I’ve Been Drawing The Alps As They Could Appear During The Last Thousand Years!

Drawing is my life.

I state, I’m not a climatologist, if we really have to give ourselves a label, I would prefer that of designer or illustrator.

In 2015 I moved with my wife from the city of Turin to the wild Ayas Valley into the Alps. Both urban people, both passionate about nature and the mountains.

I have always drawn the world in which I lived, and so, I started in the mountains to draw mountains.

I was intrigued by the history of Walser migrations, and into my mind grew the curiosity to rebuild the glaciers of Monte Rosa over the last 1000 years, a period of understandable time, so as not to get lost in far too far and intangible past.

Between 1000 and 1100 d.c. the favorable climatic conditions of the Low-climatic Optimaum Middle Ages allow the migration of the Walser people in the valleys south of the Monte Rosa range through the Teodulo pass. This pass, with its 3317 meters above sea level, is the only passage in the giant wall of the pennine Alps (average altitude of 4000 meters above sea level). Climatological, dendrological, palynological and glaciological studies show that at that time the theodule, where today there is a summer ski station on the glacier, was free from the ice allowing passage.

Philology helps us to understand another piece of the picture. The dialect spoken today in gressoney derives from the Germanic previous to the transformations of the Germanic languages that took place starting from the XII century. this confirms that the migration of the walser on the southern side of the Alps occurred in the Optimum climate of the lower middle ages, or between 1000 and 1100, a period in which the glaciers of Monte Rosa were withdrawn well above 3700 masl.

Almost suddenly, in the second half of the 1500s, the weather became cold and wet and some decade later the glaciers began to expand as never before in historical times: began the “Pessimum of the Little Ice Age”, the most raw of the last two millennia.

Today nature is telling us something new, the climate since the beginning of the 800 is warming up. The glaciers tell us that climate changed over the centuries in a cyclical attitude due solar activity. Are we living something new? Is this change of attitude faster than ever? I wanted to create this work just to rise the attenction to climate change. We have to listen to nature and know how to adapt responsibly.

Thus, I have concluded for the moment the first objective of the project with the reconstruction of the Monte Rosa glaciers (Valle d’Aosta side) in three distinct moments: summer of 2018, summer of 1798 and summer 1018.

These are works done with ink on paper on 33×48 cm sheets. The various sheets were then mounted in digital graphics to compose the unique panorama.

The point of view is in the air at an altitude of 4760mslm at the top of the Gray Head. I used the flight simulator to get the aery images. Than I developed the work comparing real images with satellite images from google earth.

The first goal is reached, now I’m working on the reconstruction of the changes of the other main Valle d’Aosta and Alpine massifs in order to achieve a complete mapping of the aplino arc of climate change over the last 1000 years.

More info: caracoltrip.com