The mountain hut managers: “Sentinels” at the Trento Film Festival

The mountain hut managers of the Dolomites World Heritage will be the stars of an event organized by the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation as part of the Trento Film Festival with which they have continued a fruitful collaboration for years. The even takes place on Thursday, 5 May at 5.30 pm at Palazzo Roccabruna in Trento. This will be an opportunity to introduce the #mountainhutlife initiative which was conceived by the UNESCO Dolomites Mountain Hut Managers Network itself in order to talk about their daily activities in person, increase the awareness of visitors and bring about an ever-increasing commitment to sustainability.

#mountainhutlife: the managers show their faces

For several years, the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation has been right there with the 66 mountain hut managers who are returning to the “core” area of the World Heritage on a track that includes training, listening and collaboration. The transformations that mountain visits have undergone in recent years have led the managers themselves to reflect on the need to convey to the visitors the purpose of their work, including the limits of an occupation that is, first and foremost, a defence of the mountains. They would like to enlighten visitors as to the day-to-day difficulties to which the requests (and sometimes demands) of the users must be calibrated, particularly with respect to water consumption which, after a winter with almost no rainfall, will be the real test of shared responsibility this summer.

Hence the idea, which emerged last November during the annual course organized by the Foundation and held in Primiero-San Martino di Castrozza, of getting involved by communicating directly with the public, a bit like people do in the mountain huts during long days or, even more often, evenings.

The many testimonials collected during the first four years of the television program “Noi Dolomiti UNESCO”, created by journalist Giambattista Zampieri, will serve as the basis for a series of video clips that will be produced by the managers themselves during the season; the purpose is to inform users of the daily challenges, small and large, of a unique occupation which is highly significant in terms of environmental and cultural protection as well as safety.

The programme

The mountain hut managers have to know how to get by in the most diverse situations; they have precise skills and at the same time, they need to adapt them to a constantly changing context. But more than anything, they are the sentinels of the World Heritage. They are the first to see the transformations occurring in the environment and the changes in how people visit it.

For this reason, not only will we talk about the #mountainhutlife initiative at the Trento event, but we will give a full perspective on the role of the mountain hut managers as well. The participants will include Mara Nemela – director of the Dolomites Foundation, Roberta Silva – president of the Trentino Mountain Huts Association and manager of the Roda di Vael mountain hut (TN), Marika Freschi – manager of the Pordenone mountain hut (PN), Raffale Alimonta – Alimonta mountain hut (TN), and Mario Fiorentini – president of AGRAV the Association of Mountain Hut Managers in the Veneto and manager of the Città di Fiume mountain hut (BL).