Italian climber creates walking trails in Coorg

For Gariano, who spent much of his early years indoors in England, due to bronchial asthma, climbing the seven summits seemed like a far-fetched dream. “My parents sent me to Italy due to my condition. From that point, I decided to get back my life that I had lost and started climbing. The first mountain that I decided to climb was Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and next, it was the Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America,” said Gariano, adding that the toughest peaks included Mount Everest and Vinson Massif in Antarctica. The seven summits include Carstensz Pyramid, McKinley and Elbrus.

It took Gariano two attempts to reach the summit of Mount Everest – and in the first one, he nearly lost his sight. “When you are summiting a peak that is 8,000 meters or higher, there is the death zone where the body is on the edge and the slightest mistake can lead to death. Many people get the “summit fever” where they feel that they have to reach the summit at all cost, without factoring their capacity to descend. During the first attempt in 2005, I tried to climb on the Tibetan side, on the route taken by George Mallory, the first man to do so in 1924. I did not wear my snow goggles, due to which my cheek and eye froze. My vision became milky and I realised my mistake. I was 250 meters from the summit but at that altitude, it was a long way off. I made myself a little shelter and had to make it through the night.,” said the Italian mountaineer, who said that his expedition to Mount Everest and Vinson Massif was sponsored and one of the patrons is the city-based businessman and philanthropist, Najamuddin Sathak. 

Gariano conquered Mount Everest in 2006, planting the Tibetan flag. “I admire the people and culture of Tibet. After summiting Mount Everest, I visited the Tibetan refugee camps in India and showed people my attempt to honour them and their traditions,” said Gariano, whose second toughest climb was Vinson Massif in Antarctica. “For hours, you could only see snow and no sight of a living being. Since the peak was inaccessible, the entire expedition cost me in excess of $40,000,” recalled Gariano, who became the third Italian to summit seven peaks in seven continents on Jan 2, 2009. 

Now, Gariano is also engaged in creating walking trails in Coorg, at the Old Kent Estates, and creating awareness about the fauna, in a bid to conserve the biodiversity of the Western Ghats.