Hiking with knowledge and vision

20 hiking guides from the Großes Walsertal and Damüls, a joint online platform and the goal of taking people on a hike: with their feet and with their heads.

The basis for their work: They have all completed training to become Vorarlberg hiking guides via the Vorarlberg Mountain Guide Association. This training covers everything from planning a hike, safety and first aid, the basics of botany, geology and the history of the region to nature conservation law. Monika, Monika and Christian have also completed the course to become Vorarlberg nature guides. As many as seven BERGaktiv hiking guides took part in the first ClimateGuide training course.

Günter, for example, is a botanist and Wilfried, as a retired forest warden, has a wealth of knowledge about forests and game. Florian and Helmut are the mountain experts in the team and, thanks to their many years with the mountain rescue service, bring alpine expertise for more extensive and high alpine tours. They all have one thing in common: they know the Goßes Walsertal and Damüls and the (Walser) history better than the back of their hand, as they say.

Being out and about with guests as a hiking guide is a self-employed activity and yet the association is more than just a shared online platform for an extensive hiking offer. Professionalism and quality are practiced.

The hikes take place in (almost) all weather conditions and require registration. However, the hiking guides reserve the right to change routes and, if necessary, cancel due to weather-related hazards. If there is unfortunately no snow in winter, the snowshoe hike becomes a winter hike. All starting points of the hikes can be reached by bus, only the journey to the sunrise hike and the return journey from the sunset or full moon hike are unfortunately not yet possible by public bus.

Guests from around 85 BERGaktiv member accommodations can take part in the hikes free of charge.

And best of all: thanks to the wide range of topics the team can bring in, it's not just hiking and enjoying the scenery. There are numerous opportunities to learn more about alpine farming, the valuable biodiversity on the mountain meadows, the biosphere park core zones and life and business in the biosphere park, including tips on correct behavior on the mountain and respectful treatment of nature.

The hikes of the individual hiking guides can be found on the website www.grosseswalsertal.at/bergaktiv and can be booked directly online until the afternoon or evening of the day before. If you don't have your own equipment for the snowshoe hikes, simply order it when you register.