Big festival for climate-friendly mountain sports inspires in Vienna!

Big festival for climate-friendly mountain sports inspires in Vienna!

A big festival took place in Vienna last weekend that not only celebrated an anniversary, but also focused on the importance of climate-friendly mobility in mountain sports. The Bahn zum Berg association invited people to celebrate its tenth anniversary and attracted around 100 participants to the ÖBB Open Innovation Factory. Among the guests were numerous alpine clubs, hiking enthusiasts and club members who were able to look forward to a colorful program. Meteorologist and ORF presenter Andreas Jäger, for example, gave a powerful keynote speech about the climate crisis and emphasized the central problems of CO2 emissions from transport.

“Arrival and departure are the biggest emissions drivers in mountain sports,” as it is said. Public transport can save up to 70% of CO2 emissions compared to traveling by car, which underlines the importance of the initiative even more. In this context, the Bahn zum Berg association is particularly active and promotes climate-friendly mountain sports in Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland and South Tyrol. A suitable addition to this is the new online tour portal, which helps hikers find climate-friendly routes into the mountains. New public transport tour guides will also be launched for Vienna and Lower Austria as well as for Bavaria, which point out 56 hikes and mountain experiences that can be reached by public transport. These guides, which will be released in April 2025, also offer digital extensions through QR codes for additional information.

The festival and the activities

The festival's stage program included a variety of outdoor activities: from hiking and climbing to skiing and cross-country skiing tours. Here the participants were able to actively participate and experience nature's treasures up close. The 100 volunteer tour reporters in particular were not left out and reported on exciting experiences and impressions from the mountains. In addition, the winner of the photo competition “My Most Beautiful Railway to the Mountain – Moment” was awarded at the festival. Peter Kuthan from Linz was honored for his impressive photo “Winter Fairy Tale at Traunstein”. When he took the photo, he asked himself what else could balance the anticipation of a mountain tour with all the challenges of climate change.

“We invite everyone to become a member of the club and thereby support climate-friendly mountain sports,” said the organizational team, which is very satisfied with the response to the event. The annual membership fee is 40 euros, which is a small investment for great environmental protection. The event came to a cozy conclusion with a digital candlelight and a delicious marble cake, which brought the guests together and invited them to network.

A look into the future

For those interested in climate-friendly mobility in mountain sports, there will be another highlight on May 1, 2025: the new public transport tour guide will be presented in the flower factory in Vienna. The event includes a presentation by the clubs and a quiz with a competition. There will also be a joint public transport hike on the Anninger near Mödling on May 2, 2025, which offers the opportunity to put the concepts into practice on site.

The importance of the topic of “climate-friendly mountain sports” is also supported by various initiatives in the Alpine region. The Alpine clubs, among others, have already launched measures through their “Climate-Friendly Mountain Sports” project to reduce the CO2 footprint of mountain athletes and to promote sustainable travel options. A bonus system for the use of public transport is also being discussed, which focuses on the arrival time and the distance traveled.

Information in this regard is available on the organizers' websites, as in the reports from MyDistrict and OTS documented. Also the initiative of Alpine Club shows how important it is to actively question your own mobility and to make a contribution to reducing CO2 emissions.