This week 80 women are adding a female chapter to the history of mountain sports, hitherto predominantly male: as part of the initiative of Switzerland Tourism 100% Women, which aims to make women more visible in mountain and outdoor sports, women from Europe, the United States, but also from countries such as Iran, India, South Africa, Kazakhstan or Ecuador arrive in Switzerland.
Together they formed the longest women's consortium in the world on the Breithorn (4164 meters), setting a world record.
Before the undertaking, anyone with the physical conditions necessary to tackle the climb could apply online for one of the ten vacant places available.
The remaining seats were assigned by the organizers to journalists and other candidates, from Switzerland and abroad, with the aim of composing a team as varied as possible, representative of all women.
Switzerland, among others, was represented by the historian Marie-France Hendrikx, very happy after the climb: «My participation in this women's adventure was full of positive energy and enthusiasm.
For nothing in the world I would have missed this unique event », were Hendrikx's words after the climb to describe her emotions.
«The history of mountaineering and mountain sports has thus been enriched with a chapter written by women.
Our hope is that the initiative will inspire many other women of today and tomorrow to write a new page in the history of this more open and more inclusive discipline. "
Even the Iranian climber Mina Ghorbani found the atmosphere of the women's consortium extremely positive: «Even if we women are stigmatized and have to fight against stereotypes and gender barriers, we still want to contribute equally to society.
This fight is more important in my country, Iran, than in other countries.
Initiatives such as 100% Women allow us to do this, also thanks to the connections with women climbers in Switzerland and around the world.
They show us that we all have the same goals ».
And also the Thai actress and «UN Women Goodwill Ambassador» Cindy Sirinya Bishop added: «We want to show that women should be represented and visible in all sectors, even in mountain sports.
Thanks to the better weather outlook and safety conditions (less wind, better snow and ice conditions), the ascent to Breithorn took place on Friday 17 June instead of Thursday.
This gave the arriving women more time to explore the alpine resort of Saas-Fee, the base camp, and to prepare themselves with a training session on the Längfluh glacier.
To ensure that the extraordinary images of the world record also travel around the world are the participants themselves, through their presence on traditional media and on their social channels.
In total, the participants through their social media channels alone reach over 24 million people.
For example, Korean actress Lee Si-young, accompanied by a Korean TV crew before and after the hike and who reaches over 17 million fans with her channel TikTok.
"The initiative allows us not only to unite women and make them more visible in mountain and outdoor sports in general, but also to better present Switzerland as a mountain destination at home and abroad", commented Letizia Elia, member of the Directorate of Switzerland Tourism.