In December 1979 Italy’s state television RAI opened its regional branches with the result that Valle d'Aosta had its own mountain television. There is a fine line between mountaineers, directors, cameramen, journalists, mountain dwellers and mountain guides. The region’s inhabitants were now lucky enough to have a television station that told the mountain’s role in human life, where history, anthropology and entertainment blend in a series of programmes that help mountain culture free itself from stereotypes. In those years, we watched the daring achievements on the granite slopes of Monte Blanc by Casarotto, De Benedetti, Boivin, Berhault, and Piola, to name just some. Mountain television also introduced us to the first climbing shoes and the giddy drops involved in abseiling.