DEEP TRAIL ITALIA

Running Across italy for mental health

Transitions – of finding the step by step change in something, where the countryside emerges, or rather, where the city has relinquished its hold.

The Deep Trail Italia project is a 3000 km trail run across Italy, from the summit of Mount Etna, to the summit of Mont Blanc, along the Sentiero Italia, one of the longest and most spectacular mountain trails in the world..

72 marathons

3000 km

140,000 M D+

Etna - Mont Blanc

In June, 2023, I will run climb Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano, run 3000 km (72 marathons) along the Sentiero Italia over a period of three months, and finish by summiting Mont Blanc, Europe’s largest mountain. Then, I will gladly catch a lift home.

The project seeks to highlight human connection to place in our modern digital age. I am promoting mental health, Italy’s vast trail network, and psychogeography, the intersection of mind and physical place.

Sentiero Italia

The Sentiero Italia is a project of the Italy CAI (Club Alpino Italiano), intended to unite the whole of Italy along a single trail. It was conceived in 1983, inaugurated in 1995, and re-launched in 2019 with a set of maps and itineraries by the CAI.

The Etna – Mt. Blanc route is fundamentally a mystical approach to trail-running. It is a transitive state change from the south of Italy to the north, from the eruptive, red-hot lava-flows of Etna, to the dazzling white of Mt. Blanc, and all the energies in between.

My aim is to motivate as many people as possible to run with me – even 1 kilometer – to discover and become absorbed by the nature of Italian trails

When I close my eyes, I'm running

Not escaping, but living. Over patches of white, heart light, mind a hermetic seal against those tiger thoughts that very nearly had their claws in me.

The Project

In April, 2023, the company I worked for was restructured. I had to choose between finding a similar job, or doing something different with more risk attached, but linked to a dream. I’m usually pretty deliberate in decision-making (just ask my wife), but this time I channeled my inner George Costanza, and going on gut-feel, I did the opposite.

We all need to dream. In 2023, we face a physically disengaged workforce due to hybrid working, creating a potential for mental health issues to go undetected. The trails of Italy are a refuge – they have saved me for example time and time again when I’ve needed to elevate my own mental state (which is a fancy way of saying they kept me sane). This project seeks to use running as a platform to illustrate the importance of connecting with nature to create a more animalistic, and therefore human persona.

Your support makes a difference

This project relies on crowdfunding: 50% of all donations go to charities like Bigger Than The Trail – an organisation that uses trail running as a platform to provide free access to mental services to those in need (last year BTTT provided 730 hours of counselling sessions). The remaining funds are re-invested back into the project to create meaningful content and to help cover nominal expenses. Every section of this trail is a natural chapter, and I will be documenting and filming segments in order to capture and share the different regions from south to north. Thank you for considering supporting this project, every dollar, euro, or pound makes a difference!

Deep Trails Practice

Deep Trails is a practice of absorption into the physical environment which is shaping us

This can be achieved through the act of mountain or trail-running, combined with meditative techniques to elevate and slow one’s heart-rate:

Elevated heart-rate (hot) causes the mind-body to enter a more primal state – time appears to slow, and one can begin to glide over natural terrain, as a surfer rides a wave. This is particularly acute when downhill mountain running, where all senses are elevated due to the inherent need to focus. The mind opens, and finds equilibrium with the energies around.

Slow heart-rate (cold) via meditation causes the mind-body to slow, and helps to observe the environment with which one has been running through. The mind melds with the physical environment; The body becomes a channel to express the memories of the surrounding place.

Toggling through these states during a long run can create a unique connection within mind and space.

Deep Trails

Deep Trails are about long, contiguous distances by foot, and the ensuing connections with place that you can’t possibly predict.

About Me

I am David Orr, a Canadian ultra-runner and computer engineer living in Florence, Italy. I have been a CTO and Head of Engineering for several tech start-ups, while participating and finishing some of the world’s most difficult ultra races, notably the 100 mile UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc), and 200 mile Tor Des Geants.

Mental health has been a big part of my life – I worked and lived in New York for 8 years, and was addicted to work, which led to anxiety that I hid. Work addiction is often ignored or dismissed in today’s society. The term workaholic is misunderstood because there are multiple kinds – all workaholics work hard by definition – however, some are personally fulfilled by their work, while others are controlled by their work.

My passion is to reveal what makes us most human via trail running, writing & film and technology. I believe trail and mountain running, combined with the practice of psychogeography, can help us shape our most authentic selves.

Socials:

Psychogeography

Psychogeography is a study of how the physical environment shapes human emotion. It originated in 1960s Paris by Guy Debord and the situationists, who believed context and place (situation) was more deterministic on behavior than one’s own character. They rebelled against urban restrictions and wanted to usurp what they called the Society of the Spectacle, which focused excessively on imagery, and resulted in a societal degradation from being, to having, to appearing.

In the 2000s, the concept evolved further by British writers such as Will Self, Iain Sinclair, Nick Papadimitriou and John Rogers, who were deeply interested in how environment influences mood and psyche. Their psychogeography practices emphasised walking along under-served routes and edgelands, while exploring personalities of place.

Ramifications For Today

21st century life and technology have diluted our concept of physical space, as well our place in it, notably with the introduction of metaverses and digital spaces. Technology and AI have commoditised content generation, which leads us more forcibly into the Spectacle, where images and video are paramount. This in turn elevates the sense of sight to a special status once occupied by touch.

Sight is perversely, the most abstract and easily deceived sense. The concept of Deep Trails is a counter, focusing on connection over content via our most tactile senses, and an absorption into nature through the act of moving through it.

NFT Community

The Etna – Mont-Blanc run is sub-divided into 200 segments, of different lengths and elevation profiles. To commemorate the run and to help create a shared communal experience, I will be releasing a limited collection of 200 NFTs, which will be allocated to the first 200 people who make a donation to the project.

Each NFT is a unique segment. The NFT will be minted with the GPX track of the completed section of the run. Each person will receive a randomly generated segment, and will have the option to virtual crew me through their segment.

This NFT drop is meant to introduce people to the ideas of web3, act as a POAP (proof of attendance protocol), and create ways to bring people together during the run.