to take measures, to calculate distances, and to move together in the uncertainty of the predictions and calculations that come before the journey. We want to make compatible what isn’t, we want to learn to live with all the elements that make up our daily life, as we walk out the door, as we face change. Activation and patience, urgency and suspense, routines and variations, stability and mobility, sprints and crossings… we’ve always known that all these things go together. But now we are learning of new ways, always newer, to experience them and to get through them.

M4810 - Angelo Larocca

Angelo Larocca

Behavioral Designer Digital Attitude

“The mountains are a new world to me, so I choose to face it with a spirit of discovery.”

The mountains are a new world to me, so I choose to face it with a spirit of discovery: of an unexplored environment, of new bonds with my colleagues, and also of my limits. It’s the will to enjoy the landscape from the top, experiencing that absurd feeling of fatigue and euphoria that happens only when you feel like you’ve won a prize.

M4810 - Daniele Cantore

Daniele Cantore

Manager Methodos Italia

“Walking through the clouds and rocks I come to realize that meanings find space, that thoughts find time.”

I don’t consider myself a sea person or a mountain person. I don’t consider myself a place person.

Though, walking through the clouds and rocks I come to realize that meanings find space, that thoughts find time. With each step, I realise that I’m at the highest point that my legs have every brought me. Not by myself, alone, but as part of a team. Lungs of humanity. I enjoy the journey, the breath, and I can’t wait to get there.

M4810 - Diletta Campolattano

Diletta Campolattano

Senior consultant Methodos Italia

"​​​​​​​Today, the will to reach the peak is still abundant, while the awareness of the work and commitment necessary is even more so. The wish to do it with this team is what really motivates me.”"

Whatever the challenge is, I love welcoming it. Like a kid, I can’t immediately see difficulties or limits; at first instance, enthusiasm and energy rule. The same happened with this project, that was made clear and shared from the very beginning but that I didn’t understand fully until I touched it.

The first outing was very revealing in this sense.

It represented a starting point for getting to know the mountains, the altitude, the group and, above all, myself.

That day I didn’t make it to the top, though I made it further than I thought. I managed to go beyond being unaware, beyond the objective, beyond my limit. I reached a different and unexpected destination. And I discovered that “beyond” also thanks to those who were beside me. Today, the will to reach the peak is still abundant, while the awareness of the work and commitment necessary is even more so. The wish to do it with this team is what really motivates me.

M4810 - Elisabetta Peracino

Elisabetta Peracino

Senior Editor Methodos Italia

“Hiking in the mountains is a constant dialogue with yourself and with your body, that is “accompanied” towards the next step, along the path, and up for the climb. Towards the top.”

Every step is the first step. The boots adapt to new terrain every time; the legs accept the challenge every time. Or they refuse it. I stop, I go again. Hiking in the mountains is a constant dialogue with yourself and with your body, that is “accompanied” towards the next step, along the path, and up for the climb. Towards the top.

Hiking in the mountains is learning and listening; the signals of fatigue, the joy of colder air, the cheerfulness of jokes made by our companions. The breath that opens again, once arrived at the top.

Farmin Farzin

Farmin Farzin

Full Stack developer Digital Attitude

When I imagine reaching the top with my coworkers and friends, I get goose bumps. It’s a personal challenge that I want to experience with my team.  

I want to climb the Mont Blanc to prove to myself that I can achieve a goal as difficult as this.

In every climb, there seem to be three phases: the climb and “suffering” with the team, the pride of making it to the top and enjoying the view, and then the joy of going back down together.

When I imagine reaching the top with my coworkers and friends, I get goose bumps. It’s a personal challenge that I want to experience with my team.  

M4810 - Filippo Muzi Falconi

Filippo Muzi Falconi

CEO Methodos Group

“Sharing a common objective – and, moreover, a common way to be - with my team: this, for me, is M4810!”

[+] I’m discovering a new mountain, step by step. The mountain, for me, for 50 years represented a place where I could practice my greatest athletic passions. A white mountain, seen from the top, whose incline represents the main source of pleasure: the descent.

Now, with the M4810 project, I’m discovering, step by step, a new mountain. A colourful mountain, seen from the bottom, whose incline represents the main source of the challenge: the climb.

Two fascinating perspectives.

The confrontation with the new one is the discovery of our resources and prejudices on our own possibilities. The preparation to go beyond, sharing a common objective – and, moreover, a common way to be - with my team: this, for me, is M4810!

M4810 - Giulio Gallana

Giulio Gallana

Managing Partner Methodos Italia

“This trip will influence our way of being and of doing, and it will condition every one of our future decisions. In the mountains every moment counts, and you count in every moment.”

This trip will influence our way of being and of doing, and it will condition every one of our future decisions. In the mountains every moment counts, and you count in every moment. Preparing ourselves to face this journey means finding the right individual conditions to build a truly PREPARED AND TRAINED team to guide our organization in favourable, unfavourable, and complex situations.

M4810 - Lara Pontarelli

Lara Pontarelli

Manager Methodos Italia

“Step by step, look at your journey. Don’t be afraid of the distance – you’ll make it. Dose your energy based on the time that it takes. The challenge is understanding in advance what you’ll be facing.”

Hanging from a chain at 3100 metres in height, I see the world from above. I try to take a picture of everything in my head so that I can share it with others as soon as we catch our breath… I can’t do it! So, I’ll do it in my heart! Step by step, look at your journey. Don’t be afraid of the distance – you’ll make it. Dose your energy based on the time that it takes. The challenge is understanding in advance what you’ll be facing. “Here” and “Now” are the names of our legs, as Viola would say. “Angelo, will we get there?” “Yes, of course!” “Lara, I had no doubt!” “Thanks for the faith Giulia, I did, though…”

I’ll leave the comparisons to work to my colleagues: for now, I’ll just bask in my emotions!

M4810 - Livia Piermattei

Livia Piermattei

Managing Partner Methodos Italia

“I decided to change in the mountains. To go slow and to enjoy the journey.”

My – our - life is always on the run, always moving from one place to the next. I decided to change in the mountains.

To go slow and to enjoy the journey, the people, the silence and the breaths, the flowers, the landscape, the joy of helping each other without a rush, the small steps, one behind the other, that without force and in harmony can bring you anywhere.

M4810 - Marco Lecci

Marco Lecci

Senior Consultant Methodos Italia

“The distance between the sea that lives in my heart and the peak that guides my eyes doesn’t scare me.”

The distance between the sea that lives in my heart and the peak that guides my eyes doesn’t scare me. Then there is the step, the hand, the soul. This other is me. Together we fill the space that I can’t on my own. The journey is not a solitary one – it can’t be. There’s not a step that doesn’t leave a mark and that doesn’t long for another’s footprint. The path is beaten in unison.

M4810 - Maria Vittoria Mazzarini

Maria Vittoria Mazzarini

Senior Consultant Methodos Italia

“Going to the mountains, to me, means overcoming myself. It’s a journey that goes beyond the boundaries of the mind even before those of the body.”

Going to the mountains, to me, means overcoming myself. It’s a journey that goes beyond the boundaries of the mind even before those of the body. Climbing means going deep inside myself, in tight contact with resistances and with my limits. Each outing is a challenge of its own that becomes beautiful and meaningful when experienced with colleagues. I never would have thought that I’d be part of such an ambitious goal.

Martina Danda

Manager Methodos Italia

“Every time that I walk in the mountains my heart beats to a different rhythm, my breath gets deeper, my eyes get filled with colour and wonder, my thoughts are lifted higher… and I feel complete.”

The mountains, this ancestral home… Every time that I walk in the mountains my heart beats to a different rhythm, my breath gets deeper, my eyes get filled with colour and wonder, my thoughts are lifted higher… and I feel complete.

The mountains push us to measure ourselves against our own certainties and fears, with our beautiful human fragility. When facing the mountains, we are naked like in the very beginning, and for this reason it’s home like nowhere else.

M4810 - Matteo Barone

Matteo Barone

Managing Partner Methodos Italia

“I learned from Bonatti that those who jump higher see further, and those who see further, dream bigger”

From the mountains I learned: from Whymper, that courage and vigour don’t matter without prudence; from Levinas, that never like in the mountains would I feel absolutely held on to; from Terray, that we conquer the useless; from De Luca, that a peak that is reached is the border between the finite and the limitless; from Corona, that from the peak you can’t go anywhere, you can only get down; form Goethe, that the mountains are mute teachers for silent disciples; from Bonatti, that those who jump higher see further, and those who see further, dream bigger; from Casarotto, that in our backpacks we carry only ourselves, through good or bad; from Cassin, that a light backpack (and heart) makes for a quick climber; from Baxter Jones, that in the mountains you must be healthy, you must be friends, and you must reach the top: in this precise order; from Messner, that on the peak you shouldn’t leave anything if only your footprints, that the wind will soon take away.

M4810 - Max Brogliato

Max Brogliato

Senior Experience Consultant Methodos Italia

"Doing something together, experimenting with our own limits outside of the work environment - sharing it enriches us personal and collectively. Bringing people closer to the austere magic of the mountains is not easy - but it can be done."

This beautiful gift that the company is giving us is a unique opportunity. Doing something together, experimenting with our own limits outside of the work environment - sharing it enriches us personally and collectively. Bringing people closer to the austere magic of the mountains is not easy - but it can be done.

“Walking” is something I really like, following the beat of my heart with my steps, looking around and “seeing” the path fills me with emotion. I found a beautiful Spanish poem that I’d like to dedicate to you:

Caminante, son tus huellas

el camino y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino,

se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino

y al volver la vista atrás

se ve la senda que nunca

se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante no hay camino

sino estrellas en la mar

M4810 - Monica Placanica

Monica Placanica

Manager Experience Methodos Italia

“It’s a discovery of personal limits that I didn’t know I could overcome. It’s a new awareness of thoughts and emotions that I didn’t know I had, and a human experience that – in sharing – turns my travel partners into new friends. Their souls exhibit their true selves simply and naturally.”

Trips change you, trips enrich you, trips surprise you…

For me M4810 is an extraordinary trip that came unexpectedly and that surprises me with every outing.

It’s a discovery of personal limits that I didn’t know I could overcome. It’s a new awareness of thoughts and emotions that I didn’t know I had, and a human experience that – in sharing – turns my travel partners into new friends. Their souls exhibit their true selves simply and naturally.

The thin rope that unites us in this climb is helping us build a memory so extraordinarily unique that it burns all resistance and pushes us to move forward together, always a step further up.

I’ve seen the sky in colours I couldn’t even describe and walls of rock that were never too hard for mountain flowers; I listened to the wind and traced distant slopes with my fingers; I dreamed… I dreamed of reaching another peak to fill my lungs with life and gratitude while my feet, for the first time, were walking a crest of over 300 metres. M4810 is a gift for which I am thankful, because I know I would never have undertaken it on my own.

M4810 - Paolo Fusar Bassini

Paolo Fusar Bassini

Associate Partner Methodos Italia

“Having the possibility to face such an ambitious challenge in the work environment is a valuable opportunity. The mountains, besides being an important and real school of life, provide an unmissable occasion to develop abilities and habits to bring back to our work lives.”

The mountains in my legs, the Dolomites in my heart, this could be the slogan that summarises the passion that I’ve had since I was a kid. I was four years old when my parents brought me to one of the most fascinating places in the Alps: from then on I never stopped going to the mountains, in every season, every year without exception; to live it fully, to smell its scents, to be fascinated by its colours, to learn of new routes that I can discover, to understand the culture and traditions of the people that inhabit them, to try to share with others these emotions, efforts, and pleasures.

Having the possibility to face such an ambitious challenge in the work environment is a valuable opportunity. The mountains, besides being an important and real school of life, provide an unmissable occasion to develop abilities and habits to bring back to our work lives. Finding a new destination, thoroughly studying the map to reach it, understanding the context it exists in, planning the trip or the climb, training constantly, challenging ourselves to reach more relevant goals, instilling the passion for a common objective in other people… these are factors that the mountain environment allows us to experience in a real, strong, and … natural way.  

M4810 - Sabrina Paladini

Sabrina Paladini

Vice President Methodos Group

“I like the idea that my partners on this journey are the same people that I chose to develop a big project with.”

Climbing is a new experience for me, I like the idea that my partners on this journey are the same people that I chose to develop a big project with! When I’m in the mountains everything becomes more authentic, sensations are amplified, and the feeling of being united with my colleagues is stronger.

Sara

Sara Fronda

Senior Editor Methodos Italia

“When Methodos proposed the ascent to the top it seemed like a natural choice to me.”

I’ve never thought of the mountains as my environment of choice. But when Methodos proposed the ascent to the top it seemed like a natural choice to me. I want to be able to tell my sons that I succeeded in the challenge; I want to remind myself that there is no limit to will power; I want to meet the gaze of my climbing partners and be able to say, together, “We did it.”

Valentina P

Valentina Paradiso

Consultant Methodos Italia

The ascent of the team, regardless of the summit we choose, always has the same direction. But at every outing we are those who change...

M4810, for me, is meditation in movement - a form of rediscovery and expression of our potential in which I rediscover myself every time as part of something greater. The ascent of the team, regardless of the summit we choose, always has the same direction. But at every outing we are those who change.

M4810 - Viola Pagnoni

Viola Pagnoni

HR Manager Methodos Italia

“I love nature and I have a deep respect for the mountains, for their beauty and their hidden dangers, and it’s beautiful getting to share everything with my colleagues.”

I love nature and I have a deep respect for the mountains, for their beauty and their hidden dangers, and it’s beautiful getting to share everything with my colleagues. Walking slowly, exploring new environments, places that can only be reached on foot. Discovering that you can do everything thanks to your own physical and mental strength, but above all with the support of friends that walk by your side towards the same objective. I want to enjoy the trail, the sun, the flowers, the nature: appreciating the journey I won’t even feel the effort, and looking back I’ll realise that I’ve already reached my goal.

Violante

Violante Miti

Experience Consultant Methodos Italia

For me M4810 is energy, it is continuous discovery, it is strength and complicity. It is that hand that helps you when you are in difficulty, it is that rope that connects you to your companions when you face new paths, it is the carabiner that gives you security and firmly unites you to your group.

For me M4810 is energy, it is continuous discovery, it is strength and complicity.

It is that hand that helps you when you are in difficulty, it is that rope that connects you to your companions when you face new paths, it is the carabiner that gives you security and firmly unites you to your group.

It is the look of those who reassure you, it is shared effort, it is the desire to always take one more step and overcome one's personal and shared challenges.

It is that look towards the top, it is that force that is released throughout the body to reach, together, the goal.

It is the cold wind that caresses your cheeks, it is the sun that warms, it is the deafening silence of nature that welcomes you, it is the crunch of snow and earth at our constant pace.

M4810 is the strength of my group, of my companions, who together face this challenge step by step.

From the mountains I learned respect, to welcome and listen to fatigue, I found the strength and the will to clear my mind to commit myself to reach the goal.

The journey

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Mont Fallère

Methodos - M4810 - Mont Fallère

It is the first peak over 3.000m of our project

Mont Fallère is found in the Grand Combin Alps in the Aosta Valley.

Found between the Gran San Bernardo Valley and the Valdigne, it’s a great introduction to the magical world of the 3000s. Mont Fallère, situated in the heart of the Aosta valley, proposes a 360° panorama of all the Aosta valley peaks. Its layout is not the be underestimated, but overall it doesn’t present great difficulties, even if we need to be really careful in the final part of the ridge.

We go up in two stages: the first day up to the Fallère Hut; the second day we arrive at the summit and then we go down to the valley.

Read the story :)

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Pointe Lechaud

Our first alpinistic climb to a summit

Pointe Léchaud (3.128m) is located along the borderline between Italy (Valle d'Aosta) and France (Savoy).

It is located south of the Col de la Seigne (2.512m) between the Veny Valley and the Savoy Valley of the Glaciers.

We climb in two stages: on the first day we walk from La Visaille to the Elisabetta Soldini Hut (2.195m); on the second day up to the top and back to La Visaille.

From the hut we go up to the Col Chavannes (2.603m); from the hill we have to leave the marked path that begins to descend into the Chavannes valley, following a path on the right that crosses the very steep eastern slope of Mount Lechaud. The trail continues on the right, again not far from the crest of Mount Lechaud and crosses a small valley of stones or snow, reaching the wide basin where the Chavannes Glacier is located. Once we have put on crampons, we set foot on the glacier going diagonally to the left. From this point we gradually turn to the right pointing directly to the top, which can be reached by overcoming some easy rocky steps. What we see is a vast and spectacular panorama on the Italian side of Mont Blanc.

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Vallée Blanche

Methodos - M4810 - Vallée Blanche

Crossing the Gigante glacier towards the Aiguille du Midi

Although it may seems like a "scenic walk", the Vallée Blanche should not be underestimated, as it is an itinerary that involves crossing the Gigante glacier. It is always necessary to be accompanied by an Alpine Guide who knows the itinerary very well and knows how to avoid the dangers.

We go up by cable car to Punta Helbronner (3.462m), we wear harnesses and crampons and we tie ourselves together.

The first section makes us lose altitude and then we start to climb towards the Aiguille du Midi. The last section includes the ascent of the snow-covered ridge of the Aiguille du Midi, reaching 3.842m.

The return is with the panoramic cable car which takes us back to Punta Helbronner.

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Monte Rosa

Methodos - M4810 - Monte Rosa

2 full-immersion days of technical alpine skill training on Monte Rosa

The Monte Rosa is a mountain range that is found in the Pennine Alps, along the watershed line between Italy (on the border of the Aosta valley and Piedmont) and Switzerland. It gives name to the Monte Rosa Alps supergroup, which in turn is composed of various important groups and subgroups, east of the Cervino and south-east of the Mischabel range. It is the most extended range in the Alps, and second in height after the Mont Blanc. It is the highest mountain in Switzerland and the second in Italy, and has the highest average height, containing 9 of the 20 highest peaks of the chain.

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Gran Paradiso

Methodos - M4810 - Gran Paradiso

The Gran Paradiso is the only mountain over 4000m that is fully on Italian territory

The Gran Paradiso is the only mountain over 4000m that is fully on Italian territory. A classic and fascinating climb: after a first part on ice, to be able to reach the peak marked by a statue of the Virgin Mary, you must pass some simple rocky crossings.

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4810

Monte Bianco

Methodos - M4810 - Monte Bianco

Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco in Italian) is a mountain situated in the North-occidental Alps, in the Graian Alp range, on the watershed line between the Aosta valley (val Veny and val Ferret in Italy), and Haute-Savoie (the Arve valley in France), in the territories of Courmayeur and Chamonix, which give name to the Mont Blanc Massif, belonging to the subsection of the Mont Blanc Alps.

It’s 4808,72m (the last official measure was taken September 13, 2017) make it the highest mountain in the Alps, in Italy, in France, and in general in Europe if we exclude the Caucuses. This is why it’s called the King of the Alps. It shared a spot on the list of the highest Seven Summits with Mount Elbrus in the Caucuses.

Primarily granite full of peaks and crests, cut by deep glacial valleys, it is internationally renowned for its climbing and, from a historical point of view, the birth of mountaineering coincides with its first ascent: August 8, 1786.