At ECASTE, we often talk about our projects, our clients, our technologies. Today, we want to share something different: a personal adventure. This summer, Emmanuel Castellani, founder of ECASTE, went hiking alone for 17 days on the GR52, to complete the GTM: the Grande Traversée du Mercantour, the great crossing of the Mercantour National Park in the French Alps. No team, no computer, no meetings. Just a backpack, mountain huts, and trails.

The numbers behind the crossing

Behind this crossing of the Mercantour lie numbers that speak for themselves:

  • 17 days of solo hiking, day after day
  • 255 km covered on mountain trails
  • 14,655 m of elevation gain — more than one and a half times the ascent of Everest from sea level
  • 15,854 m of descent, just as demanding on the body
  • Nights in mountain refuges, living by the rhythm of the sun

No support vehicle, no external logistics: each stage is prepared the night before, each pass is earned step by step.

Disconnecting when you're connected 365 days a year

Those who work with ECASTE know it: Emmanuel is extremely available for his clients. Connected every day of the year, he responds to emergencies, follows production releases, watches over the applications that keep dozens of businesses running. It's a deliberate commitment, at the heart of the trust we build with every client.

But this permanent availability has a downside: the brain never truly pauses. Notifications, messages, decisions to make — everything follows on, without interruption, year after year.

Hence this radical choice: 17 days of total disconnection. No emails, no code, no screens. The mountain imposes its own rhythm: walk, eat, sleep, repeat.

Hiking alone, sleeping in mountain huts

Walking alone for 17 days is a peculiar experience. In the first hours, the mind keeps spinning: ongoing projects, ideas, to-do lists. Then, kilometer after kilometer, the silence does its work. Attention returns to the essentials: the trail, the weather, the next pass, the next refuge.

In the evenings, mountain huts offer another kind of connection: simple encounters, meals shared with strangers from everywhere, conversations without an agenda. Social life reduced to its most authentic form.

And then there are those suspended moments, like the mountain lake at 2,500 m pictured in this article: deep blue water, a cirque of stone, silence. Images no screen will ever replace.

The Mercantour, land of the ancestors

This crossing was not a route chosen at random. Emmanuel is a native of the Mercantour, and the grandson of a shepherd — a grandfather who led his flock in Tende, at the gates of the Mercantour, on these very mountains the GR52 crosses today.

Walking these trails for 17 days was therefore much more than a hike: it was a journey back to his roots and a tribute to the elders who walked this land before him. Every pass climbed, every valley crossed carries the memory of those generations of shepherds and mountain people who lived by the rhythm of the seasons and their flocks.

Rediscovering these landscapes with his own steps, sleeping in the refuges of these valleys, is a way of picking up the thread — understanding where you come from to better know where you're going.

"In the mountains, you can't cheat. You have to move forward one stage at a time, manage your effort, adapt to the weather, accept that you can't control everything. That's exactly what a development project demands — but the mountain teaches it to your body, not just your head." — Emmanuel Castellani

What the mountains teach a business owner

This crossing wasn't an athletic feat for the sake of performance. It was a need to reconnect with nature and with oneself. And paradoxically, the same qualities drive a hiker forward and an application project:

  • Endurance: 255 km aren't covered in a day. Just as business software isn't built in a week. Consistency is what pays off.
  • Preparation: every stage is anticipated — the route, the water, the weather. Just as you design an application's architecture before writing the first line of code.
  • Humility: the mountain reminds you that you don't control everything. Knowing when to give up on a passage, adapting your route — that's also knowing how to adjust a project when the terrain demands it.
  • One stage at a time: facing 14,655 m of cumulative climbing, thinking about the whole is discouraging. Thinking about the next pass keeps you moving.

Coming back more available than ever

Disconnecting for 17 days when you're a business owner connected 365 days a year isn't a luxury: it's an investment. You come back with a clear head, renewed energy, and precious perspective on priorities.

Our clients benefit directly: a rested, clear-minded partner who has taken the time to think about what really matters supports better, advises better, decides better. The quality of availability matters as much as its quantity.

And the ECASTE team was there: our clients' applications kept running, requests were handled. A healthy company is also one that knows how to function while its founder gains some altitude — literally.

Conclusion

255 km on the GR52, 14,655 m of elevation gain, 17 days of chosen solitude on the land of his ancestors: this Grande Traversée du Mercantour will remain a founding interlude. It echoes a conviction that drives us at ECASTE: technology should serve life, not replace it. Knowing how to disconnect is also what makes it possible to build useful digital tools, designed for humans.

Do you have a web or mobile application project? Contact us. Emmanuel has come down from the mountains — and he's more available than ever.