ALPS – TO GO!? Documentary | ORTOVOX
The Alps are a place of longing. Wild, untouched, sublime – but only in our heads. Humans have been shaping and changing the Alps since time immemorial. What we see is what we have created over centuries. Nevertheless, we still tend to believe that the Alps are a counterworld.
Because we wish to see them that way, we never stop reinventing their myths. Today we are at a point where we are doing more harm than good. We are in the process of destroying what we love and need. And we know that. The Alps are part of us and we are part of them. We have to take responsibility if we wish to save them.
We all have to ask ourselves: “what can I do?” My research involves looking at how droughts - which are on the increase due to the climate crisis – affect ecosystem processes in grasslands. In addition to droughts, we can also observe other extreme weather occurrences in the alpine region. For example, increased rainfall, which then leads to mudslides or flooding.
We see that glaciers are retreating. We see that less snow now falls at lower elevations. Looking at these adverse impacts convinced me that to want to change something. And that I want to start with myself.
If we tackle it correctly, the climate crisis could also be an opportunity for us to change many other things. So not only that we lead climate-friendly lives, but more socially just lives too. What defines the Alps in the imagination is what we might call slogans and icons. Visiotypes. They are hotspots that you absolutely must visit, so that you too can credibly represent this collective image of the Alps that is, in fact, made up entirely of these hotspots. In this respect, posing in front of an alpine backdrop is always a case of needing self-assurance: I can effectively use this evidence to say “I was there.”
Not only to prove to others, but also to prove to myself that I was really there. I don’t know exactly what I experienced, but I took this photo so I must have been there. Magic Wood is one of the top bouldering areas in the world and attracts climbers from beginners to professionals. We feel very much obliged to preserve Magic Wood for the long term. And thereby sensitize the climbing scene in daily personal conversations.
That is why it is extremely important to us that we use local resources, process regional products and thus give something back to the community, the valley and the region. We believe in gentle tourism and are trying to strike a good balance between the locals and the droves of climbers in order to protect Magic Wood, and to cook local dishes in the restaurant. The purpose of our company is: Ortovox protects mountaineers and mountains. This is of course a conflict that we have to deal with every day. We call ourselves the voice of the mountains. But maybe we didn’t call out loud enough.
We have to change that. We have to represent the interests of the mountains. Nature is more important than profit and market share. The outdoor industry has definitely profited from the current development. And the industry is therefore partly to blame for the situation in the mountains, the fact that more and more people are going into the mountains. Of course, if you’re traveling by train and bike, it’s not so easy to do a number of days climbing.
Driving is simply more convenient, but that doesn’t necessarily make it more useful. You can use your time on a train very well. And cycling becomes less and less strenuous with time. I think the main problem with traveling by train is that it is too expensive. That’s what I usually hear. And it’s also something that bothers me personally.
Mobility or sustainable mobility simply has to be a viable option for the public. When people think of mountains, they envision very clearly defined clichés. One of these is the cowbell, for example. So what is seen is not so much the mountains, but certain attributes, clichés, stereotypes of what the mountains supposedly mean.
And then the Alps become something largely represented by the compilation of clichés that the person has put together. All of this can be perceived as being the mountains. And that’s what makes the mountains so appealing.
They are just a huge pot of possibilities for arranging your own ideas. For many people, the Alps are a place where life can be good because all is still right with the world, even if that has very little to do with reality. It is interesting that the Alps are seen as this paradise but, then again, as a symbol of how humans – to a certain extent – are degrading nature and culture. The Alps as a disaster zone that is no longer habitable due to interference by humans. An intact natural world is being destroyed by tourism.
This notion of the Alps also exists. So you could say that the Alps – in quotation marks – are a construction. In principle, the Alps are the sum of what we imagine them to be. Ultimately, that is the core of and the prerequisite for the sustainable development of the Alpine region.
We have felt at home here for years and that is why we feel obliged to use local resources, and to work together with farmers and other locals. To cultivate the community, because only together can we survive here. Of course, this isn’t the case when it comes to people who are camping for a few days.
But all the day tourists, they more or less just come and then go again. Not one single person in the valley benefits from this, and neither does the community. It would be nice if people paid more attention to leaving something behind in the region.
That used to be normal for us: No matter where we went climbing, we would have a coffee in some small restaurant or other. Maybe we took some local cheese home with us. Simply to give a sign of appreciation to the community or region.
Where we have consumed and benefited from nature. Climbing is of course something that I do for myself and is therefore only really beneficial to me. But I think that’s why it’s so important for me to find an approach that is also sustainable. And one where I don’t, so to speak, contribute even more to the climate crisis through things I do for myself. If I just felt that I’m going without, and I’m suffering from it and it’s terrible, then I would never do it. And I believe that in addition to political change, we also need each and every one of us to tackle the climate crisis.
And that inevitably leads to us changing things in life. And that doesn’t necessarily have to be a sacrifice, it can also have a positive impact on our lives. For me, it’s the mountains that are the experience, and not the things people put into the mountains to make them somehow even more spectacular. But just the pure, natural mountain experience in the great outdoors. The focus on pure, untouched nature is getting a little lost. Neither the mountains nor the surrounding nature nor, in fact, the entire planet “belongs” to anyone.
For me, this is one of the main issues that we have to solve, namely the externalization of the costs. That nature is currently being consumed in our economic system and not being paid for. The resulting costs are passed on to the general public. The companies that use and exploit nature pay nothing for it. So of course I think it’s good that my father and Ortovox are committed to bringing sustainable products onto the market; but, at the same time, sustainable consumption is somehow not the solution.
That just kicks the problem down the road. In fact, we should stop consuming things. It’s just a drop in the ocean. I can only agree with her.
I feel absolutely committed to the younger generation because we, the current older generation, are consuming so much and are destroying for good so much that the younger generation will thus never be able to experience. We are currently still being told that we can continue to grow infinitely, that we have endless resources, that we are always finding new technical solutions. I’m not convinced. I think we need a different economy. One that uncouples itself from the topic of growth in order to solve this resource problem.
For example, an economy for the common good. One that focuses upon the common good and not upon profit maximization and, therefore, this thoughtless waste of resources. That would be my wish – that we work together to create a post-growth society. For me, bouldering is the most important thing in life alongside family and work.
It gives me my freedom and purifies my mind. I can empty my head when I’m over there in the woods giving my all. It means a lot to me, yes.
Magic Wood definitely has some special spots. For me they are – in a way – places of power. I can lose myself there for a day’s climbing and recharge my batteries.
You have to find that kind of place for yourself. There are sure to be many more. I have my two or three special places that I love more than anything.
First of all, there is total peace and quiet, nobody can get there, even if the forest is filled with 200 people. Many people will probably just pass through to go bouldering and never know. And then they’ll ask themselves why Magic Wood is called Magic Wood. Bouldering in intact nature is extremely important to me because, as a boulderer, you are moving in nature. And you are directly connected to it. You feel the rock under your hands.
You feel the forest floor under your feet. I think that gives you a kind of power. A positive energy that, if you allow it, can flow into you from nature.
And when you open your senses and can enjoy the entire thing. The atmosphere, the rush of the stream, the birds. The entire complex system. Perhaps that’s why sustainability is extremely important to me. When we go somewhere else, we still behave in exactly the same way as we do here in our homeland. We can’t just do it here because we want to protect Magic Wood.
It’s becoming a problem everywhere because the population is continually increasing. And the recreation space, nature, is actually getting smaller and smaller because we humans are taking up more and more room. We used to have around 30 to 50 people at Magic Wood on weekends. Since then, climbing has become a mass sport and there are estimated to be up to 250, 300 people with the day tourists who pour in here. In Magic Wood you can certainly see the evidence in the new paths that are cropping up everywhere, because everyone still wants to look behind this or that block to see whether there is another route there.
Or people are on the lookout for shortcuts. Nature also needs rest periods; with us it’s in winter, when there is less bouldering going on and it can recover. Of course, I don’t always manage to do without a car.
I’m sure I could do better. But I think it’s not about being perfect, it’s about starting to change things. And if everyone does that, then the individual no longer has to be so perfect either. I really love to be out and about like this.
But of course I also have moments of doubt and frustration. And of course, I also ask myself whether I can still find people who want to go climbing with me this way. I think that, when it comes to the climate crisis, what you do only resonates with people who think about it themselves.
And I truly believe that there are very many who do. And those who don’t are simply not well-informed enough. We each have it in us to make changes. For ourselves, for others, for our environment, for those we love.
It doesn’t matter. Of course, that can also be a purpose in life. We’re not here to watch it all go downhill. That would be really sad. And yet it means a lot to me that I’ve now reduced my carbon footprint by half.
And it didn’t really feel as if I was going without – in fact it felt as if I’ve gained something. I consider social media to be problematic when it comes to the mountains. Not only against the backdrop of the usual topics, for example that they are causing the mobilization of a specific form of Instagram visitor management. And this includes all those who work with it, as well as the users, who should think about what they are actually doing there. As well as those who use these images to sell equipment, to entice visitors to a destination or whatever other interests may be involved.
If I start approach the world the way it is seen through social media, I’ll always see the world as a potential motif. But no longer as the immediate source of the experience I am engaging with. So I am always experiencing the world through the lens, but I am no longer experiencing the world free of expectations. And to experience the world free of expectations, to have the immediate experience of what is, the immediate experience of the moment, undisturbed by what is already considered to be an image, and then often also considered to be an image that should be repeated because it is already known – that is something that is getting lost. So an experience becomes something of a failure. Namely, a failure of expectation.
At the very moment I experience something, that which I know and expect is no longer intact. And I am forced to accept that the world can be different to that which I would expect it to be, based upon what I know about it. If I do not have this failure, it of course leads to the fact that I am not experiencing something in the narrower sense, but am always simply satisfying my expectations. But with that I see the known, because an expectation always relates to something known. My vision for the most sustainable economy possible would really be a different economic order.
Because I am fully convinced that the current economic order is the completely wrong framework for what we actually need in order to protect this earth. We are of course trying to protect what we love. It’s not always easy here in Magic Wood, with the masses of climbers pouring into the valley. But we believe that we are not the problem but part of the solution, by sensitizing the climbing scene to treating nature and Magic Wood thoughtfully. We will never be able to free ourselves from alpine clichés. But we have to be aware of how this idea of beauty, how these clichés shape how we view the mountains and the Alps, and how they force us to see them in a certain way and not be able to see them in any other way.
If we don’t learn that, if we don’t learn to see them differently, then nothing will be able to change. Climbing gives me a great deal of energy. When you’re in the great outdoors and can just forget about everything else. Of course, from a global perspective, it makes no difference whether I do without my car or not. But I just wanted to change something for myself.
And I also believe that many others feel the same way. My hope is simply that this personal confrontation with the climate crisis by each individual will help change the big picture. To really achieve change, we simply need every single one of us to get on board.
2022-02-17 17:23
