We visited Montespluga for Homeland's Skialp Fest to understand why ski mountaineering is a beautiful and lower-impact way to experience the mountains.
In Italy, approximately 4 million people practise winter sports every year, according to data from the Italian tourism observatory. Of these, 12,000 are newcomers to alpine skiing. These are not astronomical figures, but they are large enough to make our mountains heavily frequented and threatened by phenomena such as overtourism and practices like artificial snowmaking.
It snows less and less in Italy, especially at lower altitudes, and artificial snowmaking is often the only way to allow resorts to operate normally. This system, however, is enormously energy-intensive and costly in terms of water consumption. In recent years, more and more people have rediscovered the desire to experience the mountains in an authentic way, far from ski lifts and crowded slopes.
Experiencing the mountains in solitude and relying solely on one's own strength allows you to seek out snow where it actually falls, not only where it is manufactured. The outdoors has become a priority, especially for those who, confined to city life, seek a purer connection with nature.
To learn more about this world, we visited Montespluga, an alpine village in the municipality of Madesimo, in the Valle Spluga in Lombardy, where Homeland is located — Italy's first lift-free resort — and where the Skialp Fest was held: a three-day event dedicated to the world of ski mountaineering and freeride, with the goal of demonstrating first-hand how this discipline is one of the least impactful ways available to us for enjoying the mountains and, above all, why practising it is so beautiful and exhilarating.
For the Skialp Fest, Homeland filled up with numerous exhibitor brands offering equipment rentals and a wide range of activities organised by Homeland's guides, for beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Among the most fascinating experiences on offer from Homeland, for instance, was a night-time outing in tents in Val Loga. Here you can experience the thrill of pitching your own base camp in the snow, learning how to orient the tent correctly, dig a safe shelter, and use poles or a shovel to secure it. The atmosphere among these peaks evokes expeditions to the most remote corners of the earth: surrounded by white and silence, you truly feel as though you are somewhere beyond the world.
The philosophy of Homeland — a project conceived by Tomaso Luzzana, founder of SpiaGames, who chose Montespluga as the base for offering a new way to experience the mountains — is to learn to know and explore the peaks in a purer and less impactful way.
Homeland is a physical place, identifiable by the large glass container positioned near the Passo dello Spluga, which is not only a point of reference but also a training and rental centre for those who want to take up ski mountaineering. Here you can find skis, boots, splitboards and, above all, the safety kit consisting of an avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe — essential tools for moving independently in terrain with no groomed runs. Safety is indeed a cornerstone of the experience: through the safety camp, participants learn to recognise snow conditions, identify critical points along the route and manage emergencies, including searching for and digging out people buried in an avalanche.
This offering responds to a transformation underway in the mountain world. While until a few years ago ski mountaineering was considered a niche discipline, the number of enthusiasts is now growing strongly. Partly due to the forced closure of ski lifts during the pandemic, many skiers began equipping themselves with skins to climb under their own power, discovering a freer and more authentic way to experience snow. Now that the lifts are back in operation, interest in ski mountaineering has not waned — on the contrary: the financial difficulties associated with ski passes and the uncertainty caused by the scarcity of natural snow are pushing more and more people towards alternatives that are less dependent on infrastructure. Homeland was created precisely to meet this need, offering guided routes suited both to those who want to start out and to those seeking wilder adventures.
Montespluga is the perfect setting for this revolution. In winter it is completely uninhabited: no hotels, restaurants or ski lifts. There are no groomed runs, nor signs marking the routes, other than those for summer hiking trails. Silence reigns here, broken only by the wind and the sound of snow beneath the skis. The frozen dam, which separates Montespluga from Madesimo, creates a surreal landscape reminiscent of scenes from the Coen Brothers' films. It is not hard to imagine yourself in Minnesota or Alaska, immersed in an endless expanse of white where nature sets the rules. Only one road leads up here, but in winter it is often left snow-covered, making the Passo dello Spluga even more isolated.
This unspoilt setting is the ideal base for a new kind of tourism — one that is more conscious and respectful of the environment. Homeland is not only a starting point for excursions, but a project that aims to spread a more authentic and responsible mountain culture. Thanks to the expertise of the mountain guides, who have deep knowledge of these valleys, participants learn to move safely, read the terrain and experience the mountains in the purest way possible. There are no lifts, no artificial infrastructure — only snow, sky and the desire to explore.