Growing up as the third of 12 children in the small town of Berbenno, Italy, Mario Locatelli only weighed 88 pounds by the time he was 16.
Shunned from playing sports and sometimes ridiculed by larger children, Locatelli turned to the quiet freedom of
Alone, he would explore the hills near his home - and found he had a knack for climbing to the top of the local church’s steeple.
Despite the perceived limitations of his smaller stature, Locatelli realized, there was something much larger inside of him.
Many years later, and half a world away from the Italian countryside of his youth, Locatelli found himself living on a ranch in Montana, middle-aged and midway through a divorce.
Times were certainly tough, and he began frequenting the bars to ease an increasingly troubled mind.
“I knew I had to do something else,” says Locatelli. “So, I strapped on my boots and I started hiking ... and pretty soon I felt like I was soaring like an eagle.”
Thirty-six years later, Locatelli has been soaring ever since.
Now 76, the Montana Mountain Goat, as he’s known, has acquired an impressive and ever-growing list of accomplishments.
From his first high elevation climb of Oregon’s Mount Hood in 1967 (completed in only six hours with minimal gear) to his more recent appearance on the peak of Alaska’s 20,320-foot Mount McKinley (the first septuagenarian to climb North America’s highest point), Locatelli has left his mark on the climbing world.
Now he’s put the whole story on paper.
Published by Stoneydale Press in Stevensville, Locatelli’s “The Mountain Goat Chronicles,” recounts a lifetime love affair with altitude that has taken him across the country, across the world, and up and down all 40 of the Bitterroot’s major drainages.
The book begins with a history of his grandfather’s journey to America in 1895, and his father’s return to Italy as a young child.
Locatelli, born Dec. 21, 1932, writes of a simple agricultural childhood in Italy milking and feeding cows, helping out with his father’s intermittent logging contracts, and selling wine from a mule-drawn cart to folks after Easter Sunday church services.
At 16, Locatelli boarded a ship for America alongside his older siblings and cousins, eventually heading to California.
Years later, Locatelli and his family took a trip to Montana, and fell in love with the Bitterroot Valley. They moved to the area in 1970.
After his divorce, Locatelli began to hunt and explore the massive Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. He joined the local search and rescue unit and eventually became the head of the rock climbing team. He hiked the length of every major canyon and ridge between Lolo and Nez Perce passes. He skied, enjoyed the wildflowers and got extremely good at negotiating the rocky, scree-strewn walls of the Bitterroot Mountains.
In a way, it was as if Mario had reinvented himself as the logical extension of that young boy triumphantly clinging to the top of the church steeple.
And that’s just the introduction.
Most of Locatelli’s book focuses on his time in the Bitterroot and the multitude of memories collected over the thousands of miles he hiked and skied.
One chapter, “Buried Alive,” written by Mario’s daughter Cathy, recounts Locatelli’s 1981 ski trip to Ward Mountain - when a massive avalanche swept both Locatelli and a friend, Dick Robertson, down the mountain, burying Robertson.
Locatelli managed to stay on top of the fast-moving slide by swimming vigorously. He sustained little injury and managed to spot a 2-inch patch of Robertson’s ski pants in the snow. He dug his injured and unconscious friend out from the snow and built him a fire with dollar bills before heading down the mountain - on foot - for help.
The incident was the closest that Locatelli has ever come to meeting disaster in the mountains.
Other chapters recount stories from Locatelli’s time with search and rescue, his efforts to raise money for charity through organizing grueling endurance hikes through the Bitterroot Mountains and his experiences with bears, “pesky pesky wood ticks” and pack animals.
Somewhere around the age of 61, Locatelli says, he decided to get a little more serious about mountain climbing.
He began tackling mountains like Mount Rainier in Washington (14,411 feet, 16 hours), Gannett Peak in Wyoming (13,804 feet, 14.5 hours), and Mount Shasta in California (14,162, 15.5 hours).
Locatelli joined the High Pointers Club in 2003. High Pointers seek to climb the highest peaks in the United States, and Locatelli was already on his way. The only obstacle?
Mount McKinley.
Needless to say, Locatelli accomplished that goal (20,320 feet, 16 days), but it wasn’t easy.
He’s now re-climbing all of the High Pointers peaks for the second time ... with the probable exception of Denali.
He knows his limits.
“Sometimes you got to back off, you know?” Locatelli laughs. “That’s why I’m still here.”
The last chapter in “The Mountain Goat Chronicles” contains reminiscences of the friends and family who have accompanied Locatelli on various journeys - and includes passages written by local adventurers like George Corn, Bill Goslin and Skip Horner.
All-in-all, “The Mountain Goat Chronicles” is an impressive and intriguing look into the remarkable life of a determined and exuberantly spirited man of the mountains. Those interested in the backcountry of the Bitterroot Wilderness won’t be able to put it down.
As for Mario, he’s still getting up at 5 a.m. every weekday, climbing at least 1,500 vertical feet to stay in shape.
His only regret?
“I wish I could have started younger,” he says, “but I had a family to raise. I could have been a great mountain climber, but raising my family was my priority.”
Mario Locatelli will be signing copies of his autobiography Wednesday, Dec. 3, from 5-7 p.m. at Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton and Friday, Dec. 5, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 6, from noon to 3 p.m. at Valley Drug in Stevensville.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)
Aaron Crowder wrote on Nov 27, 2008 10:09 AM: