The Mountain Widerness Executive Committee met in Alice Superiore (It)

The traditional working meeting of Mountain Wilderness International Executive Committee was held on March 20, 2001 in Alice Superiore (near Ivrea), at the foot of the « Sleeping Beauty » range in front of the town hall (see photos).
This took place in an excellent working atmosphere and a great willingness on the part of all participants to boost the MWI image to new heights.
Going forward the MWI activities will be carried by teams organized along three domains: strategic projects, communication (internal and external) and secretarial / coordination for 3 geographical areas: Europe + Africa, Asia + the Middle East and the Americas. The presidents of regions or chapters will be sought for involvement more than before.

It was an opportunity for the committee to validate the recent MWI website upgrade, mainly handled by Gregory Hemptinne,

Alice Superiore Town Hall

and to give its recommendations to beef it up with attractive and appropriate content.

This was also the time to thank Gilles Privat for his work as General Secretary and for his management of the electronic media used by MWI such as the Website, Wikipedia and Facebook.
The committee enthusiastically greeted the return of Hugues Thiebault in its ranks and sought him immediately to become General Secretary, he accepted.
Carlo Alberto Pinelli made the proposal to appoint Kurt Diemberger Honorary President of MWI for his unflinching support, this was unanimously accepted.
A Dutch association represented by a young and dynamic delegation became a new chapter of MWI.

There were fruitful discussions regarding MWI future directions, they include:

  • Recruiting new chapters (United Kingdom, USA, Austria);

    The Sleeping Beauty
  • A project for rating mountains according to their level of “wilderness”;

  • The pursuit of the Asian desk activities with projects in Pamir (Oxus), Afghanistan (Bamiyan) and validation of the Wadi Rum call for help.

  • Fund-raising

  • A study about climbing equipment and practice impacts aiming at a better understanding of the climbing culture

The next General Assembly to be held in 2012 will be held in France as Mountain Wilderness France responded positively to the challenge of organizing this event.