by Steve Mann

My first trip abroad post-Covid was in mid-June last year to take part in an Übungsleiter (assessment course) for mountain hiking organised by the Alpenverein-Akademie. This is a requirement for any member wishing to organise and lead nonglaciated hut tours for other Club members. The course was based at the very comfortable Almi’s Berghotel at Obernberg, situated in a beautiful valley running West-East, just short of the Brenner Pass. The ever-efficient Austrian public transport connected with my Easyjet flight from Gatwick and the local bus dropped me at the hotel doorstep.

The other two Club members on the course were Wendy Shipley (a veteran of several snowshoe trips using the Almi’s) and Richard Coverdale, an experienced hill walker and tour leader from Bradford. The course was led by a fully qualified Guide, the jovial and very experienced Peter Weber. Peter grew up in the Tirol and had a wealth of local knowledge to share with us outside of the syllabus. Being mid-June the meadows in the upper valley were a riot of wild flowers and we spent a lot of time trying to identify as many as possible. This turned out to be Richard’s secret skill and between him and Peter, I learnt a lot of fascinating facts about habitats and life cycles of alpine flowers.

The course was relaxed in style, but covered a great deal and carried on in the evenings after dinner. Luckily it was held in English as my German is non-existent, unlike Wendy and Richard who could help when Peter was searching for the right word or phrase. We had one full day of mountain first aid, which was delivered by a professional and passionate mountain rescue doctor. Detailed classroom work was mixed with role-playing accident scenarios in the local valley: heart attacks, various trauma from falls and rockfall and a very realistic hypothermic river drenching! The instructor videoed our efforts for discussion back in the classroom and for comparison with other courses and real rescues. Candidates would need already to have first aid experience or a qualification to do well in this part of the course.

Unsurprisingly, a large component of the course was on route planning, navigation and emergency procedures. Getting to grips with the Austrian version of Naismith’s Rule, where the vertical height gain component can often dominate the calculation, took a while, but we found it to be very accurate. We’re also lucky in the UK to have the simple OS grid reference system; Austria uses the UTM system which has LOTS of numbers. I concluded that the best way to give one’s location in an emergency is to use the brilliant Tirol SOS phone app which sends location and other information straight to mountain rescue with the press of a single button. It’s available for free in App stores for Android and iPhones. We also used the digital maps and route planning facility of the alpenvereinaktiv phone app. I certainly need to invest more time in getting to grips with this, even though I now routinely use OS maps on my phone with its reassuring GPS location arrowhead! Even with all the digital tools around, there’s also still a place for using the hut book to leave a note for the wardens of your route for the day, especially if trekking solo.

Surprisingly, the course didn’t include any overnights in a hut or even a visit to one, as I expect most members would want to use this qualification to do hut tours rather than valley-based day walks. Peter assessed our group management/leadership skills, navigation and walking pace on the 3 days that we were out on the hill. The course finished successfully with handshakes all round and the presentation of certificates. Richard and I went round to the next valley (Gschnitztal). I only had time to do a couple of day walks but Richard did a round of the Innsbrucker, Bremer and Tribulaun huts, including an ascent of Habicht (3277m). Wendy stayed on at the Almi’s and did a couple of day walks. We kept in touch by text over these days as a safety check.

I would recommend this assessment course for experienced hill walkers who already have a first aid qualification and a UK qualification such as Mountain Leader (Summer), Walking Group Leader, Hill and Moorland Leader or International Mountain Leader. Without this background, the training course called Get Ready is probably a more appropriate entry point. I plan to organise a simple hut tour for beginners this summer in the Zillertal, details are in this newsletter and on the website.

Confusing Signage!
Photo by Steve Mann

Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.