A bit of history....
Collecting summits in the Apennines is an activity that is by now not all that recent. Many years have passed since the first website appeared, built on a third-level domain. The Club 2000m had only a few dozen members and few people knew it existed. But how did this adventure begin, which has led hundreds of hikers to collect the summits of the Apennines?
It all began with the publication of the book "I 2000 dell'Appennino" (the Apennine 2000s) by Alberto Osti Guerrazzi, Edizioni "Il Lupo". The book gathers the most popular routes to reach the most important summits of the Apennines that exceed 2000 metres. A book that was a resounding success: its first edition even came with a card to keep count of the summits reached.
The first to make his ascent of all the summits official was Marcello Ferrazza, followed by his travelling companion Italo Iachini. They are two friends who, in their spare time, managed in just a few years to climb all the summits of the Apennines. They are two true mountain enthusiasts, and what sets them apart is the meticulousness and patience with which they collected every summit.
I meet them for the first time on the loop over the summits of Monte Costone and Monte Puzzillo. They walk at a fast pace, we greet each other quickly, telling each other in a few words where we have come from and where we are heading. Their exuberant manner makes us smile and brightens our day. Each of us carries on his own way; without knowing it, we will meet again at one of the first gatherings of the Club 2000m.
Livio Rolle and Claudio Carusi know Giuseppe Albrizio, who is quickly collecting all the summits. He will be the next to collect them all, in July 2011.
A website is created for the members: it is the Club 2000m website. In those years, without knowing it, the history of hiking in the Apennines is being made. Collecting summits becomes for many an incentive to get to know the land as no one had ever managed before; the summit collection became the excuse to leave home at pre-dawn hours, to impose long walks on yourself and to see places that would otherwise remain nameless.
Among hikers the race begins to see who will be the next to collect the greatest number of summits. It is a race against yourself and of everyone against everyone. Even though it is a jovial race, it has the one flaw of having diverted the hiker's attention.
What is the point of collecting the summits of the Apennines?
But what is the point of collecting summits? My friend Diego M. scolded me for using the word "conquer" for a summit... it was too strong a word, too anthropocentric to be used about the mountains. This "distinction" made me think a lot. I must admit that you climb the summit, but the conquest is in having completed the undertaking; the land remains unconquerable. And anyway you conquer something of yourself, not of the mountain. In the word conquest there is a sense of appropriation that cannot exist in the mountains.
Collecting summits? In this sense too there is an implication of appropriation. Summits cannot be collected. They can only be climbed.
It is nice, though, to have the idea of a list that spurs you to get to know the land. Nice to have a constant spur to discover new places to get to know in the mountains. The true enthusiast, on discovering the great number of summits to climb, is like someone discovering a Christmas tree with endless presents underneath... they are the endless possibilities of ascent. I have felt the enthusiasm of chasing summits one after the other. I have felt the thrill of linking them one after another. Perhaps too impetuously, perhaps too obsessively. But it was positive, because collecting summits:
- can be a psychological stimulus, it urges us to go exploring, it pushes us to look for, discover and walk ever new paths.
can be a cultural stimulus, it pushes us to understand the land, the geography, the cultural and regional features of the Apennines.
can be a stimulus to break the patterns of a sedentary life, you force yourself a little to leave home, get your legs moving... make the blood pulse in your veins, feel life in your limbs....
The summits of the Apennines are not as high as the Alps and with a minimum of training everyone can reach them. It is the hiking vocation of the Apennines.
Collecting summits, perhaps, means nothing but... having a list to follow can really be a powerful stimulus for many hikers...