Mapping the Via Alpina on the collaborative tool OpenStreetMap, preparing a practical guide for hiking the Blue Trail with a dog, discovering by hiking the protected areas of 3 countries: these are the themes of the three projects selected for the Via Alpina Travel Fellowships 2012 awarded by the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, the Via Alpina Secretariat of the Principality of Monaco and the international Via Alpina network:
Mapping party on the Via Alpina: Maps are an essential tool for the hiker, for route preparation as well as orientation in the field. But, especially for a long-distance journey, it is sometimes difficult to find detailed and updated maps and they have a non-negligible cost (and weight). OpenStreetMap is a collaborative and free tool which makes available for everyone maps created by a community of already more than half a million people worldwide. This summer, an international group of about 15 people will walk 75 stages of the Via Alpina, on the Red and Blue Trails between Monaco and Switzerland, in order to collect all useful data and publish them on OpenStreetMap. A series of panoramic photographs will also be realised. Read more>>
RANDOCABO - Hiking with your dog on the Via Alpina: Many hikers own a dog and wish to enjoy the mountains together with their faithful companion. However, hiking in the Alps with a dog can be tricky: legislation, water and food supplies, accommodation. The project by Éléonore, Joël and William (La Roquebrussanne, Var, France) together with their dogs Chip, Diego and Sherpa aims at identifying a network of trails and lodgings adapted to hikers with a dog, built up around the Blue Trail with variants as necessary. Read more >>
Continuum – Via Alpina: From its inception, the Via Alpina aimed at being a linking thread between a large number of Alpine protected areas. This summer, nature guide from Belluno (Italy) Andrea Pasqualotto will put this idea into practice by walking along the Red Trail through the Triglav, Stelvio and Swiss National Parks as well as the Tre Cime – Dolomiti di Sesto Nature Park. He will travel the linking stages by public transport. Through this project, he wishes on one side to motivate other tourism professionals to take on the Via Alpina and propose such country-hopping tours to their customers; on the other side, he will collect experiences and material for transmission to schoolchildren in environmental education activities. Read more >>
You will soon be able to follow the progress of each of these projects through their respective blogs. Upon their conclusion we will circulate on line and during various events the short films realised along each of these four adventures.
We are also presenting you below the summaries of the other eligible projects which were submitted. Presented by candidates from Germany, Slovenia and the Netherlands, they deal with arts, education, sports or culture with very varied approaches. Each of them at its level brings out a significant enrichment for the Via Alpina. Some will still be carried out, and may receive the moral support of Via Alpina, the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention and the Via Alpina-Monaco Secretariat.
In the order of submission of the applications:
Katja Münker : GEHEN TransAlpin >>
"GEHEN TransAlpin is a long-term performance woven into the landscape as well as into interior spaces. It is taking its origin from Berlin and passing after a long-distance-walk over the Alps also back to there. For 4 months from June to September 2012 this walk-in-progress-performance leads across the Alps by walking from Trieste to Monaco mostly along Via Alpina trail network connecting the yellow, green, red and blue route. On its way GEHEN TransAlpin stops for showings in studio spaces where gathered material from en route (movement, text, interviews, photos, sounds and postcards) will be able to transform (itself, me, the audience and the space). Therefore collaborations with spaces (for contemporary dance) along the way are searched like for example in Bozen, Dornbirn, Luzern and Grenoble. Opening and final performances will take place in Berlin. Another 2 months of rehearsals are planed in Berlin before and after the walk. GEHEN TransAlpin is a solo-project with audience-participation in different situations and roles: - as planed co-walkers at some stages of the walk, always starting at the performance-stopovers which has to be booked ahead - as spontaneous co-walkers met en route - as active or observing guests in the showings and the performances or - just as readers of an internet-blog which I will update like a travel diary with text and photos throughout the walk. A long-term idea is to travel the final performance again back to the performance stopovers of the journey."
Contact: movement-muenker(at)web.de, web: www.movement-muenker.de
Marc Delongie : Vol-bivouac le long de la Via Alpina >>
"‘Vol-Bivouac’ means, literally, ‘fly and camp’. Vol-bivouac pilots are paragliders who carry the necessary self-support equipment with them in flight and cross sections of mountainous terrain on foot and by air, using thermals and wind to cover sometimes vast distances over a period of several days or weeks. The vol-bivouac pilot’s goal of the day is to launch in the mountains and fly as far as possible using thermals and wind, landing at the end near a suitable launch from which his or her journey may begin again the next day or walk to the next suitable take-off. (it is very difficult to predict, but a 70% walking and 30% flying on a day could be realistic) During a period, ranging from June to September, I will follow one or more Via Alpina routes using the concept of the Vol Bivouac. The aim is to trigger and gather more paragliders that will join or follow the trails and make an on-line inventory of the places were I took off."
Contact: marc(at)schorisse.be
Urša Erman : Semaines alpines : les Alpes, notre foyer ! >>
" Two days activities in 5 different places with 4 different groups, suitable program and leading group. Introduction into the goals of Alpine convention in a more interesting way. First to the specific group and second to the majority.
In the area of Via Alpina there are 4 most popular mountain sports: Mountaineering, climbing, biking, tour-skiing. Trough the part of the red path Via Alpina, 5 countries will be included: Slovenia- Austria- Italy- France- Switzerland. The project will include 4 working weeks and would participate in the program of Alpine week on 4th of September in Switzerland.
Program of the working groups will take place in the mountain huts. Working weekends will include working days and tour trips. The youth is the main popularity of the project. One of the main acters of sustainable tourism are mountain huts. People gather in one place with the same goals. Where could you find a better info point? The groups are chosen in this way because of the main motivation of participants, that is the activity. But, the first aim is to inform and share the knowledge to the participants in an interesting way. The last, but the most important aim is that the participants spread it around inbetween their social life. From the first to the last aim the working program will be the leading role of the project. Its context is sustainable mountain tourism, video presentations, an introduction to the importance of the participants enrollment and tour trips."
Contact: ursa.erman(at)gmail.com
Julia Reichardt : Traverser les Alpes sur les pas d’Hannibal >>
"Hannibal’s famous passage through the Alps in 218 BC remains one of the most intrepid marches in history and has fascinated historians and laymen, old and young over the last two thousand years. I want to cross the Alps in Hannibal’s footsteps on the most probable pass he took: the Clapier pass (part of the blue route). The aim of this trip is the writing of an exciting travel reportage, in which I combine my experience and impressions from the hike with quotes of ancient books about Hannibal as well as the insights of Patrick Hunt, an American historian, who recently led the Hannibal Expedition in the Alps. His studies were sponsored by the National Geographic Society. My photo reportage will convey ancient history in a fun and exciting way and intelligible to everybody. It invites the reader to hike the path, to experience the unique Alpine landscape as well as one’s own physical limits and to relive history."
Contact: juliareichardt(at)yahoo.com
Manca Miko : Lovro voyage – Lovro connecte >>
"Project goal is to travel on Via Alpina with small child Lovro – in time of journey will be one year old. Showing people that small child doesn’t change parents lifestyle, but enreachen their life with new perspective – spending more time in little joys on every step and showing that “the goal is the way itself”. Lovros father is UIAGM mountain guide, who spends 7 months per year out of Slovenia and in summer time he is taking his family with him. That’s why the journey will be centred on Lovros two homes - Slovenia and France. First part of we will make from it’s very beginning - Trieste, following on north to Tromeja and Austria and second part will be located in Chamonix - from La Flegere, col Grand Saint Bernard to ValGrisenche. We planed to visit 5 countries – Slovenia, Italy, Austria, France and Swiss. On our way we will be using sustainable mobility – our foot and bike and try to use public transport in most possible way. During our journey we will alert on local problems, solutions and plans (Chamonix and Plans Climate Energy, Vrata Valley and pollution in natural environments with cars, etc.)."
Contact: info(at)alps-adventures.com
Urša Erman : Sois actif, sois durable ! >>
"My project will take place on the red and yellow path of Via alpina. My idea is to walk, cycle, climb and canyon in the areas of Via Alpina. I will pick 4 different places in the stages of the red and yellow path and present them as points where many possibilities are promising for the visitors who like to do more sport activities around one place. For every place I will collect the information on the website, which will include: • the general datas (wheather, season, huts, sleeping, food, cheap beer ;), • at least one tour for one sport, • the culture of the place • specialities of the place (people, offer in the huts, food) • introduction how we have to act to sustain the nature."
Contact: ursa.erman(at)gmail.com
"My project will take place on the red and yellow path of Via alpina. My idea is to walk, cycle, climb and canyon in the areas of Via Alpina. I will pick 4 different places in the stages of the red and yellow path and present them as points where many possibilities are promising for the visitors who like to do more sport activities around one place. For every place I will collect the information on the website, which will include: • the general datas (wheather, season, huts, sleeping, food, cheap beer ;), • at least one tour for one sport, • the culture of the place • specialities of the place (people, offer in the huts, food) • introduction how we have to act to sustain the nature."
Contact: ursa.erman(at)gmail.com
Due to a lack of satisfying applications in the “Youth” category, the selection committee decided not to award that fellowship.
For reference, here the documents relative to the 2012 competition (which was open from 8.09 to 15.11.2011):
Regulations (.doc, 400 Ko)
Contract (.doc, 400 Ko)
Application form (.doc, 400 Ko)
