Dario Ferro has lived in Champdepraz, in the Aosta Valley, for almost twenty years, mainly in the summer; because he spends the other months of the year travelling in the wildest parts of the world to do photographic services.
One of the most noted and established extreme sports photo reporters, –  and official Canon photographer - Dario’s interest in images and films began in his early teens. 
«My passion for photography started in the mountains», he says, «because the Aosta Valley skies, the colours of the forests, the reflections from the snow and glaciers, remained with me for only a few hours before it was time to return home. Then I realised that a few snapshots would make the sensations I experienced last over time»
Summer excursions were followed by skiing - not down regular compacted-snow pistes but only on untouched dry powder slopes, far from ski lifts and cable cars.
Dario perfected his downhill skiing with Aosta Valley ski instructor Giovanni Marciandi, an authority in the field of off-piste skiing.  He then graduated to steep-slope skiing with Giorgio Passino, friend and sports companion of Stefano De Benedetti, the well-known extreme skier.
The summer season for Ferro means rapids (he is a canyoning instructor and hydro speed guide), ascents and alpinism.
The young photographer was fascinated above all by action, by the remarkable exploits of great sportsmen and sportswomen.  «At that time photography techniques were unable to represent extreme movements close-up.   I wanted to freeze those fantastic actions.
«In the Eighties, downhill skiing could only be filmed from a helicopter, with no close-ups of the protagonists in action..  I realized that if I wanted to take the shots I had in mind, I would have to live the same situation as the descending skier, going with him/her into almost perpendicular goulottes, following him/her before and after a spectacular passage, participating in the action and living it to the full - without a helicopter.
«That was how my first photos of extreme sports were born: for pure passion, for the joy of living experiences from within, relying on my own resources, which meant using skis, hanging from a rope, with crampons on my feet and a pick-axe in my only free hand».
After only a few seasons, Dario Ferro’s first photographic services appeared in leading Italian and European dedicated mountain sport magazines.
In the Eighties, he was invited to Milan by a leading publicity agency, I.S.M, to set up a team of  protagonists of various extreme sports for the purpose of publicizing a wristwatch and talking about the philosophy of the company that made it. 
Dario became official photographer and production manager of the Sector No Limits Sports Team. From then until 1998, he worked for Sector No Limits with athletes of the calibre of Manolo, Mike Horn, Patrick De Gayardon, Chantal Mauduit, Umberto Pelizzari, Hans Kammerlander, Borge Housland, Barbara Brighetti, Angelo D’Arrigo, and many others. 
In charge of photography and video productions manager for Sector, Dario collaborated with directors such as Didier Lafond, Michele Radici, Alessandro Gatti and Stefano De Benedetti, and travelling all over the world:  Greenland, the Coca Canyon in Peru (the deepest canyon on Earth), the Amazon, Asian Russia, Nepal, Tibet, Alaska, Iceland, seas and mountains of Europe, numerous regions of South America.....
In his spare time Dario, with friends from the Team, held conferences for charity, the scope being to build a nursery school in Rwanda for children in need.  It was a grand initiative which yielded optimum results thanks to co-operation by all the Sector athletes.
He  was also photographer for Formula 1, the World Ski Cup and the World Free Climbing Cup.
In 1992 he founded the Vertical Adventures No Limits Centre in the Aosta Valley.  The school, of which he is still director and reference point for canyoning enthusiasts, is open to anyone seeking adventure in the rapids and mountains.
In 1998, the deaths of Patrick De Gayardon and the alpinist Chantal Mauduit brought his No Limits experience to an abrupt end.  It was a difficult time for Dario who found it hard to come to terms with the loss of two such very close friends with whom he had shared so many challenging exploits.
In 1999, he joined the C.N.A.S. (National Mountain & Speleological Rescue Corps).
Time passed and, slowly but surely, his love of nature and sports, and his passion for photography gave new impetus to his life.
He is presently engaged in a very long-term project, accompanying his friend Mike Horn on a fantastic voyage around the world, partly on foot and partly aboard the Pangea, a 40-meter ocean-going sail boat, built by Mike in a Brazilian favela.
This time, however, it is not just a sport adventure.  Following careful selection from among youngsters visiting Mike Horn’s blog, groups of adolescents between the ages of 16 and 19 are already or will in the future be accompanying Horn, following his progress and working on improving the living environments of the places visited.
For many youngsters - sports-oriented, with a good cultural level and the ability to relate to others even in critical moments (just think of life on a sail boat in the midst of an ocean crossing) - it will be an unforgettable experience to come into contact with realities and worlds usually seen only in television documentaries.
The testimony and stories of the young people accompanying Mike Horn will be the subject of a large-scale environmental-based conference in the coming years. 
The first stages of the project were the Antarctic and New Zealand.  Polynesia will be the next stop, to be followed by many other destinations: from the Pacific islands to the regions of South East Asia, from the Gobi desert to Russia and the North Pole, from the Bering Straits to Alaska, and then on to Canada and the States, Central and Latin America. 
It is a dream that will be fully documented through the lens of a photographer who has succeeded in orienting his life with the compass of passion, love of adventure and profound respect for nature.
 

Roberto Mantovani