The Special Commission of the UN organization has included in the list of intangible assets of UNESCO the mountaineering, defined as "the art of climbing mountains and rocky walls, thanks to physical, technical and intellectual abilities". The recognition took place on the occasion of International Mountain Day.
Started nine years ago, the candidacy path was supported synergistically by Italy, France and Switzerland (with the coordination of the Courmayeur and Chamonix Municipalities). "We can only be happy for this prestigious recognition of an activity born in our mountains - commented the Councilor for the Environment of the Valle d'Aosta, Albert Chatrian - and that is part of the culture and traditions of the Aosta Valley".
Messner, good recognition but now define what mountaineering - "I am very happy that mountaineering has been recognized as a UNESCO intangible asset, but we need to define which mountaineering is. What will be present at the Tokyo Olympics through the races of climbing is this sport, climbing on slopes already prepared by others to reach the summit of Everest or Mont Blanc? This is tourism. Here, in my life I have done something different. , the one that goes from 1786 with the first ascent of the Mont Blanc to today, which is a cultural fact, an approach with the mountain. This is a good that must be put under protection ". Thus Reinhold Messner, the first man to have climbed all the 14 highest mountains on Earth, comments on the news of the inclusion of mountaineering as a UNESCO heritage. "Personally - he adds - I feel the responsibility to save the narrative of traditional mountaineering, to tell it so that it is not lost. In the next few years of my life I have decided to take this commitment".
Torti (Cai), now measures to safeguard mountaineering - "While on the one hand this international recognition will contribute to giving visibility to mountaineering as such, on the other it will entail the obligation to adopt specific safeguard measures. And it is in this that the Clubs proponents of the Alps, Italian, French and Swiss, as well as Alpine guides and cross-border municipalities, will be required to raise awareness of possible new members, starting from the assumption that the freedom of access to the mountains, the approach to their attendance will be stopped requires learning and accompaniment phases, the exact opposite of the superficiality with which no-limits adventure messages are advertised ". This is how Vincenzo Torti, general president of the Italian Alpine Club, comments on the inclusion of mountaineering in the UNESCO heritage. "For this reason - he adds - already in the proposal signed at the time a constant activity of prevention with respect to the risks linked to the trivialization of the activities and places where it takes place and the strengthening of the preventive vigilance in the attention to the environment have been foreseen".
