RHM – Rendez vous Hautes Montagnes
News
SUMMER MEET 2024 – Saturday, 7 September – Saturday, 14 September
Blagaj climbing area, Blagaj, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Saturday, 7 September – Saturday, 14 September 2024
Sube Crag
The RHM
In 1968 Baroness Felicitas von Reznicek (1903 – 1997) who lived in Engelberg, Switzerland, founded Rendez-vous Hautes Montagnes (RHM), a coming together of women alpinists, on the summit of Titlis. A year earlier she had published “Von der Krinoline zum sechsten Grad”, a book about women climbing mountains. Since then there have been annual meetings of women climbers from all over Europe, always meeting in a different place, overcoming political and ideological boundaries, climbing together. They included famous names such as Loulou Boulaz, Yvette Vaucher, Jeanne Franco, Silvia Metzeltin, and the Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz.
With the arrival of sport climbing in the middle of the 1980s RHM adapted to the new trend, choosing venues suitable for alpine, traditional and sport climbing. Since 1999 there have been ice climbing and ski touring meets in winter. At the centre has always been the doing things together. In the evening everyone meets together and arranges trips for the next day. Everyone gets to know new climbing partners and renews previous friendships. All women come together at the final evening meal. The annual meets are organised in turn by the participating countries, each country having a co-ordinator. That, with the role of President, is the only structure. RHM has no constitution and no laws; it is a loose network, not a club. In 2013 two Italian women, Isa Bonicalzi and Claudia Cuoghi took over the role of President.
Today the network is open to all women who can lead climbs of grade 5 and above and can independently undertake their routes. There is no instruction; it is expected that each woman knows how to keep herself and others safe; RHM accepts no liability.
RHM 2016 Dolomiti, -Val di Sole (TN)