Oetzi the Iceman – 30 years on

Thirty years is a long time in the lives of most people but to Oetzi, the mummified iceman monikered as such due to the location of his discovery, it represents barely a blink of an eye in the timeline from when he roamed the high alps to the present day, via his introduction to the…

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Wildschoenau development precedents threaten its wild and beautiful reputation

When I returned to the Wildschoenau three years ago after an absence of over a decade, I was quickly reminded why my 2007 vacation in Niederau was perhaps up there with the best I have ever had. In the twenty years I have been travelling to the Austrian Alps throughout Salzburgerland, Carinthia, and Tirol a…

Oetztal in 2021: Remembering the past and rebuilding the present

If two events so contrasting to each other have come to exemplify the modern era and that of antiquity in Austria's Oetztal region, their diametrical opposed nature but weighty significance to the valley have once more reminded us of the fragility of life, and indeed that of the built environment which man often puts disproportionate…

Wildschoenau ‘attraction’ disrespects the valley’s wild and beautiful remit

It what I regard as an appalling visual assault and that upon nature the Tirolean Wildschoenau valley has unveiled the first feature of its Drachental Freizeitpark, an alpine coaster. In what is a grim irony a valley whose name otherwise correctly translates as 'wild and beautiful' has had such a scheme thrust upon it by…

Only when the well becomes dry will the Alps appreciate the worth of its water

The effects on the Alps of increasingly hot summers can be seen in the shrinking of many of its permanent ice fields. Evidence of retreating glaciers is hardly revelatory but hand in hand with greater amounts of meltwater entering upland rivers is the lack of natural precipitation in the mountains, often leaving farmers with an…

Has Covid-19 bought alpine tourism some much needed time to reflect on its future?

Reliant on perhaps up to 90% of visitors from outside its borders to sustain a tourism economy, Austria's Tirol region will be nervously anticipating a sharp drop in revenue during its forthcoming summer season. As though border restrictions with its neighbouring countries are slowly relaxed, will a 'make do and mend' hiatus to its usual…

For how long will the Winter Sports industry continue to justify the damage it does to the Alps?

Those who seek to debunk Climate Change and Global Warming will point to the ski season beginning earlier each year as justification for their controversial standpoint. What though is little known outside of the resorts open for business at this unseemly early stage in what is still, after all, the middle of autumn, and to…

Slovenia: Spring conditions fail to dampen Maribor’s Golden Fox weekend

This weekend's annual Golden Fox Ski World Cup programme saw the best female exponents of slalom and giant slalom take on the Radvanje piste adjacent to Slovenia's second city Maribor, and part of the Pohorje massif. Despite occupying a modest altitude Maribor's yearly skiing jamboree has endured, although spring conditions meant an astonishing 95% of…

Alpine Europe revels in recent snowfall as Climate Change threatens an uncertain future

Significant snowfall in the Alps over the last few weeks has done much to reinvigorate some already worn pistes, with certain areas receiving their first measurable, and much welcome, dump of the season. As though is often the case precipitation was far from evenly spread across the ranges of central Europe, with some lower-lying resorts…

Slovenia: ambitious plans to upgrade Mount Kanin’s iconic cableway

Facilitating Slovenia's highest skiing the eponymous Mount Kanin cableway, in the country's northwest, continues to enjoy an upturn in fortunes since the near catastrophic collapse of several of its carriages in 2013. Remaining closed for several years amid claim and counterclaim that ultimately failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt the cause of the accident, the…