Our 12,000th Member: Matteo Pellington

Matteo has been living in Switzerland for less than a year, yet he embodies the typical Uto member. The youthful Briton is pursuing his PhD at ETH, which brought him from the UK to Switzerland. Here, he wants to stay for a while, explore the mountains, and advance his research on motion planning self-driving cars.

He lives in a shared apartment in Wollishofen—“A house on the hill, I had to get used to that,” he laughs, adding, “This hilly city keeps me fit.” But he prefers cliffs for climbing and slopes for skiing. “I started winter sports at an early age, and I have been climbing now for 8 years. I loved both immediately. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the big mountains...” Matteo grew up with his family in Tuscany and the UK. There are actually a few ski resorts in Tuscany. “We often went to Abetone on the weekend. Now I want to get into ski touring and high-altitude alpine tours in Switzerland.” Discovering new mountain sports and improving his skills are the main reasons he joined Uto. “There are so many different sports in the section that interest me, and I’m convinced that I’m in good hands with Uto.” Besides, he loves hut stays and goes indoor climbing often, so the discounts for members come in handy. “On August 3rd, I’m going to the Cabane de Moiry of the SAC Montreux section.” But, he emphasizes, it is also important to him that the club is committed to maintaining huts and trails and to environmental protection. An important cause I want to support.

“I’ve already marked many I want to do, but I first need to do the respective courses and home in the relevant skills..” He hopes to meet like-minded people and gradually get a better sense of which activities he prefers. Matteo arrived in Switzerland in the fall of 2023, and so far, he has focused on indoor climbing at Gaswerk.

He likes Zurich and sometimes has to chuckle about the Zurichers: “You just leave your helmets on your bikes, or you don’t lock your bike to a bike stand, just the frame and tires. That would be impossible in other places”, he laughs. He’s also a bit taken aback by the prices here: “I can’t really tell if I’ve bought something good for the price or not.” Additionally, he finds it amusing that the price tags in supermarkets are sometimes above the item, and sometimes below, “But you learn very quickly when you end up paying more than expected”. 

At that moment of our interview, a car crashes into a tram of line 10, right in front of our eyes next to ETH. If only they would have had Matteo’s software.