L’Aquila. Modulo Abitativo Provvisorio Sant’Antonio. Piastra 4/int.9

 24.08.2016 h3.36 Mercoledì Notte –

Non sentiamo la sveglia, non serve…..mi sveglio di colpo senza capire dove sono, cosa succede. Tutto buio, la lampadina lampeggia, i muri come gomma, il letto sembra il mio martello pneumatico, esco subito di casa e mi ritrovo in mutande. Non credo di aver mai avuto i battiti del mio cuore così rapidi.

Cerchiamo di radunare le idee, velocemente, rientriamo in casa ed abbiamo paura di guardarci negli occhi. In televisione un trafiletto dice: “ scossa di terremoto in centro Italia, sembra nessun danno a persone o cose”. Ritorniamo a letto, ed appena mi si chiudono gli occhi, arriva la seconda scossa che mi impedisce definitivamente di dormire.

24.08.2016 h7.00 L’Aquila

La sveglia suona: io e la mia compagna, in vacanza con me nella sua città d’origine, siamo svegli da ore e non serve parlare per capire che, per ovvie ragioni di sicurezza, la nostra gita sul Gran Sasso è rimandata.

25.08.2016 h8.00 L’Aquila

Venerdì mattina finalmente carichiamo gli zaini in macchina, saliamo in Funivia e, giunti all’Osservatorio Astronomico, partiamo per l’ascesa, destinazione Corno Grande, da salire per la Direttissima: la “Normale” è infatti definita dai più noiosa e molto lunga, così accettiamo la sfida. Bellissima e divertente, impegna mani ei piedi, non difficile, fino ad un certo punto. Eppure, nonostante le difficoltà iniziali, salgo in vetta e la vista mi ripaga dalla paura vissuta.

26.08.2016 h8.30 Rifugio Franchetti – Gran Sasso

Il giorno seguente, decidiamo di salire al Corno Piccolo, per la Via Normale, dato che la Ferrata Danesi senza imbraghi ci è stata sconsigliata. “Potete salire tranquillamente” ci dicono.

Ravaniamo in discesa fino all’attacco della Normale: un sentiero ripido,ma camminabile. Dopo pochi metri inizia a salire in verticale e le gambe non bastano più, ci vogliono anche le mani. Penso con terrore alla necessaria discesa, per il ritorno. Ho paura della verticalità, sento muoversi le pietre al mio tocco, il pensiero di una nuova disastrosa scossa non mi abbandona. Mi fermo. Flavia invece prosegue:ha un conto aperto con il Corno Piccolo, e con il suo passato. Deve farlo, deve arrivare in vetta, per Lei e per chi non c’è più. Non sono tranquillo, ma devo lasciarla andare, siamo venuti fino qui per questo. Dopo circa mezz’ora la sento arrivare e tutto diventa più sereno.

Ci vuole coraggio per aver paura.

Our Planet is made by a lot of water, let say water is the most part of the Earth. For us is normal, we are used to see rivers, lakes,rain….but if you really think about it, it’s amazing that most part of our life is made by water.

Water is made by one part of Oxygen and two part of hidrogen. When The temperature drop down, the molecular are getting closer and closer, as all the othe other material when know.  But when the temperature is near to the 0, well, the water start to be crazy and completely out of any law: it starts to expands!  And of course, because it expands, the frozen water ( from now called “the ice”) is lighter then normal water. Because of this, many fishes, little organisms and icesculptors can survive. Imagine if all the lakes and rivers and sea will become a huge big block of ice: any animal will die casted in the ice. The ice is one the strongest insulator, and it let all what is under his protection survive.

During  freezen, the molecules of the water  start to stay still, almost like when you are very scared of front of the most dangerous thing. They are still alive, thye can breath, talk silently, think….but not move. And they stay like this for days, months…sometimes even ages……can you imagine????

to be continued….

I am definetely back home.

I left the arctic and now I am ready for the southern winter, in the italian alps. So, no more northern lights, no more reendeers, no more 2 tons iceblock.

But, here we have the sun, we have the mountains and …….and……and we have no snow!!!!! Is a bit tragic to live in a small village up hill, in the middle of a huge skiresort, ready to welcome troups of tourists, and no snow! The most precious material is missed. My eyes are still filled up by all the white I got up in northern Sweden, that I cannot believe in my hometown everywhere is grey and green. So, a short refresh for those of you who are living in the Alps, just to remind you the colour of this wonderfull material. And don’t mind…..it will snow…..for sure. We don’t know when, nobody knows, but it will.

I think, we think, on the 4th of january, in the morning.

to be continued….

The first week of the construction of the Luxury suites at 26 ° Icehotel is over. I met my colleague Marjolein Vonk, Dutch designer, in the airport and we made the last part of our journey together. Coming from Jouvenceaux, it took me about 20 hours … .I could have been inAustralia !!!! But sincerely, this time of year, Jukkasjarvi is the only place where I want to be. Just landed welcomes us a strangely mild climate, but still below zero. Juhn nis waiting for us, a Swedish guy who has been part of the support team, who are the ones who help us when we have to move heavy blocks or do jobs where more hands are comfortable. He take us to the ICEHOTEL , we take possession of our log cabins, where we will stay for three weeks. Immediately, we can’t wait and we take a ride in the “construction site” to see the status of the work and we see that a lot in delay because of the temperatures. The next morning we go straight into our suite and “draw” to lay the blocks. Unfortunately, the ice is not ready yet, so we dedicate ourselves to the roof, the most uncomfortable job …. We work hard, but in the end we supersatisfied of the result and we start to bring in the first block of ice. The ice has been harvest in February, during which the part of the icy river Thorne reaches its maximum thickness, and is held all summer just to be able to afford to build the suites. We are talking about blocks that weigh about 2 tons, 110cm wide x 80cm high and 230cm … .assolutamente transparent !!!! These blocks must be handled with extreme care, they are very slippery, dangerous and reakly big. We will use about 12 blocks, and to have some fun ‘, we decided to place 3 in a row in height … While we were intent on putting a block in place, suddenly he fells going into a thousand pieces, making a roar that drew all of our colleagues, but above all, leaves unharmed Marjolein which was about 2 meters far … it’s gone well, but unfortunately these are the risks of our job. This week we also had the chance to see the incredible spectacle that is the aurora borealis, for 2 times. It’s one of those things that marks you, and that hardly you will forget. A new week is starting, the most important because we will have to shape our suite, and the first tourists arrived to visit the madness called Jukkasjarvi Icehotel. To be continued…