Interview to Andrea Mantovani of Habilis Channel

Andrea Mantovani is an agronomist who loves nature and outdoor life. With his youtube channel Habilis Channel he sustains the “Return to Wilderness”. We have asked him a few questions to know more about what “Return to Wilderness” means and on his experiences on the mountains, and more.

D: First we would like to know what do you do when you are not busy with the bushcraft activities.

In my daily life I am lucky enough to deal with agriculture, because I am an agronomist. I fell very lucky because I live my life outdoor, not stuck inside office walls. Moreover I collaborate with many environmental associations and some parishes in my area for different project for the young people, always in natural contexts.

D: Your youtube channels is dedicated to who wants to go back to wilderness. Can you explain us what it is exactly?

I chose the sentence “going back to wilderness” because it represents well the reason why I work on the HABILIS channel project (Blog and youtube). It is about my desire to share with other people my experiences and the few things I learnt during my time on the field, immersed in the nature. I repeat it often: I do not teach anything to anybody, I just share and show my way of living nature and my desire to open a dialogue with others to know how they behave in the same situations, creating a constructive relationships with them. In my opinion this is the way to involve more and more people to spend time in the nature, but doing so rationally, respecting the environment and with honesty with yourself and your own abilities.

D: In your youtube channel you posted many videos that speak about outdoor and survival and there are in particular reviews on various products or “instructions” on how to survive outdoor, from how to light a safe fire to how to sharpen a knife. Can you explain us what pushed you to start to tell with your videos all this kind of knowledge to survival enthusiasts?

Respecting nature for me it means be prepared in advanced so that you are able to face in the best possible way every kind of emergency, so that our footprint on nature will be minimal. Unfortunately it happens constantly to see people undervalue even a simple walk in the woods and to have problems afterwards, at the first inconvenience, as if happens when the weather starts suddenly to turn badly. If sharing experiences and notions I learnt I am able to push people to honestly and consciously look at nature I will have reached the objective I had with the project HABILIS channel.

D: Among the various videos I think it is hard to choose one. But, can you tell our readers which one they really need to watch if they want to understand what return to wilderness is? Can you tell us why?

It is hard to choose a single video, indeed. All of them were important to me and helped me get more experience. Maybe one of the most recent videos, where I shore a bushcraft excursion in the winter during which I stop some hours inside nature alone, reflecting, drinking a good hot tea without saying a single word…I think it can give well the idea of peace and tranquillity that only a respectful and minimalistic approach to nature can give.

D: In your channel you speak about activities that can be done inside nature. When did your love for nature start? Have you ever preferred an afternoon on the couch instead of any outdoor activity? 

My love for nature has always been there, at least since I can remember. The love for the mountains and alpinism are common in my family and I preserve still the picture of me and my father, took when I was 5 years old in the terrace of the old mountain hut Torino, 3374 metres above the sea in the Monte Bianco, under the peak of the Dente del Gigante. In the following years with my parents I did lots of excursions, trails, climbings, all around the Alps. Those experiences contributed to make me fall in love with nature. Growing up I started to make experiences alone and my family was not against it, they even supported me in my passion of outdoor activities. For what concerns the afternoon on the couch, I think I did that only when I was stuck at home with the flu.

D: Can you tell us a situation inside nature where you thought “this time I don’t know how to get out from here”?

It has happened several times, but if I am here answering your questions it means I am aware of my limits, without going too far. I remember when I was 13 I was going down a scree in Legazuoi, in the Dolomites, under a huge storm, or when with a friend of mine we left to try to go up the Cevedale (3769 metres) starting from Solda, in Val Venosta. We were young university students in Bologna and at the end of June, before summer exams, we had planned this excursion to be done in two days: from Bologna on Friday morning, to arrive in Solda and then the glacier to 3139 metres of Eisseepass (Passo del Lago Gelato), going down on the other side and then up again to Rifugio Casati (3269 metres). After having slept on the mountain hut the next morning we went up the Cevedale and then back to Bologna. Our desire to go back to the mountains after months of studying in Bologna was so great that we undervalued some alarm signals, that were actually obvious. We did plenty of mistakes, that we could have paid with big consequences. First going from the sea level to above 3000 metres in just a few hours, without getting used for some days to the altitude, is extremely wrong…and we understood that those days. We arrived in Solda in the afternoon (2 p.m.) without having lunch and we continued to the Solda glacier. We ate  quickly a sandwich and we continue to walk even if the weather was turning dark, trusting our ability to reach the mountain hut before the rain. The problem was that the training we had done in Bologna was not enough to be so quick, plus the sun was melting down the snow, making everything more difficult, with the danger to fall down ravine. We it started to hail we were at about 3100 metres, and it was not possible to continue. We got back then. But if we got hurt or we got stuck there, we could not have called for help because the cellphone had no signals and there was of course no one around. In that moment it was like the fog we figuratively had in front of our eyes went away, and we were left with the reality: we were in serious trouble (my uncle for a lot less has never came back home from a trail in the Dolomites). From there it started a real adventure, because under the rain we have walked slowly down the glacier, struggling not to get lost. We managed to go back to the station of the cableway when it was 7 p.m., but it was close since the last last run was at 5 p.m. We were forced to go back walking all the way down the street, arriving to our car, exhausted, around 9.30 p.m. After that day I understood that you need to be humble and honest with yourself, careful to the danger you can find in the mountain. This kind of mistakes have thought me a lot.

D: The next question is about you next project. If you want, tell us what you have in mind for the next months. Clearly, if you do not want to tell us too much, just give us some hints about what you will do!

For the next months I planned some projects in the mountains, which I hope will be useful for the channel too. In addition to that, I will continue my normal activity, with two videos per week about nature, bushcraft, and outdoor life in general, as in the last year. I hope I will manage to realize a project in my native land, the Delta of Po, but there are some formal problems and limitations for that area, so I hope I will get soon the necessary permits from the government.

D: Our last question can only be about Bivo. In one of your videos, you used Bivo during an excursion. Can you tell us why in a return to wilderness Bivo can be a good ally?

I have the opportunity to use Bivo in a trail in the Appenines. It was a particularly long walk and Bivo gave me the necessary energy to positively conclude the experience. Bivo is a complete food that we can bring with us every time we go out in the nature, knowing that in any situation we could face, we have a smart solution with us. I will bring Bivo 2.0 with me in my next projects, after having experienced its nutritional properties.