Alessandra Prato is a promising talent in modern mountaineering. Her climbing style with expansive moves is accompanied by a dreamer’s gaze, always tending upward. Indeed, the climber from Milan has her destiny in celestial bodies: one of her nicknames is Luna, and she holds a double degree in physics and astrophysics as the basis for her professional career.

Ale’s mountaineering career is a relatively recent development. As a child, she practiced athletics, a discipline that over the years made her flexible and versatile. Climbing and her first outings in the mountains didn’t come until after the age of 20, but in a short time she discovered an overwhelming passion that literally upset her plans, both athletic and otherwise.
 
Born in 1995, she has in climbing found a passion that allows her to challenge her physical and mental limits, and, of course, to look at the stars more closely. In love with every aspect of the mountains, Alessandra has in recent years climbed on surfaces ranging from rock to ice to snow to mixed terrain. Today she excels in long routes on rock, with a continuous (and increasingly ambitious) search for aesthetic lines with a high degree of difficulty.

Alessandra has already demonstrated her talent on a number of iconic rock towers, testing herself with top-level repetitions — from Mont Blanc to the Dolomites, from the Valle dell’Orco to the Matterhorn. Her talent did not escape the attention of Matteo della Bordella, who in 2023 selected her together with 14 other young Italian climbers for the CAI Eagle Team project, in collaboration with CAI (Club Alpino Italiano) and CAAI (Club Alpino Accademico Italian).

This experience has allowed her to climb together with some mountaineering legends and cultivate the dream of being part of an international expedition to Patagonia in 2025. An opportunity to explore new horizons and new dimensions and — why not? — to gaze up and admire the magic of the Argentine sky …

What route represented the turning point in your climbing career?
Tissi on the Torre Trieste was my real Dolomite initiation. I did it with my friend Omar a few years ago. An endless day spent running on crumbly clods, losing the route looking for bolts, compressing chunks of rock with our hands to keep them from coming loose, completing a ridiculous number of rappels during a storm in chutes that had become waterfalls. I’d never been so tired before, but I fell in love with the Dolomites!
 
The CAI Eagle Team is giving you the opportunity to climb with the best climbers of your generation, and more. What aspects do you think you’ve improved the most in since you joined the project?
Both technical and personal aspects! Climbing with mountaineering legends — people like Matteo della Bordella, who until a few months earlier I had only followed on social media or information sites — gives you goosebumps. On a personal level, I’ve become more aware of the limits that I can push myself beyond, and of my strength as a climber. I started going to the mountains late, so I had to rush ahead. The CAI Eagle Team has allowed me to stop for a moment, reflect on myself, and give shape and tangibility to my mountaineering dreams.
 
There’s a very close relationship between climbing and the stars, especially for you. How do you see this relationship?
Exploration is what ties everything together. For me, exploring means going into the unknown with your mind, eyes, hands, and heart. I love going toward the unknown — or, rather, I seek it out. This is the common thread between my love for the universe and my love for mountaineering. Knowing more.
 
What’s your favorite Karpos product?
I choose the Alagna Down Jacket when it’s cold, and the Storm Evo kit when it’s raining or snowing.