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Exploro A.S.D. is a Sports Club born to support the organization of international events and races.

19/10/2026

Was canceling the Ta**us Mountain Race the right decision?

The events of the past few days in Türkiye have sparked a conversation that I think is worth having, both as a climate scientist and as an organizer of ultra-distance bikepacking races.

Extreme weather has always existed, but we’re no longer experiencing it in a stable climate. Human-induced warming is changing the probability and intensity of many extreme events, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already unpredictable environment.

And when your playground stretches across mountains, remote valleys and very different climatic regions, that uncertainty matters.

As organizers, we spend months planning, scouting and preparing for different scenarios, but no amount of preparation can eliminate every risk.

Something else often gets overlooked: making a precautionary decision is incredibly difficult. If you cancel and nothing happens, people might accuse you of overreacting. If you don’t, and something goes wrong, you’ll be asked why you didn’t act sooner.

Adventure will always involve uncertainty, and that’s part of what makes it special. But organizing an adventure also means accepting responsibility for the people taking part.

Our full support goes to , who had to make an incredibly difficult decision under challenging circumstances.

Sometimes, the hardest part of organizing an adventure is knowing when to stop it.

For anyone interested in the science behind this discussion, you can find a few peer-reviewed studies worth reading in the video and at the link in bio.
⚠️ These papers provide broader scientific context, not an attribution of the specific weather event that affected the race.

20/07/2026

The biggest glacier in the Alps 🧊

A good day always starts with a simple loop screaming from the Garmin screen: 60 km, and a little over 2800 m of climbing. Sounds like a plan 😮‍💨

First job of the day: climb 1300 m up to Fiescheralp. Switzerland may be famous for public fountains, but apparently not on this climb… very rude!

After a strategic stop at the gondola station, we kept riding up toward Bettmerhorn — and there it was: the first view of the enormous ice tongue of the Aletschgletscher.

The Great Aletsch Glacier is the largest valley glacier in the Alps, and even from above it still looks immense: a river of ice flowing through the mountains, bending through the valley, carrying rock debris, carving the landscape, and reminding you what ice can do when it has time, gravity, and mass on its side.

But it is also shrinking incredibly fast. The glacier has been retreating and thinning for decades, and the changes are visible even from the ridge: exposed valley walls, lateral moraines marking former ice levels, and debris-covered sections.

The rest of the day was a beautiful game of up and down along the ridge, with glimpses of the ice field appearing between climbs, corners, and very tired legs.

And finally, we hit Riederalp bike park and one of the most satisfying flowy descents you can dream of!

A quick lemon cheesecake stop in Bettmeralp, and we were ready to lose all the elevation we had worked so hard to gain 🥲

Back down in the valley? Boiling hot, of course.

17/07/2026

A day among the glaciers: Üssers Barrhorn, 3610 m 🏔️

This is considered the highest summit you can hike to in Switzerland: honestly, it does not disappoint! And there’s something almost unreal about reaching this altitude without crossing a glacier or climbing on rock…

Geologically, this part of Valais belongs to the Pennine Alps, a region built from deeply deformed and metamorphosed crustal fragments. Around the Turtmann Valley, the rocks preserve the long history of Alpine orogenesis and are exposed at the surface as schists, gneisses, and metabasic rocks.

But there’s definitely more to look around! In the area of Barrhorn, the mountains carry a deep imprint of ice. You can still see cirques, moraines, polished bedrock, unstable debris slopes, and especially glacier forefields where the retreat of ice has opened new ground for erosion. And sure, the first stages of vegetation colonization are also visible!

We walked the whole day with our eyes on the Turtmann Glacier, which has retreated dramatically since the Little Ice Age. The same can be said about the Brunner Glacier: painfully beautiful to look at, and impossible not to imagine in its former extension and volume.

It makes you wonder what power these glaciers once held, and what it must have felt like to stand in their presence just a few decades ago.

Stats of the day 😮‍💨
Distance: 19.5 km
Elevation gain: 1770 m
Total time: 6 h 24 min
Dust on calves: A LOT

10/07/2026

Can you guess who forgot long pants today?

Today we hiked to Hockenhorn, crossing from Valais into the Bernese Alps and stepping straight into a very clear reminder that 3000+ meters do not care about your wardrobe choices!

Everything was fine until around 2600 m, when a proper glacial wind picked up. Too bad this was also the perfect day to forget my must-have long pants.

So here I am: walking in shorts, in the snow, trying to look like this was a conscious alpine style decision. Don’t worry, the color can be deceiving. They are actual activewear, not my pajamas.

From up there, we were right behind the area affected by the Blatten disaster in the Lötschental. And honestly, we had not fully understood the scale of it until we saw the houses underwater and the valley floor reshaped by debris, ice, and blocked water.

In May 2025, a massive rock and glacier collapse from the Kleines Nesthorn/Birch Glacier area buried most of Blatten. The village had been evacuated before the main collapse, which saved many lives, but the landscape itself was transformed in a matter of minutes.

It is hard to stand there and not think about what is happening to the Alps. These mountains have never been static. Rockfall, glaciers, permafrost, water, gravity, and time have always shaped them. But warming is changing the rules: permafrost thaws, ice loses volume, meltwater moves through fractures, and slopes that were once held together by frozen ground become more unstable.

05/07/2026

Today we went to Zermatt🇨🇭

Of course, a visit to the Horn was due. We were in the area, after all!

Since cars cannot enter Zermatt, and you have to get there by train — or by bike, if you are very committed to making holidays slightly more complicated — we thought: why not cycle directly from home?

The first plan was 120 km with over 4000 m of climbing. A little too much, even with the full day ahead. This is still a holiday, allegedly.

So we chose the more human version: ride up to Moosalp, enjoy more than 30 minutes of descent to Stalden, take the train to Zermatt, climb to Schwarzsee, and then continue toward Schönbielhütte to look at glaciers, moraines, talus, and the very visible traces of what used to be much more ice.

This area is part of the Zmuttgletscher system, fed by tributaries including Tiefmattengletscher and Schönbielgletscher. During the Little Ice Age, the glacier extended much farther down the valley. Today, the moraines tell the story almost better than the ice itself: huge lateral ridges marking former glacier margins, abandoned debris-covered tongues, unstable slopes, and fresh talus accumulating where ice, permafrost, gravity, and warming temperatures keep reshaping the mountain.

The numbers are brutal, but the landscape makes them visible. Since the mid-19th century, Zmuttgletscher has retreated by almost 2 km, and its surface area has shrunk from more than 21 km² to less than 16 km². At the same time, more and more of the remaining ice is covered by rock debris — which can insulate the glacier locally, but also makes the ice look more like terrain than ice.

And that is exactly what makes this place so fascinating: you are not just looking at a glacier retreating. You are looking at a whole mountain system reorganizing itself.

Then, because apparently that was not enough for one holiday day, we rode back down through the Mattertal valley to Stalden. Last job of the day: climb back to Moosalp (another 1200+ m of climbing).

Final stats, for those interested:
94 km
2500 m of climbing
1 train 🚂
1 very famous mountain🇨🇭
And a totally reasonable holiday ride

02/07/2026

A day above the clouds ✨

After too many plans, a super busy spring, and far too many delays, we finally made time for our own holidays! And where else could we go, if not back to our beloved Swiss mountains?

Warm-up day in Valais: Augstbordhorn and its high ridges.

We are on the edge of the Pennine Alps, but the view opens onto some of the most spectacular peaks of the region. This landscape is basically a geology book left wide open: ancient oceanic crust preserved as ophiolites, deep-marine sediments transformed into schists, and fragments of the European crystalline basement — granite, gneiss, and metamorphic rocks — all stacked, folded, uplifted, and exposed by the long history of Alpine orogenesis.

And then there is the invisible part of the mountain: permafrost 🧊

At these elevations, frozen ground can still persist beneath talus slopes, rocky ridges, and fractured bedrock. It acts almost like an ice-cement, stabilizing loose material and helping hold parts of the mountain together. But it is also one of the most sensitive components of the alpine environment: seasonal thawing, warming temperatures, rockfall, and slope instability are all part of a system that is anything but static.

Zermatt feels just around the corner, with enormous glaciers shining in the distance. And on the other side? Nothing less than the Aletschgletscher.

Not a bad place to start the holidays!

29/06/2026

DAY 6: The hardest call 🍋

Last night, we slept in a beautiful house in a small village and finally did laundry.

Luca got up to cook Lael Wilcox breakfast and let me sleep half an hour more than usual. What a treat! And not only that: he also cooked breakfast for the whole crew: coffee, eggs and French pastries. Sleeping in a private house has many upsides.

But also downsides: no AC in the rooms. So after another huge, humid, exhausting day, we were officially in for a tropical night. Not exactly the perfect recipe for recovery.

And then of course: the laundry had completely dried overnight, but by morning, it was wet again. The dew point was around 18°C, which means humidity condenses below that temperature. I packed everything before leaving, planning to dry it during the longer stops later in the day, as if we did not already have enough to think about. What a hiccup.

As soon as we were ready to leave, Lael called. She had thrown up breakfast, feeling dizzy and nauseous. We needed to get to her quickly.

We found her on the road half an hour later. She moves so fast that even when we are rushing, it still takes longer than we want to reach her.

We are now between Tours and Orléans, making our way toward Paris, which also means more and more people are joining to ride with her, despite the heat!

We stop in Fay-aux-Loges for a big morning resupply, and I go coffee-hunting with Kili Velotto We find a perfect bakery close to where the van is parked. A queue is already forming outside, which is usually a good sign. Too bad they don’t sell coffee, but I get another well-deserved tarte au citron. It shouldn’t be my last one, as we still have almost two full days in France ahead of us. Better to be safe than sorry, I catch myself thinking.

Then Lael mentions feeling dizzy again. She says she would stop if she felt like she’s going to pass out. When she leaves, the crew starts having the painful conversation we have been pushing away for too long.

There are moments when moving forward means continuing, and there are moments when moving forward means making the hardest possible call.

Turns out, that was my last tarte au citron of the trip.

28/06/2026

DAY 5: Chocolatine and tropical nights 🥐

Today, we woke up on the outskirts of the Pays de la Loire region.

I traveled here with my family a couple of years ago, and I still remember the luxurious forests, the unforgettable Loire castles, and most of all: the freshness. Nothing like the heat we were about to face.

Even our usual 3:30 alarm feels different. No need for extra layers in the morning. Shorts and a T-shirt are already enough.

Kili Velotto and Luca keep seeing bunnies and deers. Most of the times, I see them too. But I also keep falling asleep in the van. As soon as we sit down and start the engine, my vision blurs and my eyes close. Luca holds my head on his shoulder. I’m not really sleeping, not upright, with all the bumps in the road, and with one part of my brain still listening for the next stop, but I try to rest as much as possible. Three hours of sleep is definitely not my thing.

In Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, we stop at a bakery. Kili’s eyes start sparkling: first real coffee, first real breakfast!

We get croissants and chocolatine — because it is not always pain au chocolat, you have to know your French geography — and order a quiche to take away for lunch.

And then of course I buy two massive cakes: tarte au citron meringuée and tarte aux framboises. My favorites. Croque monsieur is also on the breakfast menu, and for a couple of minutes we had something that almost felt like normal life.

Then it’s time to go find Lael Wilcox again!

She has been feeling nauseous all morning. The heat is clearly getting to her, and we start worrying about heat exhaustion. She drinks a cold Coke, and luckily the nausea starts to fade. But after lunch, the heat builds up again, and unlike Spain, here it’s humid. So humid.

When we’re not in the forest, it feels hard to breathe. The air is heavy, sticky, and still. Shade helps, but only a little. Ice helps, but never for long enough. We decide to see her every 20 minutes.

24/06/2026

DAY 4: Of laughs, tears, love, and French bears 🧸

This morning, we finally crossed into France 🇫🇷

We started the day on the outskirts of Pamplona and climbed toward the Pyrenees, reaching just below 1000 m. Going up, the air changed.

At the top, Kili Velotto and I got the van ready for a technical stop and made the most of it by putting the Moka on: tiny roadside luxury — thanks to Flem Mountain Lodge
Too bad Lael Wilcox climbs like a train: no time to drink it!

Going down the road was so wet and slippery that I spent the whole time clenching my jaw. I know Lael has the skills, and I trust her judgment. I just do not trust wet tarmac, fast rolling, and gravity all working together.

Next stop: Itxassou, where S T E V E N L E H Y A R I C was waiting for her. Steven has GravelMan Series going on at the moment, but he couldn’t miss the chance to see Lael during her ride around the world. We stopped a little further down the road to refill Lael’s bottles, and he came to hug us, hot and sweaty. Then he did what Steven does best: talk about love and friendship until everyone gets emotional.

The next section was slow to drive, with narrow roads, traffic, roundabouts, and all the small things that make a van much slower than a bike. It was hard to catch up, and everyone was tense.

For another 100 km, Lael had company on the bike, and we moved through the freshness of the pine forests around Bayonne. What an incredible change again. The coast here is famous for its long beaches and waves, but just inland, the landscape becomes a green tunnel of maritime pines.

As we moved closer to Bordeaux through the Parc naturel régional des Landes de Gascogne, the forest kept extending around us.

And somewhere in that long stretch, we hit the daily low. Rue and I stayed on the phone with Lael until she felt better. In the meantime, Kili tried to understand what was happening with the van’s brakes. After the big wet descent in the morning, they had started making weird noises. Of course, one stressful thing at a time would be too easy.

Closer to Bordeaux, more riders joined. The tension finally started to break. We laughed again, and Lael had another big day in the bag.

Indirizzo

Sëlva

Sito Web

http://www.exploro.cc/

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