Italian climbers’ summit note found on Türkiye’s Kaçkar Mountains after 54 years

TRABZON

Turkish mountaineers have discovered a handwritten note left by Italian climbers on the summit of a remote peak in the Kaçkar Mountains in in northeastern Türkiye, more than five decades after it was placed there.

Members of a mountaineering club found the note during a climb about six weeks ago in the Kaçkar range, which runs along Türkiye’s eastern Black Sea region.

Near the summit, the team noticed a stone cairn — known among climbers as a summit marker — and inside it a tin food can weighed down with rocks.

Inside the can was a plastic-wrapped piece of paper dated Aug. 20, 1972, bearing the names of Italian climbers and identifying them as members of Club Alpino Italiano from Pordenone.

After researching the note, the Turkish climbers confirmed that it was left by an Italian expedition that climbed the mountain in 1972. The climbers were between 23 and 32 years old at the time and included Enzo Laconca and Giovanni Martin, whose names appeared on the note.

Metin Çolak, the head of the club, said the peak, known as Atalanı, rises to about 3,428 meters and is a relatively little-known, standalone summit in the heart of the Kaçkar Mountains.

“We were astonished to realize that Italian climbers had stood in the exact same place 54 years before us,” Çolak said. “None of us were even alive when this note was left there.”

According to the group’s findings, a Czechoslovak team had also climbed the mountain in 1969, making the Italian expedition one of the earliest documented ascents.

Club member Hakan Demirci said the Italian climbers expressed strong interest in the discovery and welcomed efforts to preserve it.

The Turkish team plans to keep the note and container as part of a proposed mountaineering museum dedicated to the Eastern Black Sea region.

“If such a museum is established, they told us they would like to attend the opening,” Demirci said.