Cecilia Mercadante and the Mezzalama Refuge: finding a place in the world at 10,000 feet
Cecilia Mercadante, a refugee for the fourth consecutive year at the Ottorino Mezzalama Refuge in Valle D’Aosta, told us how she found herself again at high altitude, far from the city chaos, but never really isolated
From her job in Milan’s restaurant industry to the 3036 meters above sea level of the Ottorino Mezzalama Refuge in the Aosta Valley: the story of Cecilia Mercadante, who is working there as a refugee for the fourth year in a row, is a journey from an unsustainable determined time to “the best change I’ve ever made.” In this interview, the rifugista originally from Altamura, Puglia, at the opposite end of Italy, tells what it’s like to live and work during the summer months in a high-altitude refuge, amid 3 a.m. wake-ups, sometimes invisible labors, gratitude, and the discovery of a humanity and identity that would be lost in the city marasmus. When you choose to really listen to yourself and take risks, you end up, almost by accident, in the right place.
The Mezzalama Refuge and Cecilia Mercadante
The origins of an adventure
When did you start walking?
Having never had a car, I have always walked a lot, both in Altamura, the town where I was born and raised, and in Milan. I had planned to do the Cammino di Santiago in April 2020, but Covid blocked me. So I left in June for the Materano Way and it was a beautiful discovery. Walking in the countryside, alone, is very different from doing it in the city: it immediately gave me a sense of freedom and I found that I could listen to myself.
When did your refuge adventure begin?
In February 2021 I left Milan, I knew nature would be good for my mood during a difficult time: I wanted to go to New Zealand, but again the Covid changed my plans, and I arrived in Valle d’Aosta. After a very brief experience as a seasonal worker in a seaside resort in Tuscany, from which I escaped, a friend of mine told me that at a small family-run hotel in Champoluc, Val d’Ayas, they were looking for staff: I called the owner, caught up with her, and started immediately. I had already been to the mountains sporadically (in the wrong shoes!) and that summer I discovered it on my own, doing everything I could to get to know the area in the little free time I had. Hearing about it often, I had a dream of reaching the Mezzalama Refuge, but from the hotel the journey was very long and I wasn’t sure I could make it in the little time I had. One day in September, after finishing my lunch shift, I left and climbed in record time. Arriving at my destination at 4 p.m., I took a picture without even going inside and hurried down, a bit nervous, fearing the coming of darkness and bad weather. A gentleman was coming down just behind me, we started walking together and chatting: he told me about life in the refuge and I told him about my interest, indeed, dream, of working at high altitude. When we got to the valley, we introduced ourselves: he was the manager of Mezzalama! He left me his email: in January 2022 I wrote to him, hoping he had not forgotten about me, and that year I started. I am in my fourth year, it is the place I have worked the longest, and I love it very much.
The Mezzalama Refuge, photo by Cecilia Mercadante
A historical refuge in the Aosta Valley
Can you tell me about the Mezzalama?
It is a historic refuge in the Aosta Valley, built in 1034 in the Pennine Alps, near a glacier that has receded over the years, and then expanded in 1980. In the 1990s, 400 meters higher up, another one was built that became a mountaineering hut, with 80 beds. When it is full, climbers come to us-and in addition to them we welcome hikers. Mezzalama is old-fashioned, and that’s why it’s beautiful: it’s not a high-altitude hotel, you sleep in a single dormitory with 36 beds, there’s no shower, the bathrooms are outside, and the environment is family friendly.
What is its special feature of shelter?
Its soul. It’s magical: when you walk in, you feel that there is something, a certain energy, due to the many stories and people who have passed through here. I feel it myself, who spend a lot of time here, but also those who come here as guests. I call him the ramshackle old man, he is almost 100 years old. When there are storms I pat him on the walls, for enduring for the umpteenth time.
Rifugio Mezzalama inside, photo by Cecilia Mercadante
Life at the Mezzalama Refuge
What do you deal with?
I follow the management of everything, between inventories, helicopter orders, cooking, reservations. I have responsibility for everything, and it’s as if I feel destined for this place, where I stay from June to the first half of September. There are two or three of us working here, all women. The first month I have Martina with me, who then moves to another shelter, and then Miriam and Cecilia arrive.
What is your day like?
It can start as early as 3 a.m. with the mountaineers’ breakfasts, then it’s back to sleep. Mountaineers wake up around 6 or 7 a.m. When the breakfast shift is over, it starts with the people passing through doing trail, and there is hardly time to wash the bathroom, because then it’s on to lunch preparation at noon, after which there is the reception of those who will stay overnight. After dinner at 10 p.m. everyone is sent to bed-although climbers are usually already in bed by 8:30 p.m.
What is the thing you love most about being there?
The fact of being far away. Not so much from society, because people also come here, but from the everyday, from the normalcy, from the temperatures in the valley. Everything is different here. I feel love for this place, for what I experience and for the satisfaction of making hot soup for people who arrive here broken.
Which one is the most difficult?
Dealing with any problem in such an old place-from a clogged pipe to a phone that doesn’t work-every problem becomes bigger because you have to try to fend for yourself and fix it yourself. It can take more than a week before some technician arrives, so you learn how to do everything: you are plumber, electrician and cook. Last year I fixed the phone wires myself, on video call with the technician! Behind running a shelter is a world that even I didn’t imagine. That’s why I always ask to be kind to those who work.
The Mezzalama Refuge and Cecilia Mercadante
Refuge patrons
Who attends Mezzalama?
There are regular customers, who come back every year, even several times! I have met a lot of people during these four seasons, with many I have kept in touch. Between June and July there are mostly mountaineers going to Mt. Rose, but in August hikers come , and unfortunately also people who are a bit less trained. The main problem is their lack of awareness towards those who work all day, with sometimes absurd demands-and sometimes rudeness. Foreigners are very polite: the mountain guides even clear the table and offer to help you wash the dishes! In general, however, nice people come: the first year, back from working in Milan and in hotels, I was very amazed, if only by the fact that they were asking me my name here, giving me an identity and having curiosity about me.
What is it that those who come bring to the shelter that would otherwise be lost?
The fruit or brioche, which they often bring us as gifts! We see little of it when the helicopter arrives. The first few days we have fresh, first-rate provisions, but they run out after two weeks. It’s the small joys of being a refugee, daily goods taken for granted when you return to the valley, that make me feel happy here. Even the view: I’ve been seeing the same one for four summers, but each time I realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by beauty and immensity that still moves me. And then here the humanity of people emerges, which is lost in the city. When someone comes along who is tired and hungry, it comes naturally to take care of them, and that also gives me joy.
The view from the Refuge, photo by Cecilia Mercadante
Living in the mountains, away from everything
How do you experience isolation on days when there are few guests?
Sometimes I wish there were days when no one passes by… But people, especially the less experienced ones, now move even in bad weather, and come in a thunderstorm, in shorts at 3,000 meters. When a lighter day happens I read a book, I relax rest in bed. I write, I paint.
How has your relationship with the mountains changed since you have been living here?
I have more awareness, especially of safety: I know I have a responsibility to others, in giving correct information and the right welcome. I feel a lot of respect for the place that hosts us and sometimes a little sadness, because I realize that the heat has arrived here too: we are often in short sleeves; the little waterfall that was gushing in July is already there in June-last year it lasted a month, this year it is already over; the little Verra glacier is shrinking more and more. Climate change is in your face, and it makes you think. And here you can also see the pollution: on the boulders I collect old milk from the 1970s-80s and realize how much the mountain has been abused.
I have not yet been to Rifugio Ottorino Mezzalama and hope to do so by the end of the season to bring Cecilia and the girls who work with her fruit, a brioche, and some humanity from the valley. In the meantime, if you want to follow her adventures at the Refuge, you can do so at her Instagram profile.
