ED: How did your IFALP initiative come about?
LR: Our initiative actually started at the beer table. It was initially a loose blogger meeting organised by Markus Stadler.
Markus Stadler, who moderates the "Avalanches" Facebook group?
Yes, exactly. He's a well-known author of guide books from Rosenheim and he organised a meeting of winter sports bloggers and alpine journalists. We spent a nice weekend together, brainstorming where there are synergies or what projects we could start together.
When was that?
That was in April 2019, and we got straight down to business. We thought about how to structure the website, how to word it and what the right approach would be, for example: "We would like to see more cooperation in avalanche warning" instead of "We demand...".
The joint avalanche report of the Euregio project Tyrol - South Tyrol - Trentino has been well received. There are definitely regions that are interested in joining. Others, on the other hand, prefer to continue modernising their avalanche reports on their own. The whole thing seems to be highly political and very labour-intensive. How can that work?
The basic idea is to make politicians and the public aware that there is room for improvement. We believe that normal ski tourers and freeriders are aware that there are big differences in quality. However, they themselves do not actively come up with the idea of pointing out the urgency of this problem. Thus not building up the pressure in order to make improvements.
We don't want to explicitly specify what it might look like. Even if, in my opinion, the new Euregio Avalanche Report is the new benchmark. The system is open source. It would be relatively easy for everyone to join and no one would be left out in the cold. We say: work better together. That would be our wish!
Above all, we want to encourage politicians to make more resources available. This is the only way for them to recognise that a large part of the sporting population is behind this and finally wants to see greater progress in what is actually such a simple problem. In a Europe that already works together on so many levels...
At the moment, some regions are still cooking their own little soup. In Italy, for example, there are two different situation reports for one region. One from the AINEVA and one from the Meteomont/Carabinieri. On the same day, they issue different reports for the same region, sometimes with different levels!
That's why it's very important that every ski tourer talks about it. And if they can identify with it, support the initiative.
The EAWS, i.e. the European Association of Avalanche Warning Services, is the executive body here. The avalanche warning services know exactly where there is a problem or where there is potential for development. The will to co-operate is largely there. The problem is not because some people want to do their own thing. It mainly fails because there is a lack of money and staff. In Carinthia, for example, there is one (!) avalanche warden who is more or less on his own. For an area in the high mountains with thousands of active winter sports enthusiasts and guests. What happens if it fails?
A large sum has been made available by the EU for the Euregio project to set up infrastructure and IT in order to find good employees and compare the websites of various avalanche warning services. Many of them are not only outdated for 2020, they are antiques.
