I’ve just gone through some intense 5-day training in La Thuile, so tough that my “past life memories” from Milan seem unbelievably distant and already long gone!
Too bad those incredibly exciting days were shadowed by the sad goodbyes to some other Donnavventura trainees and applicants who were not selected as part of the 2011 Expedition team!
When we got to La Thuile we were all warmly greeted by the soldiers at the Monte Bianco barracks and since that very day life has been pure hell for us! Waking up at 7:15 am, hitting the training camp on the double and then performing different trials, tests and aptitudinal challenges all day long was absolutely no piece of cake as they say!
Test-Driving professional instructors arrived as well all the way from Tuscany and gave us all some more demanding challenges to master with some professional 4x4 offroad vehicles! And how can I possibily forget the mountain bike riding trial?! I managed to cut myself and get back to the base camp with some serious bruises, but all in all it was just another intense and extremely thrilling experience. The toughest test of all was undoubtedly the climbing one when I really felt scared up there, desperately trying to succeed while painfully scratching both my arms.
Only at night, in the chilly barracks, we managed to get some rest before the next day’s “misfortunes” as applicant explorers for Donnavventura. But thanks to the outstanding team spirit of all the young women who had gathered in La Thuile I never felt downhearted, nor dispirited and now I can really say that I’d do it again and again forever!
It all felt like the worst twister ever entwining all of us in its snares, but in the end we made it!!!
