01/02/2024
The public vote will determine the winners of the 5th edition
This competition, dedicated to the most innovative and avant-garde projects in the Italian mountain sector, invites the public to vote online to determine the winners of each category from a list of three finalists.
From 2nd to 29th February, everyone can vote for the most innovative and useful ideas in the sectors of ‘Services and apps’, ‘Gastronomy industry’ and ‘Equipment and clothing’ on the subject of the mountains.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, 31st January 2024_ The Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards (WIMA), a curatorial project of Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti that focuses on innovative and sustainable ideas for the mountains, is entering its fifth edition.
"Tangible solutions to concrete problems have always been invented in the mountains. Life at altitude has always required adaptability and the capacity to coexist with nature. We begin at an altitude of 2,732 metres, at the Lagazuoi cable car top station, to give back this huge creative and transformative potential to the peaks.” explains Stefano Illing, creator of the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti exhibition centre. "In recent times, we have made it our mission to showcase projects developed by companies, start-ups, associations and cooperatives, serving as a link and catalyst for the most exceptional experiences available to those who call the mountains home or visit them out of passion.”
Since 2019, the public has had the opportunity to discover - mentioning just a few ideas - ski suits made from apple processing waste, winter jackets made from tyres, extreme climate simulation chambers, digital forest workers and agriculture influencers, ski boots that read the skiing technique, barns becoming restaurants with regenerative gastronomy and cycle management, solid soluble beverages to take with you in your backpack, 'spacemen' high-tech suits for snow experiences, mini waste shredder for mountain refuges, new forms of territorial communication, augmented reality for tourism and much more.
This edition marks a significant milestone as it is the first time online voting will be implemented in this competition. The public will have the opportunity to choose the winners from the three finalists in each category from Friday 2nd February 2024 via the official Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards website. Voting is open until Thursday 29th February.
The projects will be on display in an exhibition during the summer season at the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti, in an area permanently dedicated to this competition.
Meanwhile, the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards are preparing to travel to the BIT trade fair in Milan on 6th February. At the Veneto Region stand, from 12 to 12.45 p.m., the WIMA finalists themselves will talk about their project: with an ‘elevator speech', they will have a few minutes to engage the audience by highlighting the strengths of their proposals.
Three categories, six selectors and a 'director'
Engineer Stefano Illing will be the chairman of each of the three selection and jury committees responsible for identifying the finalists for each category. He will be supported by several renowned specialists and experts. For the ‘Mountain equipment and clothing’ category, namely technical clothing and accessories suitable for high altitudes and special climatic conditions, he will be supported by Marco di Marco, director of Sciare Magazine for 23 years, and Giampaolo Allocco, designer and multiple award-winning expert in sport-related industrial design. The ‘Mountain services and apps’ category, which concerns innovative solutions using digital, augmented reality and social media, will rely on the expertise of Paolo Ottolina, a journalist at Corriere della Sera, a specialist in technology, innovation and the soul of the newspaper's website, and Max Cassani, a long-standing editor at the Milan editorial office of 'La Stampa', where he focuses on entertainment and mountains. And lastly, the category ‘Mountain gastronomy industry‘, which focuses on product and process innovation and measures to combat food wastage:
here the contact persons are Marco Colognese, a long-standing member of the editorial team of the guide to Italian Restaurants ‘Guida ai Ristoranti d'Italia’ edited by ‘L’Espresso’, and currently a contributor to the Hotels and Restaurants Guide ‘Guida Alberghi e Ristoranti’ of the Italian Touring Club and writes mainly for ‘Reporter Gourmet’, ‘Il Gusto’ and ‘Vendemmie’. as well as Alberto Lupini, reporter and correspondent of ‘Il Sole 24Ore’, ‘Il Mondo’ and ‘L'Eco di Bergamo’, and currently editor-in-chief of ‘Italia a Tavola’ since 2002 and of ‘Check-In’.
THE FINALISTS
Mountain equipment and clothing
• Garmont Lagom__A challenge for the future of outdoor lifestyle. The Garmont Uncharted line presents the Capsule Collection designed in collaboration with ACBC, culminating in the LAGOM sneaker. It is characterised by wide volumes and the typical streetwear style. This sneaker is made entirely of environmentally friendly materials, including recycled pre-consumer and post-consumer materials and others of natural origin. The result is a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to synthetic sports shoes.
• Rock Experience Silex_Searching for the vertical limit. Silex by Rock Experience is a supremely technical garment, the result of close collaboration with the Ragni di Lecco, profound connoisseurs of the mountains. This garment is ideal for ski mountaineering and climbing because it is thermo-regulating, lightweight and breathable, made of high-performance materials positioned by body mapping. Each specific part of the body is supported by different padding and fabrics to fit like a glove.
Weighing only 400 grams, you can stow it compactly in the pocket and take it with you at any time.
• Salewa Piuma 3.0_First rule: listen to those who climb. This has resulted in a helmet weighing just 175 grams, the lightest helmet ever developed by Salewa. It ensures freedom of movement, maximum protection, a full field of vision and is comfortable to wear. While its EPP-PC in-mould construction is engineered for enhanced energy absorption, a polycarbonate insert at the top provides additional protection from falling stones. In addition, the Dry Head ventilation system helps to keep the head cool at all times.
Services and apps for the mountains
• Alta Badia Nos Ladins_The project Nos Ladins / We are Ladins. The project Nos Ladins aims to bring tourists closer to local traditions and the way of life of the population through a calendar of appointments with native locals, the ambassadors of their lifestyles. From December to March, you can hike with a herbalist, accompany a rescuer and his dog, and get to know a young baker, a telemark enthusiast, a local game warden, a young weaver and a cross-country skiing and biathlon teacher. It is like having access to a living library made up of stories and people.
• The d’Aosta Valley Region Magic Skipass_Everyone knows the main ski resorts of the Aosta Valley, but there are also many hidden jewels to discover. It comprises 1,426 km of pistes served by 417 lift facilities in the ski resorts of Antagnod, Brusson, Chamois, Champorcher, Cogne, Crévacol, Gressoney-Saint-Jean, La Magdeleine, Ollomont, Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, Valgrisenche. This promotion combines a favourable six-day rate with a maximum stay of three days in the same resort with one hour of ski lessons and an overnight stay in a hotel for two under-18s.
• Waterjade Jsnow_The crystal sphere is called ‘J-Snow’: This platform, developed by the Trentino start-up MOBYGIS, calculates how much snow there is on the mountains and how much will fall in the coming months, also in order to estimate the water basin cycle. This software enables high-resolution, near-real-time snow monitoring and forecasting. J-Snow was born out of the previous experience of the eo4alps snow ESA project, aimed at developing a high-level snow monitoring system.
Mountain gastronomy industry
• Agriturismo Cortivo Pancotto_In 2005, Luca Pancotto and his wife Sonia moved away from the city to realise a dream: they wanted to become farmers. They gradually restored an 18th-century hamlet near Caneva in Friuli. They started with a vegetable garden and a vineyard, then decided to invest in gastronomy and opened a farm designed to also receive guests, the Agriturismo Pancotto, which was awarded Best Farmhouse Cuisine in 2018. In 2011, they restored an abandoned alpine hut, Malga Fossa di Sarone, where they produce award-winning cheeses from Alpine milk and host children and young people for educational projects during summer. Their most recent undertaking is to bring back to life an old inn situated at the La Crosetta Pass.
• Impronte della Terra / Traces of the Earth_This independent cultural project is aimed at raising awareness of the world of food and wine. In 2014, Gianluigi Garattoni and Riccardo Lagorio decided to give voice to Italy's artisans: butchers, bakers, cheesemakers, farmers, breeders, winegrowers and fishermen, the legatees of an endangered tradition that animates the country and makes the people who live there happy. Impronte della Terra seeks them out one by one in order to tell their stories and help them keep this irreplaceable heritage alive, enhancing a biodiversity that is not only ecological but social.
• Soilution system_The Soilution system has devised innovative techniques to reduce the risk of soil erosion and improve vineyard maintenance on hilly slopes and mountainous areas, at the same time preserving the beauty and productivity of the landscape. Soilution System is a project developed by the 'Consorzio Tutela Soave' consortium, which has created an integrated system of sustainable measures and technologies to reduce hydro-geological risk, including more environmentally friendly techniques. The scientific coordinator is Professor Paolo Tarolli from the Department of Agroforestry Systems at the University of Padua.
Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti_In 2018, the top station of the Lagazuoi cable car at an altitude of 2732 metres was transformed into an art gallery, a high-tech exhibition centre and a laboratory of ideas for the mountains, as well as a model for soft and sustainable tourism. Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti is a place of cultural valorisation that also generates curatorial content, such as the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards, a competition that highlights materials, technologies, apps and high-tech solutions related to the high mountains, and the Lagazuoi Photo Award, which aims to create an original visual language about the mountains. The barrier-free and energy-independent building houses exhibition rooms, a hall for events and conferences, and a bar with a terrace making it an ideal venue for events. lagazuoi.it
