Dinko Bertoncelj
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.“
This is one of the personal mottos of Dinko Bertoncelj, a gentle
man who is grateful for life and its opportunities. Even during the war and occupation in his native country Eslovenia, he has overcome difficult situations with faith and effort. It is under this same motto that he has, at age 77, descended Mt. Catedral after a nearly fatal accident at the age of 72 at Mt. Capilla—a mountain that he had climbed dozens of times.
Here’s what he tells about his recovery:
“It is a very personal experience. I was extremely lucky
that I did not break my spine, but a coagula impeded my
movements totally. I was quadriplegic for one year,
unable to move anything… Then I was in a wheelchair for
another year, but after that they helped me to get up.
During the first year, I was attended by three
chiropractors every day. One day,Tom Brummel and
Berti List of Fundacion Desafio Bariloche came to visit
me. They
explained to me the possibility of skiing again. I
couldn’t believe it, it was like a dream.
I purchased an exercise machine and every day while I
used it I thought: Next year, when Tom and Berti come, I
have to be fit again! Then, when that moment came, Tom
said: Let’s go! No matter the rain or bad weather! And
that helped me… It helped me a lot and it was the best
therapy I got in all these years, I told it to all my
chiropractors…
They gave me equipment that consisted of a pair of skis
and two special sticks that have two small skis and a
brake system fixed to them. At the beginning I practiced
in my own garden, but two years later I was already able
descend the slopes of Mt. Catedral.”
It is in the Catedral area that Dinko has worked and
formed ski schools and instructors for about 50 years
and where he still lives today, with his wife Romana.
 “The
mountain has taught me many things. In the mountain,
there are lots of difficulties, and if you surrender to
any of them, you’re out, you lost.”
His decision to settle in Bariloche was based on his
necessity to live in a mountain area and be able to
raise his children in a privileged natural and human
surrounding.
“I need to be in a place with good people.”
And Dinko was not wrong. He has a beautiful family who
support and accompany him and are connected with
activities in the mountains, a family who represent the
pillar he needs to go ahead.
He has also discovered a different Bariloche and
different Mt. Catedral where many people are working for
the support and progress of others (with a special
mention for the personnel of Catedral Alta Patagonia)
and the people of Desafio Bariloche who, through the
intervention of “his angels” Tom and Berti, gave him the
opportunity to ski again.
“My life has changed, but God gave me another
opportunity…”
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