Originally, the magazine BergUndSteigen was purely a specialist magazine for mountain guides and alpine managers. The initiator of BergUndSteigen was the Austrian Alpine Association. Unlike its sluggish, conservative German counterpart, the ÖAV regularly comes up with surprisingly innovative projects: And BergUndSteigen is a real masterpiece!
The BergUndSteigen magazine has changed over the years: Circulation and readership have grown considerably, and the other European Alpine clubs (SAC, AVS and DAV) are now also on board as co-publishers. However, there is still no comparable magazine that can keep up with the three annual issues of the risk management magazine in terms of quality, profundity and topicality. The layout, for which graphic designer Lisa Manneh is responsible, is also consistently refreshing and boldly different. The fact that the number of advertisements has also increased steadily in the course of growth is fine, as these remain (with a few exceptions) neatly separated from the editorial section.
The magazine's unique selling point is primarily due to its extremely profound editorial team. For many years, Michael Larcher was the editor-in-chief responsible for the magazine's success. Michael Larcher is one of the most renowned avalanche and risk experts in the German-speaking mountain sports scene: he is not only an experienced mountain guide and instructor, but also the developer of the Stop-or-Go risk check method. In the meantime, his colleague Peter Plattner has taken over the management and in a duet with Walter Würtl (both are mountain guides and recognized avalanche experts and assessors) as well as the many specialist authors, they manage to put together a good, usually even very good magazine every time: a colourful cross-section of current, often controversial alpine topics and articles. The BergUndSteigen articles often trigger controversy and help - and this is also the aim of this specialist magazine - to open up necessary discourse and provide the framework for it.
The two winter issues are always of particular interest to me, one of which is usually dedicated exclusively to the topic of avalanches and avalanche risk management.
Many of the regular authors are among the best-known experts in their field: Werner Munter, Manuel Genswein, the recently deceased Martin Engler and Jürg Schweizer (head of the SLF) are examples of this. It is therefore hardly surprising that the quality of the articles is almost always second to none. While other "magazines", one could also call them "long-running commercials", are content to regurgitate the press releases of various manufacturers' PR departments in a slightly modified form, BergUndSteigen remains refreshingly honest, often controversial and occasionally downright (positively) outrageous: for example, in the current issue (1/2014) in which Michael Larcher expresses his criticism of dubious advertisements from advertising clients in this magazine in his editorial (!). Publicly voicing criticism of ethically questionable advertising not only shows courage and independence, but also a culture of honesty in business, the lack of which is criticized by many, but in which most do not participate due to a lack of courage.
Thank you, dear BergUndSteigen team! Thank you for the many good ideas and current topics that the PG editorial team - we gladly and freely admit - are always happy to help themselves to.
Parts of the current issue can be downloaded free of charge from the BergUndSteigen website
