International Mountain Day 2021

Once again, this year we had to give up the idea of holding an international event in person. But we have not given up the idea of coming together in a symbolic way. The result is the video we published on our social media on International Mountain Day, a collection of video clips shot by our national chapters. You can watch it here.

We are so grateful to MW Spain, MW Catalunya, MW Italy, MW Germany and MW Switzerland for their video clips and to Melanie Förster for cutting and merging everything.

Mountain Wilderness International and Mountain Wilderness Italy also organised an event in presence, in partnership with Teatro del Buratto, social cooperative EST – Educazione Sostenibilità Territorio, Trekking Italia, Environmental Humanities, Department of Cultural Heritage and Environment, UNIMONT (Mountain University) – University of Milan and CIPRA within the framework of the Reading Mountains festival, an initiative of the Alpine Convention. The event bore the title “Great things happen when men and mountains meet” and envisaged a short story contest as well as a photo contest on the theme mountains and/or climate change.

But there is another project we would like to draw your attention to, because it deserves all our respect and appreciation: www.unitedmountainsofeurope.it. This project, that enjoys the patronage of Mountain Wilderness, was devised by five girls who travelled through the mountains of Europe, practising various sports, from caving to paragliding, from climbing to cycling, from hiking to mountaineering, and at the same time collecting testimonies, ideas, complaints and proposals from countries, communities and people with the aim of asking the European Parliament to draw up a Declaration of Mountain Rights, as an important legal, political and economic instrument for the protection of the high-altitude environment.

The five young women activists of United Mountains of Europe gathered in Brussels on International Mountain Day, along with representatives of the outdoor community, of organisations as well as of the European Union, with the aim of engaging in thematic workshops and a panel discussion, as well as of symbolically handing in to the European Parliament their request to draw up a Declaration of Mountain Rights.

Hats off to your project, girls!