There isn't enough time left in my life, nor available funds, to venture everywhere in the world where I would ideally like to visit. That isn't to say I presume that death is imminent, nor that I exist on the very brink of destitution, but it isn't unrealistic when reaching a certain age to accept…
It has been said that Russia's 'Special Military Operation' in Ukraine was the precursor to the UK's energy market heading into a tailspin, exposing a short-sighted eggs-in-one-basket approach that failed to learn from the Kremlin's 'previous' of invading Georgia and in 2014 the Crimea and Donbas. If the West doesn't like Russia's behaviour in Ukraine,…
My final alpine retrospective turns to Saalbach Hinterglemm, where skiing doesn't get in the way of partying through the winter months, whilst mountain bikers and hikers seek an uneasy coexistence during the summertime. As is common with many of my initial visits to resorts in the mountains, the first impressions I gained of Saalbach and…
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…
It has been a few years since I last visited the Bohinj region, having been until relatively recent times a frequent vacationer to Ribcev Laz. As the hotel stock dwindled, precipitating a sharp reduction in available rooms which to some extent drove up prices, I found it easier to get my alpine kicks in neighbouring…
Aside from my general feelings on the damage that winter sports can inflict upon alpine regions, it has always been the use of glaciers for skiing and snowboarding which has drawn the majority of my ire. It is understandable how the leviathan snow sports industry has managed to convert glaciers in the minds of Austrians…
As 2018 draws to a close another year will pass that has seen little obvious change in the fortunes of Bohinj's once iconic hotel, the Zlatorog. Empty for at least the last five years the Ukanc-based facility still ostensibly remains in the hands of failed hotelier Zmago Pacnik, who seemingly closed the doors once every…
When the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) voices its concerns over what they consider to be an 'arms race' between competing alpine resorts, and countries, it ostensibly highlights that the latest global ecological battleground has shifted to Europe's highest climes, as the insatiable tentacles of man threaten to spread over the last untouched terrain…
Austria's cableway industry wields a significant amount of power in a country so heavily reliant upon the revenue generated by the purchasing of ski and lift passes. In recent years there has increasingly been an unassailable attitude by those proposing new cable cars, extensions to existing infrastructure, and the upgrading of what is already in…
Promoting responsible tourism: what does this increasingly nebulous strapline now represent? Are we expecting responsible tourism to be defined by policies outlined by regional/national tourism associations - or shaped by the actions of those for whom the industry caters? In keeping with many strands of today's society tourists, without guidance or ordinance, are content to…
Innsbruck Airport have finally acknowledged what most who've recently travelled through its modest terminal will attest: modernization, ergo an enlargement of especially the post-security side of its operations, is desperately needed. Architectural design tenders are expected to be submitted during 2019, with construction slated to commence in 2022. Although a welcome development the announced timescale…
The seemingly inexhaustible desire for further, bigger, longer, and higher cableways in the Austrian Tirol and Salzburgerland provinces is to many a distasteful, unquenchable process that will never be sated. The marginal net gains promised by many projects fail to justify the financial outlay but crucially, the environmental scarring of landscapes to facilitate further pistes,…
The Austria's Tirol is awash with natural beauty to a point of complacency. While though most of its valleys are simply named after the region or municipality in which they sit between competing mountainsides, the Wildschoenau boldly goes where all others dare not venture - by self-titling from its very attributes that cannot be denied:…
Alpine Adventures, Soccer, Central Asian Autocracies & Secessionist Politics 
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