Machaon’s team at the 25th Danilo Re Memorial

Already for the forth time in a row, Machaon’s team participated at the sport champioship of protected areas and conservation NGOs in the Alps – the 25th edition of Danilo Re Memorial, which took place on 16th-19th January 2020 in Kaprun and Mittersill in Austria in the beautiful scenery of the Hohe Tauern National Park.

Like in the previous editions, Machaon International created its four member team (this time all women team of ladies working in environmental education and youth programmes) in order to compete with the colleagues and friends from the Alpine region. As usual, the event started with an grand opening ceremony and the opportunity of tasting delicious culinary specialities from all the corners of the Alps in the traditional Alpine buffet. The first full day was dedicated to training and to exploring the Kitzsteinhorn massif. Thanks to the outstanding sunny weather, this day was a great treat for all. In contrast, the actual competition set in snowfall the other day made it a bit harder for the sportsmen. Anyway, all made it safely to the finish deserving the great party hosted at the historical Kaprun castle with unforgettable performance of Mauro Fissore’s band who played without let-up until 2 am making all dancing and having a great fun.

Danilo Re Memorial is not only about sport, but also about friendship relations and experience exchange between national parks and conservation NGOs in Alpine and Carpathian regions. We met with associated partner NP Gesause and representatives of other EU national parks and agreed  the possibilities for organisation of study-tours for the team of Northern Lights project, which we implement in Northern Russia.

The “Danilo Re Memorial” is an annual sport event dedicated to the memory of Danilo Re – a ranger from the province of Cuneo (Piemont, Italy) who tragically died during his service in 1995. Since then, the memorial provides alongside the trophy competition in four disciplines (ski mountaineering, downhill skiing, cross country and shooting) a great occasion for meeting of rangers and other staff of protected areas and conservation NGOs and allows celebration of sport, healthy lifestyle and friendship. With the nice memories from the event, one is encouraged to start training for the next memorial.