Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ROME, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- An Italian mountaineer known for scaling peaks in his bare feet said he's preparing to take on Japan's fabled Mount Fuji. Antonio Peretti, 47, a forest guard and part-time adventurer, plans to try the climb in October, following the same footprint -- uh, blueprint -- that earned him the nickname "the barefoot climber," ANSA reported. Advertisement Peretti, who climbs under the moniker Tom Perry, is an amateur parachutist, hiker and biker who said he "discovered his true calling" after shedding his hiking boots and running down a mountain in 2002, the Italian news agency reported. Since then, he's trekked over peaks in Italy and elsewhere, such as Mount Blanc, Kilimanjaro, Makalu in the Himalayas, as well as volcanoes in Ecuador, Bolivia and Sicily's Etna . Peretti said on his Web site the Earth "transfers its energy to me while barefoot. I am spiritually reborn, I become a conduit for positive and genuine values." Peretti has used his climbs to raise money for environmental causes and peace organizations.
