Rolo Garibotti

Argentina

I was born in Italy, but from age 6 lived in Argentina. It was “thanks” to a military dictatorship that my parents moved away from the large cities in the plain to Bariloche, a mountain town in northern Patagonia. It was there where some years later I developed my passion for the mountains and where, one day, I hope to enjoy my old age.

Because I traveled so much when I was young, and felt somewhat “lost,"  I now give a lot of importance to feeling a sense of belonging. This is why I have not been geographically creative with my climbing, returning repeatedly to southern Patagonia, unable to pour my heart in a different direction. In the last decade that attachment has turned me away from climbing at times, spending countless hours fighting against “progress," doing volunteer trail projects and other. Today it is those projects that keep my intellectually alive, but physically and spiritually I still need to feel the cold, to feel tired, to feel the rawness of it all.

Richness is directly related to the ability to focus, the ability to shed the distractions that abound and concentrate on one single space. It is through that narrowness that I have reached the experiences that have marked me most, and it is thanks to curiosity that I have found the courage to carry through.

Birthday? Born in 1971

Year you first started climbing? 1985

Three climbing achievements you are most proud of? Spending three separate nights on or just below the summit of Cerro Torre.

Story of the first time you ever went climbing? The first time we climbed in a bigger-than-a-crag locale we went up to Frey, in the mountains of Bariloche, Argentina. We had a 30-meter rope, so we could not go far. We asked the hut-keeper what we could do. He sent us to 15-meter tower called "Perfil the Mujer". It wasn't much, but we were more than happy at the top. The elation we felt I have felt very few times since.

Favorite climbing area and why? Frey, in Bariloche Argentina. Great rock in a phenomenal setting, a place where I had countless memorable experiences, both climbing and not. In many ways I grew up there, spending close to 3 months a year between ages 15 to 19.

Best climbing experience? Climbing Aguja Guillaumet in Southern Patagonia at age 15. My partner, 16, and I had very little experience and had quite an epic getting up and down, including two bivies, a non-working stove (we forgot the lighter), cut and lost ropes, frostbite and other. I don't know that I have had any experiences since that have had such a depth of richness, that have involved such a departure from what I had thought possible.

Worst climbing experience? The same as above? ha..., no, actually not, the "worst" climbing experience would have been a boring one, and I have a hard time thinking of any.

What's your dream trip? Where? With who? Anywhere new with reasonable approaches, that has half decent terrain above tree-line will do.  As far as partners, anyone that is keen but not overly eager, someone who can relax and just "be" while waiting for the right weather or conditions.

Guilty pleasure? Tried to look this one up in the dictionary, but still missed the meaning.

BD gear you use every time you go climbing? Pretty much everything, from packs to harness, helmet, hardware, headlamp, tools and other. My favorite BD item is the Camalot .3.

Something that annoys you while climbing? A partner that bemoans when he or she falls off.

Favorite aprés-climb meal? Usually something salty, with real flavors, a pizza, a chiche, something of that sort. Even in climbs as short as three days the freeze-dried dinners, bars and gels get very old very fast.

Favorite climbing flick? Cumbre, Fulvio Mariani's film about Marco Pedrini's first solo of Cerro Torre.

What's in your iPod? My friends' music libraries, but I don't listen to it much, except for rare occasions driving or to "survive" long but overly familiar hikes, like hiking out the Torre valley or down from the Grand Teton.

Strangest place you've ever woken up? After a month long climbing trip to Wadi Rum, Jordan, during the First Gulf war, my partner and I woke up in a beach just outside the Gaza strip, on the Egyptian side, having arrived to the border crossing too late in the day, after it had closed. We were too cheap to pay for a hotel and we were unaware of the danger involved. That morning, after having crossed the border into what at the time was Israeli controlled Gaza we attempted to hike away from the border in hopes of hitchhiking only to get chased down by an irate Israeli officer who must have thought we were the most naïve people on the planet.

Strangest person you've ever woken up with? Myself?

Superstitions? No room for that with an entire family of scientists behind.

What's your dream job? The work we do for "free," for the sake of filling up our heart not our pockets is undoubtedly the most rewarding kind of work.

How are you training when you are not climbing? Been doing a bunch of skiing the last few years and having a ball with it.

If you could steal one thing and not get caught, what would it be? I did enough of that when I was younger and poorer. I will pass.

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive) who would they be? I rather do something active with people rather that socialize with them over a dinner table.

Which would you prefer: power of flight or invisibility? Invisibility for sure, you could have spared America a couple of senseless wars, a large deficit and many other things by taping a few key meetings during the Bush years.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings? Who doesn't?