In October 2016, then-33-year-old Italian Yuri Basilic貌 was hiking across the island of Corsica, France, solo, when he got lost in the fog. Basilic貌 heard a donkey braying in the distance and followed the sounds with the hope of finding the path. Instead, he met three Swedish hikers, who were also lost. As they waited for the weather to improve, they shared a meal, and before parting, one of the Swedes asked Basilic貌, 鈥淒o you know Sentiero Italia?鈥� Basilic貌 had never heard of it.

Sentiero Italia (Trail Italy) once crossed the Alps, ran through the peninsula on top of the Apennines, and jumped over to Sicily and Sardinia: 4,350 miles, crossing six Unesco Heritage sites, and 15 national parks. Basilc貌 became so obsessed with this forgotten trail, traces of which could be found only on some obsolete blogs, that he convinced two of his friends, Giacomo Riccobono and Sara Furlanetto, to walk it all.

鈥淚t was going to be an unusual continuous expedition on one of the world鈥檚 longest trails,鈥� Basilic貌 said.

Sentiero Italia was created in the 1980s by Riccardo Carnovalini, founder of the Sentiero Italia Association, from which the trail got its name, and听, which provided thousands of volunteers for the construction. Carnovalini鈥檚 idea was to create a long-distance trail that crossed the Italian peninsula鈥攕omething like the听Appalachian Trail or the听Pacific Crest Trail. He wanted to show that Italy wasn鈥檛 only about the pope and food, but it was also a stunning country with a strong mountain culture.

鈥淚ts length didn鈥檛 matter because it crossed a variety of extraordinary places,鈥� said Carnovalini. 鈥淚taly has the magic of a continuous landscape change, something not common in other parts of the world.鈥� In 1995, during Cammina Italia, a national event organized by Club Alpino Italiano, Carnovalini walked the trail鈥檚 whole length, with thousands of people joining in at different sections. However, soon after the trip, interest died down and the route was abandoned鈥攗ntil last year.

Basilic貌 and his friends founded a nonprofit organization,听, to help pay for logistics, and after two years of preparation, on May 1, 2019, the crew quit their respective jobs and set off to walk the entire length of that trail. Riccobono, who鈥檚听in charge of Va鈥� Sentiero鈥檚 logistics, said that the expedition鈥檚 goal is to leave a digital footprint of Trail Italy so that it might be accessible to others. With听 a buzzing听, GPS coordinates, and weekly updates, the team is completing what Carnovalini had envisioned 40 years ago.The expedition was initially planned to take place over 14 consecutive months, but harsh winter conditions and COVID-19 forced it to spread out over three years, allowing the team to go home during the coldest听months. They鈥檙e expected to finish the very last mile in September 2021.

Like in the U.S., many Italians fled to the mountains to find relief from the pandemic, and some joined the expedition, tagging along for a few days or more. As the crew walked, more people joined. Thanks to social media, the group grew each week. On certain days, there would be up to 100 people walking along with the Va鈥� Sentiero team.

They published听 about the stops, the schedule, and the difficulty of each section on the website, inviting followers to join the hike. People can sign up on the website, come with local meet-ups, or randomly join the group and start walking with them. One worker at an alpine refuge who hosted the team decided to join the walk and stayed for 2.5 months. So far, about 1,500 people have walked along with the group.

Basilic貌, who thinks of himself as an introvert, was initially nervous about the idea of people he didn鈥檛 know joining the walk. Not to mention the logistical difficulties of leading and managing such large groups. But as the first days went by, he soon realized that the trail was acting as a filter and attracting mostly hikers who loved the mountains as much as he did, and knew how to take care of themselves.

鈥淟ots of friendships and loves were born,鈥� Basilic貌 said. He described the people who joined as the greatest gift of the expedition.

In August 2019, Roberto Cirillo, a 33-year-old market analyst, decided to spend his summer holidays with the group crossing the Alps. 鈥淲alking together was an inestimable treat, and was lots of fun,鈥� said Cirillo, describing the dinners with locals watered with abundant homemade wine. 鈥淲e restored contact with those who live in remote places. We entered tiptoeing, even if we wore boots.鈥�

Costanza Brini, a 27-year-old teacher who walked the trail initially for one week and then rejoined for two more, agrees with Cirillo and warned: 鈥淭his is not an organized vacation.鈥� Autonomy is still the rule, and every participant can decide if they want to spend the night in one of the gyms, refuges, or hotels鈥攐ften freely provided by locals鈥攐r on their own. And it鈥檚 not an easy trail: unexpected high winds in the Apennines, sudden weather changes, an abundance of ticks in the eastern Alps. The Va鈥� Sentiero team initially suffered from inexperience and warned of the psychological challenges of being on the go for several months.

Basilic貌 doesn’t see Va鈥� Sentiero as a super serious expedition, but rather as a means to symbolically unite Italy and bring some economic benefits to remote towns and villages: places like听, a hamlet nestled in the Alps at the border with Switzerland, reachable only by a two-hour hike. In 1933, Codera was home to more than 500 people and today only has a handful of locals.

Va鈥� Sentiero is already bringing some results: followers walk Trail Italy and visit people like Antonio and Stefania, a young couple who decided to open an off-the-beaten-path farm,听, at Laghi di Monticchio.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e an example of a business that could benefit from a revival of the trail through slow, sustainable tourism,鈥� said Riccobono.

In 2019, Centro Alpino Italiano began the renovation of Trail Italy. While the section of the trail that ran through the Alps is marked clearly, the route is hardly signed in southern Italy. However, the hope is that soon enough, the entire path will be marked and connected.

鈥淭his trail lets us look at an unknown part of Italy that conserves an identity that disappeared in the rest of the country,鈥� said Basilic貌.

As the pandemic restricts travel, this journey through breathtaking Italian landscapes forces those who join to rethink how to approach trips and challenges them to move at a slower pace. It鈥檚 relatively easy and straightforward to join the hikers of Va鈥� Sentiero: keep an eye on the website that听just released the听. The expedition resumed in April 2021 and will cross the tip of Italy, explore Sicily, and end in Sardinia in September. Baslic貌 expects that hundreds more will join for the last stretch of the trail, and hopes that thousands more will walk by tapping into the digital footprint they鈥檙e leaving behind.

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In July, Lorenzo Pernigotti, a seasoned mountain climber who has听summited听over 100 peaks in the Alps, scaled听Aiguilles du Diable鈥斺�渄evil鈥檚 horns鈥� in English鈥攁 set of rock towers on one of 11 major high points听in the Mont Blanc massif, which straddles the border of Italy and France. The climb grew more difficult as he and his partner, Davide Iacchini, neared the top. At 13,000 feet, they reached the final leg, where they would climb out of a narrow corridor and onto the jagged ridge.听

Pernigotti, 30, took the lead on听the wall of the corridor, scanning for knobs and crannies where he could place his hands and feet听while bound to his partner by a short length of rope. Above him, he spied a large rock jutting from the wall, like a handle, that he could use to hoist himself up. He pulled on it with one hand, then two, testing to see if it would hold his weight. After a couple of sharp tugs, he hung from it. But as he dangled there, the rock gave way.听It slid down a few inches, and Pernigotti yelled at Iacchini听to shorten the rope connecting听them. As the rock began听crashing down听into the corridor, Pernigotti听let go, falling 30 feet before the rope went taut,听with other听rocks, snow, and ice tumbling听into the chasm all around him.

He was lucky. Pernigotti听suffered only a ruptured Achilles tendon听and, with his partner鈥檚 help, made it to the crest, where a helicopter came to his rescue. But the experience rattled him. Even the most experienced climbers are now struggling with increasingly perilous conditions in the Alps. Experts say that the problem is climate change. As temperatures rise and the peaks thaw, rocks that were previously held firmly in place by ice are coming loose.

During the 20th century, temperatures in the Alps rose by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, double the amount of warming seen across the Northern Hemisphere on the whole. If humans make only modest cuts to pollution, the Alps are expected to听warm by close to another six听degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, according to a of climate research. Climbers听are already seeing the effects of global warming.

Jacques Mourey, a geographer at the Universit茅 Savoie Mont-Blanc, has听 how rising temperatures have altered climbing conditions on the Mont Blanc mountain range over the past 40 years. He and his colleagues identified 25 changes affecting mountaineering. Among them,听 is melting snow and spurring avalanches; melting ice is producing wider crevasses; and rising temperatures are yielding less snowfall. For a recent听, he focused on one of the most dangerous changes: falling rocks.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very tricky condition,鈥� Mourey said. 鈥淵ou think the rock is safe, and then it moves.鈥�

This听mountain range is partly covered by permafrost, areas where the landscape is constantly frozen. Ice within rock fissures acts like cement, keeping parts of the mountain together. But around 20 years ago, the听鈥攖he altitude at which air temperature remains at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the day鈥攂egan to creep upward. In the 1990s, the summer freezing level was typically around 11,000 feet, but in 2003, it was closer to 13,000 feet, according to听, an organization听supporting research on the Alps. That summer, the permafrost started to thaw. Scientists say it will听 as the climate warms, causing more rocks to come loose, like the one that nearly killed Pernigotti.听

Recent years have seen massive听. From 1990 to 2017,听 and 230 were injured in the听Grand Couloir, on the popular route to the 15,774-foot peak of Mont Blanc, the highest summit听in the range and the tallest mountain in Western Europe. Rockfall accounted for 30 percent of the accidents.

Mourey said that while the number of yearly injuries on the Grand Couloir has remained roughly flat over the past two decades, fewer people are staying overnight on the mountain, a figure that has decreased from 62,000听between听1999 and听2001听to less than 51,000听between 2014 and听2016. In other words, smaller groups of climbers are听racking up the same number of injuries, which means the probability of getting hurt has increased听over time.听

鈥淥n a trafficked route, the rock was previously glued with ice, and mountaineers were using it. That rock had never moved before听but suddenly fell,鈥� Mourey听explained. He believes that at least two deadly accidents in 2018 can be blamed directly on climate change. In听, a climber grabbed a huge stone that slid unexpectedly. It was precisely what happened to Pernigotti, except the听other climber was crushed and killed by a falling rock.

Alpine guides spend most of the year in the mountains, where they see the growing danger firsthand.听, 44, started climbing in the Alps with his parents when he was five and became a guide in 2002, when he was 26. He compared the cold summers of his childhood with the unusual heat he saw last January, 鈥渨hen the sun felt closer and closer.鈥�

鈥淭he day might be fantastic, and you are at 13,000 feet wearing shorts. But how many risks have you taken to get there?鈥� he said. Lately, Rossi has avoided leading听his clients on old-favorite high-mountain routes due to the dangerous, unpredictable changes.听

Rossi has begun fighting to make the mountain more secure by advocating for a forecasting system that can predict the danger of rockfall given the current weather conditions, something similar to the听 ratings available for many mountain environments.听

In Courmayeur, on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, some alpine guides are being trained to take climate change into account while planning trips for their clients. Jean Pierre Fasson, secretary general of听, a foundation dedicated to making mountaineering in the Alps safer, has added a weeklong module on climate change to his organization鈥檚 alpine guide course.

鈥淒isasters are part of nature, and it鈥檚 wrong trying to stop them,鈥� said Fasson, who believes that mountaineering will survive on Mont Blanc, but that climbers will need help navigating the growing risks. Between 1999 and 2017,听 of accident victims were amateurs who attempted to climb Mont Blanc without a guide. Fasson said it鈥檚 up to alpine guides to understand the rapid changes听and avoid routes that might pose greater danger.

Pernigotti said that only those who regularly climb in the Alps can appreciate how warmer weather has made the mountains more treacherous.

鈥淣ot everybody sees what鈥檚 happening. Only people who live daily in strict contact with nature can understand the impact of climate change,鈥� Pernigotti said. 鈥淚f you live in the city, you don鈥檛 see the stars. You don鈥檛 feel the wind. You can鈥檛 understand what鈥檚 happening.鈥�

This story was published in partnership with听.

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