The Forum between Race Organizers and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation: the Common Goal is to Increase Ski Mountaineering Awareness

The third International ISMF Forum has been held during the last weekend in Claut, in the province of Pordenone, Italy, and developed in an atmosphere of dialogue and constructive exchange of ideas. Transclautana race organizers will host in Claut from 18th to 26th February 2011 the World Ski Mountaineering Championship.

The round table between the organizers of the 2011 World Cup races and of the ISMF international competitions has enabled the ISMF to start a project of mutual sharing and involvement on the part of the individual competitions. This project should lead to a higher recognition of the ski mountaineering, by obtaining, especially through television broadcasting, an important place for this sport performed in close contact with nature, which has the potential of attracting the interest of the public.

"The Forum, introduced by Claut Mayor, Mr Gionata Sturam, was attended by representatives of the committees that will organize the next World Cup in Pelvoux (France), Gavarnie (France), Val Martello (Italy), Tambre (Italy) and Zakopane (Poland).
“During the last months - said the ISMF president Lluis Lopez - we have created a marketing department that is trying, despite the troubles related to a particularly difficult economic situation, to attract the attention of important sponsors towards our sport.

The next goal to be achieved is to obtain television rights of the competitions in order to find relevant media spaces.
I am satisfied with this meeting – Lopez continues - because I have found availability and openness also on the part of the individual competitions, which understood the need of sharing and collaborating more closely on many issues in order to grow: the television broadcasting rights, the search of specific areas on the race track that can satisfy sponsor demands, and the idea of creating new initiatives around each event.

During the Forum, in which the technical director Andre Dugit and the pool manager Adriano Greco made their reports, the discussion focused on the need of making the World Cup calendar more international. The last event in Zakopane (Poland), to be held at the end of April 2011, has been chosen in order to fulfill this requirement. This decision of holding the last event of the World Cup for the first time outside of the Alps or the Pyrenees shows great insight. In the near future we will certainly see competitions taking place in Canada and the United States, as well as in China and Korea.

Among the different speeches, that of Mr. Sergio Buricelli, of the World Cup Organizing Committee, has attracted a particular attention. He has presented a financing project for that event, focusing heavily on advertising the territory of Claut and Valcellina (Italy), noting that, apart from private sponsors, it is local public authorities who have a shown an interest in associating their name to pure and unspoiled landscapes, to values such as environmental sustainability, which are at the core of the ski mountaineering.