March 2015. Lola was involved in a climbing accident in Val Daone with two other companions.That dark day in March, Lola lost the use of her legs: a sharp break of her spinal cord, L1 level. Their adventure, or misfortune, has been reported by many newspapers so we are not going to repeat the full story here. Loli BTTT (Loli Back To The Top) is a story of recovery, positiveness, and life!

GoFundMe. Immediately after the incident, many were the friends and people asking us how they could help Lola. It was overwhelming! The mountain world awakened and got together to support Lola. In April 2015, the group “Back To The Top”was born. At the start, BTTT was just a Crowd Funding Campaign that aimed to raise enough money so to help Lola not to worry about the more practical and financial aspect of re-building her life, whilst she could focus on the actual physical and mental rehabilitation… getting out from the intensive room of the hospital and being moved for months to a rehabilitation centre closer to our parents house, in Norther Italy.

Loli BTTT (Facebook group). Then the unthinkable happened and BTTT went globally viral! We went from a casual conversation and the idea of printing a few t-shirts for friends in order to help fundraising, to the actual creation of an incredible group of supporters that attracted mountaineers, climbers, skiers, ( couch potatoes like me!), and more. All of this pretty much in 48 hours. Our Facebook group has now 2,000 subscribers and even more supporters offline. Pretty soon, we realised that the t-shirts were no longer just for close friends but for people who have heard of Lola’s courage and fight from across the Alps, seas and oceans! Today BTTT t-shirts and supporters have traveled the globe, with our great message of solidarity, friendship, support, selflessness that is spreading around the world . Our “Thank you” will never be enough, but we can say that the fantastic Alpine and Mountaineering community in Italy has really moved mountains to help us!

With this blog we would like to keep you updated on Lola’s progress, as so many of you have supported and shown interest to represent us and to share your BTTT moments with us. In the meantime, our beloved  adventurous Lola has already picked up her active life: playing wheelchair basketball with the local team, kayaking around Southern Europe, and paraclimbing for the Italian National Team.

Last but not least, in September 2016 (Just 1.5 year after the incident) she will attempt to climb El Cap in Yosemite, California, with a team of strong climbers: Andy Kirkpatrick, Diego Pezzoli and Franco Perlotto. We will surely keep you in the loop of their progress in preparation to and during the majestic climb.

Thanks so much for reading so far, and we hope you will enjoy our adventures!