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Snow of Tomorrow | Valuable Nothing

The concept of the mountaineering villages

by Marion Hetzenauer 01/21/2020
In times of climate crisis and flight shame, vacations in the mountains are also being tested on one moral or climate-friendly measure or another. Well-considered concepts and approaches, such as those implemented in the mountaineering villages of the Alpine associations, not only focus on the fun factor for environmentally conscious guests, but also on nature conservation and the quality of life of the local population.

"Paying a lot of money to get nothing in return shows how scarce and valuable this nothing has become," (Klemmer, 2018) writes journalist Axel Klemmer in Bergsteiger magazine in 2018. He's not entirely wrong, especially when it comes to the Alps.

The alpine pastures and meadows have served as a livelihood for people for thousands of years, the unpredictable torrents that once shaped the image of the valleys have been tamed - over the millennia, this actually inhospitable world has become what we understand today by the Alps as a habitat, with an infinite amount of work: an economic area, still characterized by agriculture, a natural area with a tremendously large and small-scale biodiversity and a recreational area designed to satisfy people's primal need for connection with nature and at the same time, as "Europe's leisure park", their desire for adventure, sporting achievements and borderline experiences.

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Is the Sky the Limit?

Tourism became an economic driving force for many regions in the Alps and an opportunity for the local population to achieve independent prosperity, especially in places where no industry was established or only extensive agriculture was possible. The - often urban - Alpine clubs were not uninvolved in the development of the Alps with the construction of paths and mountain huts: scientific interest, pioneering spirit, measuring one's own strength against the forces of nature and the fame of first ascents drew people to and up the mountains. This has probably changed very little to this day - what has changed, however, is the position that the Alpine associations occupy in the Alps and their development, where the following now applies: the expansion of the Alps has reached its limits! Unfortunately, man tends to exaggerate and the effects of many a development have destroyed what was originally the attraction of the destination. Today, cable cars stretch recklessly from summit to summit - without question technical feats - and if you look at the expansion and renovation plans for large ski resorts, you have to believe that "the sky is the limit" has been set as the benchmark. Landscape and the intrinsic value of natural assets rarely play an important role here.

How can things be different and where should the journey of the Alpine region go?"

And at the same time, the question arises: "Where can you still find places where mountaineering is like it used to be, with an intact village culture against the backdrop of an unspoilt mountain world?"

The question may paint a romanticized picture of the Alps and mountaineering, but coupled with the vision of what a sustainable future for the Alps could look like, it has great potential. The model we are talking about is the Alpine Convention, "with which the Alps are constituted at the political level as a common space in Europe" (Bätzing, 2015, p. 390) and which establishes a desirable Alpine development as a treaty under international law. The individual protocols (spatial planning and sustainable development, mountain agriculture, nature conservation and landscape management, mountain forests, tourism, soil conservation, energy, transport) set out specific measures and are legally binding for the contracting parties, the countries bordering the Alps.

Finding places where "mountaineering is like it used to be" and that wanted to follow the path of sustainable development in accordance with the Alpine Convention was the ambitious task that Peter Haßlacher, then head of the spatial planning and nature conservation department at the ÖAV, and spatial planner Roland Kals set themselves from 2005, laying the foundation for today's transnational initiative "mountaineering villages".

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More than just tourism - with appreciation for added value

In 2020, 29 mountaineering villages in four Alpine countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia) are members of this Alpine Club initiative. In addition to the wide range of mountain sports on offer, the municipalities, tourism associations and partner businesses, together with the Alpine clubs, are consciously committed to shaping sustainable mountain tourism by creating offers and incentives for the preservation of their unique landscapes, their natural and cultural treasures. Quiet peaks, well-tended landscapes such as alpine pastures and mountain meadows, living traditions or locally produced food may seem unspectacular to some, but for others they are great treasures. The Alpine associations have set themselves the task of bringing these places together with those visitors who are looking for their special features.

This is about more than just tourism development, bed numbers or overnight stays. It's about using and appreciating what already exists and thus creating added value for the local population - be it by consuming or buying regional products, by staying overnight in a family-run business, by enjoying refreshments in a village inn after a hike, or by using public transport and hiking taxi services on arrival and on site.

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With the support of regional economic cycles, it will be easier to make the much-cited "good life in the Alps" possible for its inhabitants: The farmer will use his mountain meadows to produce special foods and not let them become overgrown if they find buyers in local hospitality businesses or in the village store. In turn, people find work there. If there are income opportunities in the village, fewer people are forced to commute or even emigrate, and young families are given prospects for the future, which they take as an incentive to build a future in the village. All this, and much more, is part of the sustainable development of rural regions, to which an authentic, tourist offer can contribute.

Sustainable travel

In addition to the offer, the behavior of visitors is also one side of the "sustainable travel" coin. After all, they are the ones who look for, make use of or even demand the offer. For guests who choose their destination because it is a mountaineering village, the quality promise of this certificate is crucial. This example shows that incentives, information and a little public relations work with the right target groups - as the Alpine associations do for their mountaineering villages - are necessary: an interview with tourism researcher Wolfgang Günther was recently published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, who came to the following conclusion in a study on sustainable vacation travel: Only 4% of respondents in the presented study said that aspects of sustainability were decisive for their travel decision, whereas 56% of respondents said they would like to travel sustainably. There is still a lot of room between these two figures, but according to Günther, there is also potential. "People travel to do something good for themselves - not the environment. You want to have a good time, enjoy life, give the year a highlight. If it's necessary to break our resolutions, then that's what we do: we give ourselves an exemption for our vacations. You don't go on vacation because you want to be sustainable, but despite it," says Günther.

In my opinion, what these figures and the statement also make clear is that the call to "Be environmentally friendly!" or even "...sustainable!" still acts as a deterrent. It makes sense to many, but the hurdle to incorporating the resolution into everyday life is high. On the one hand, the number of things that need to be done differently calls previous practice into question and, on the other, the number of measures required is overwhelming. But as with mountaineering, the same applies here: One step at a time and weigh up which route is the most feasible with the equipment you have with you. If many players - local initiatives, committed Alpine residents and sensitized visitors to the Alps - apply small measures, paths to a desirable future will open up. As Alpine associations and sponsors of the Mountaineering Villages initiative, we hope to be able to contribute to a good life in the Alps in this way.

Partners of the Mountaineering Villages

  • Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV)

  • German Alpine Association (DAV)

  • Alpenverein Südtirol (AVS)

  • Planinska Zveza Slovenje (PZS)

  • Club Alpino Italiano (CAI)

An overview of the Mountaineering Villages criteria:

  • Quality of the landscape: Attractive cultural and natural landscape with a mountainous character, protected areas, restraint in technical developments in the Alpine region, no connections to intensive tourist winter sports facilities, no facilities for energy generation on a supra-local scale, no location on high-capacity traffic routes.

  • Alpine competence: competent local alpine advice; developed and well-maintained network of trails;

  • Mobility quality: accessibility by public transport and local mobility options suitable for mountaineering.

  • Scenic quality: village character, less than 2,500 inhabitants, small business sizes, no para-hotel industry.

  • Tourism quality: Accommodation establishments in several categories are available, mountain huts complement the accommodation offer; facilities such as inns or local suppliers available.

  • Cooperation quality: Municipality, tourism managers, protected area managers, Alpine Club sections and partner businesses work together towards the goal of sustainable community development.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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