Via ferrata del Vajont, the original idea by Fabio Bristot

Fabio Bristot, member of the Bellunese Dolomites Mountain Rescue Service, explains his reasoning that resulted in the construction of the Via Ferrata della Memoria, the new via ferrata which commemorates the 1910 victims of the Vajont disaster that occurred on 9 October 1963.
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Via ferrata della Memoria, the new via ferrata del Vajont
Fabio Bristot
This story isn’t about a past which is no more, it’s about history that comes to the forefront through remembering what happened. Through memories and recollections, that come to life with intensity and authenticity, with strength and courage.

The idea was to unite distant memories, to join communities that are different but united by the same date and experience, to unite from the top to the bottom via a physical element that lies between the dam and the Vajo riverbed... To make people remember via a route - the Ferrata della Memoria - that combines the history and historiography to the socio-cultural, and that generates unique emotions in future generations, perhaps distracted, as they view that “tragic rocky gut” and explore what was, what is and what the 9th of October 1963 will always represent.

This is the true, most genuine reasoning behind the idea in 2005 which, later, gave rise to the project when I discovered a plaque I didn’t know existed, placed by my grandfather in memory of his son Romano, who worked for the Adriatic Energy Corporation and whose body was never found.

Thanks to DolomitiCert, CAI Veneto, the University of Salzburg and the Mountain Guides who constructed the ferrata for the Interreg IV Italy-Austria - Project SAFERALPS n.6782.

Fabio Bristot - Rufus
DELEGATO CNSAS 2^ Zona Delegazione Dolomiti Bellunesi


09/10/2015 - Via ferrata del Vajont, the new via ferrata della Memoria above Longarone
On 2 October 2015 at Longarone (Italy) the new Via ferrata della Memoria, also referred to as Via ferrata del Vajont, was inaugurated above the Vajont Gorge. Constructed by the Cortina Mountain Guides, this is a different way to remember the Vajont disaster that struck on 9 October 1963





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