For a whole day from morning to evening I was on the alpine fair in Innsbruck. Certainly very exhausting with a lot of input, but also very informative and enriching.
Tour and news
An absolute novelty was the so-called "Freeride Village". There was just everything you need to know about powder snow skiing. Almost every hour workshops for "Freeride Starters" were offered or the latest airbag systems presented. Although all this looks like a lot of fun, safety on the mountain was definitely the top priority in all activities and offers. Because unfortunately one hears here in Tyrol in the winter half-year weekly from heavy accidents in the alpine terrain. With its diverse range, the fair certainly makes a major contribution to reducing such incidents.
Varied I found the countless travel reports, from trekking tours to expeditions. Here you got very fast wanderlust ...
Workshops and lectures
Personally, the many workshops and lectures (free of charge) inspired. These are held by really good people who are very knowledgeable and always available for questions. The courses offer not only theoretical content, but also an extensive practical part, in which you can truly test what you have heard. Since my first aid course is already a bit dated and emergencies in the mountains can be even more extreme, I decided to participate in the workshop "Emergency in Mountain - Summer". The speaker was active in the mountain rescue service in Innsbruck and therefore had a lot of experience. Since the course was specifically tailored to emergencies that happen on mountain tours, you could target the most common injuries. Now I feel definitely safer and the uncertainty, for example compared to the initial care of open fractures, is not so big!
All lectures and workshops are designed to improve and maintain alpine safety and are organized by the Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety. In my opinion, there should be a lot more outside of the show, as they improve our safety in the mountains.
As crowning conclusion I was allowed to listen to the multivision lecture "Vom Kaiser in die Welt" by the climber Guido Unterwurzacher. Guido grew up at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser, and as a child he scrambled for the mountains of his homeland.
He talks about his first experiences at the Wilder Kaiser, his local mountain and how he became one of the most versatile alpinists in Austria. In between, he repeatedly built small short videos that let you participate even more intensively in the tours. Impressive were also his pictures from China and Patagonia, where he explored the fascinating foreign areas with climbing colleagues and good friends. Just "from the Emperor to the world ....".
Thanks to the many impressions, the entire day of the fair unfortunately came to an end and I will definitely be back next year - ... because you have never been trained and "amazed"!
