“Experience mountains individually and authentically and leave the smallest possible ecological footprint”.
What great words that we have pinned on the flag! And is that even possible? How do we manage to climb high mountains and still pollute the environment as little as possible?
We leave the clearest traces during our arrival and departure, which normally happens with our own vehicle.
“A mountain guide or climber needs a car, otherwise it’s impossible!” That was also my credo for many years, because the fact is that
- he/she has to travel mostly to get to the mountain,
- he/she should be able to flexibly change location if the weather and/or conditions do not allow a tour,
- he/she should have a lot of material with him if something changes in the planning,
- it is more convenient (in retrospect I can confirm that this is only partly true),
and and and…
So there are many reasons to use a car.
But in order to achieve an ambitious goal such as ecological sustainability, you MUST live it yourself: for a long time I resisted the idea of doing without MY camper van – it was a bedroom, kitchen, office and material storage all in one. Nevertheless, I dared to try and was successful. Being a mountain guide (or mountaineer) also works without your own car, and surprisingly well. Public transport, carpooling, bicycle (sometimes just Schuster’s Rappen); there are enough options and it’s just a matter of planning.
However, one thing must be clear to us: it will not work without making any sacrifices, or to put it another way: it will sometimes be necessary to orientate yourself on your travel options and adjust the tour destination accordingly.
We mountain guides from the Firngrat team would like to pass on our experiences to you, our guests, and we start small: we look for the possible public transport connections so that you can get to the starting point. If you arrive publicly, you will get 10% credited to the next tour you book. If you also travel to this publicly, then there will be a 10% discount on the tour after next and so on. There is a 20% discount on the 5th tour completed by public transport!!
This should be our contribution – a small building block in the masonry that we build to protect against environmental damage, ultimately to preserve ourselves.
What I am very well aware of: we cannot be perfect either, because
sometimes when mountaineering we have to wear industrially manufactured clothing that was manufactured under unfair working conditions,
we also use products whose production is ecologically and socially questionable,
in one case or another we have to use existing infrastructure such as cable cars, lifts or ski slopes, the existence of which is environmentally problematic.
We too have to deal with this for the time being. Nevertheless, I also try to work on these “weak points” and eliminate them as far as possible.
We look forward to many beautiful tours and unforgettable experiences in the mountains, Berg Heil!