Mountain accessible to disabled people:here is the company that leaves for 'Walking beyond'

Six travelers with reduced mobility will travel two routes in the Bormio area to face the positive challenge of "going beyond their limits"

LECCO – For two and a half days, from 29 September to 1 October, six travelers with very different characteristics – two with reduced mobility, one long-time member (CAI member since 1975), a junior walker, a visually impaired walker and a non-visual walker. hearing - and who for the most part have never met before, will experience a journey through nature and the related difficulties together. The group of walkers will tackle two routes in the Bormio area (Valdidentro): the Cancano lakes and Val Viola.It is the project promoted by Free Wheels odv - a non-profit voluntary organization that works in favor of every form of accessibility, trying to break down mental barriers as well as structural ones– which was presented yesterday at the headquarters of Acinque Energia in Lecco, which is a partner together with the national CAI.

“Walking further is an adventure that requires energy.An adventure that represents a positive challenge:go beyond one's limits":thus Giuseppe Borgonovo, president of Acinque Energia, introduced the meeting.Pietro Scidurlo, CEO & Co-founder of Free Wheels odv, one of the six protagonists, explained the meaning of the initiative:“We often talk about disability:we talk about accessibility, because accessibility concerns the possibility given to people, everyone, to live an experience.What we propose is truly an experience, to be lived independently.We are particularly happy that sections of our route coincide with the CAI's Sentiero Italia, which was among the first to commit to the issue of accessibility in the mountains".

The Italian Alpine Club “supports this project as it fits perfectly with our vision of a mountain accessible to all and with our commitment to making hiking increasingly inclusive", stated Angelo Schena, member of the Central Steering Committee of the CAI, who spoke on behalf of the General President Antonio Montani.“Experiencing the mountains, frequenting them and getting to know them is an opportunity that each of us must have the opportunity to seize, trying to reach our own limit and perhaps move it a little further” he concluded, defining the two itineraries chosen as “two true jewels at a naturalistic and landscape level".

Illustrating the two routes was Danilo Genovina, hiker and CAI member since 1975, who explained:“This singular experience will be told by a video, which will intertwine personal experience with the great themes of accessibility for all and the enjoyment of the territory, never complete and widespread as in slow travel.The film, which will be made by two videomakers and a director who will take part in the journey, will -naturally- be equipped with the appropriate techniques to be usable even by deaf and visually impaired people".The video - and all the dissemination material that will be created - was created to build awareness, with the power of images, on three essential points.One is that creating, where possible, conditions of accessibility for all is a determining key for the sustainable development of the territory.The other is that even people with specific needs, with appropriate precautions, can live a regenerating experience like that of the Camino.The third is the disruptive power, on a human level, of sharing.But there will be no shortage of other important topics such as adapted hiking, how far mountain accessibility should and can go, and safety: walking independently does not mean walking alone.

“As a municipal administration we work to make the mountain experience inclusive, taking care of some paths with an eye, for example, also on families with small children or the elderly.It is a long and demanding job, which we are carrying out with the involvement of associations with the aim of spreading a culture of hospitality and accessibility" remarked the Tourism Councilor of the Municipality of Lecco, Giovanni Cattaneo, who proposed an involvement of experiences like Free Wheels in this work table.Also speaking at the press conference were the president of CAI I Lecco, Adriana Baruffini and the president of CAI Lombardia, Emilio Aldeghi:“For years as Cai Lecco - they recalled - we have been practicing mountain therapy, involving some guests of the mental health department of Lecco Hospital.Building accessibility conditions in the mountains means rethink the paths, prohibit their use by motorized vehicles, consider aspects such as width or steepness, insert a signage also braille“.