"The night was terrible. I was so scared, I didn't want to die. I knew I couldn't give up, I knew I absolutely mustn't fall asleep, otherwise it would have been the end".
This is the dramatic story given to ANSA by Carluccio Sartori, the ski mountaineer from Veneto who survived an avalanche in Val Badia for over 20 hours last week.
"I'm not a believer-he confesses-but that night I prayed to my mother".
The 54-year-old is still hospitalized in intensive care in Bolzano, but is fine.
Only a few scratches on his face, the fingers of his right hand bandaged and the drip testify that he was one step away from death.
His firm voice, in which he tells of his long struggle for survival, reveals a strong character that contributed decisively to his rescue.
But let's go back to the day of the avalanche, Wednesday 26 January 2023. The entrepreneur Sartori is sporty, he loves cycling, trekking, via ferratas.
Ski mountaineering is the perfect pastime for people like him who don't want to stand still in winter.
That morning Carluccio was climbing towards the Setsass, when he was suddenly overwhelmed by the avalanche.
"As the avalanche dragged me away, I stiffened my muscles because I was afraid that the snow masses might break my limb," he explains.
"When the snow was about to stop, I started swimming, to stay afloat, but I was very restricted in my movements and my shoulder hurt and the backpack was in my way".
As soon as the avalanche stopped Sartori with his only free arm threw the snow off him and, after a deep breath of fresh air,
it started forming a sort of funnel in the snow.
She would continue to do this for the next 20 hours as the snow kept sliding down.
"I have always remained conscious and lucid. I called for help, but no answer", continues the dramatic story.
The 54-year-old also tried to activate his Apple watch with voice commands, "but unfortunately Siri was also unresponsive".
When it began to get dark, Carluccio admits that he was so cold and so scared.
"My only thought was to stay alive."
Sartori is a fan of mountaineering books and films and knows that anyone who falls asleep is lost.
"For this reason, throughout the night I did a sort of micro-gymnastics, systematically moving one limb after another, as I was able under the snow. For so many hours my heart had been racing at 150 beats, maybe even more, and I wondered how much could hold".
After so many hours, thanks to the warmth of his body, the snow detached and the 54-year-old was able to make ever wider movements and, at a certain point, he also freed his other arm.
With the first light of the new day, confidence returned and the entrepreneur repeated to himself: "Just a little longer and they'll arrive. And then they'll arrive".
The story is interrupted by emotion.
"I'll never forget the sound of the helicopter. When I saw the rescuers I relaxed. I'll go see the boys. I confess I don't remember their faces. They tell me I answered, I just know that I woke up in the hospital with a big heat on".
Sartori also thanks the doctors and nurses of the Bolzano intensive care unit, directed by chief physician Marc Kaufmann who has no problem speaking of a "miracle".
His ward is highly specialized and this winter has already saved five patients in a serious state of hypothermia, also thanks to the Ecmo heart-lung machine.
At this point is it enough climbing skins?
"At home they'll kill me if I say now that I'm going to do ski mountaineering again, so in front of the camera I say 'enough'", he replies laughing, causing a rare moment of joy in the intensive care unit, where life and death are fought every day.
Carluccio has won his battle and knows he is "very, very lucky".
"All my life when I see the stars and the Big Dipper I will think of that night," that's for sure.
