From 150 to the peaks. The anniversary of the first professional booklet will be remembered with a series of events and with the Ferragosto party
Cortina. «Let’s make the mountain museum, we preserve our traditions, our origins, what has transformed us from simple farmers and woodcutters to a world-famous tourist town; let’s not allow our history to be forgotten ».
This is the heartfelt appeal made to the representatives of the administration by Franco Gaspari last night during the presentation of the events organized by the Cortina Alpine Guides for the 150th anniversary of the first official guide booklet in 1871.
The guide Paolo Tassi introduced the evening at the Col Drusciè refuge, briefly recounting how the profession actually began before 1871, when Paul Grohman climbed the main peaks of Cortina.
Luca da Poz, president of the association, illustrated the program for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the group: «The guides who preceded us have done a lot and we want to do something to remember them. This is the first of the events. On August 15, the day of the guides’ festival, as every year, a film with a historical part will be shown in Piazza Dibona, as well as interviews with the various presidents who have followed one another at the Cortina guide office. After the film, there will be an aperitif in front of our office. On 27 August at 6.15 pm, again in Piazza Dibona, we will have Nirmal Purja, the first man to have climbed K2 in the winter months, who will tell the extraordinary feat right here, the town of Lino Lacedelli who first conquered the summit of K2 together with Achille Compagnoni. At the end of September there will be Delicious climbing, a climbing competition with a ranking but no competitive purpose, a way to climb together all day ».
The lighting of via Dimai, Verzi and Heath, on the south face of Punta Fiames, should also have been inaugurated yesterday, to commemorate the 120 from the first ascent. The cloud-covered evening did not allow us to see the trail of lamps that some guides brought along the street last Monday, but Franco Gaspari illustrated the history of this first opening and of the Ampezzo guides.
“What is a street? Climbers decide on a route to reach the top»Explained Gaspari. «You climb the route, make a report, leave a few nails, and of what has been accomplished only the report remains to allow others to repeat the route. Angelo Dimai and Agostino Verzi were friends and peers, and what they did 120 years ago today still gives us positive feelings and satisfaction. These guides at the time used stiff hemp rope and cloth shoes made to measure by a local shoemaker. They had no carabiners, so they didn’t make sure, except when they found a spike and passed the rope behind it. Customers paid a lot then ». And among those customers was King Albert of the Belgians, a great enthusiast who came every year to climb in Cortina. —
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