MINI-BIO

Looking back, I wanted to turn away from a "system" that seemed inhumane to me already in elementary school. There was no one there who wanted to respond to my talents and basic needs as a child and "BERGBAUERNBUB". I let theory and people who, apart from any practice, classified this theory as the highest credo determine my life. As a child, I could not know better and I felt at the mercy of it all.

A class leader, his favorite hobby was hunting, was able to break my ice. I understood that there should be a life beside and after school. From then on, I was an "A" student and at the same time opened the door to the regained freedom, which I first lived out as a cross-country skier in various performance squads.

This was followed by a decade that was characterized by a very strongly developed idea of performance and success in my GENERATION-X. This unfortunately affected my approach to mountaineering. Unfortunately, this also affected my approach to mountaineering. And once again, my origins, my passions for movement in nature, my roots as a mountain farmer's boy collided with my reality as a man in a pinstripe, IT project manager and executive in an organization filled with thousands of people.

The desire for change became great. So great that with my irrepressible energy I completed the then 2-year training as a mountain and ski guide. From then on it was clear: There is only one life for me with and in the mountains.

BUT: My lifestyle had left its mark mentally and physically. I regularly took my car in for service. My health, however, I sacrificed freely to my arrogance, I could achieve anything.

Today, when I think back on how brutal I was to myself and my body, I often feel like I didn't deserve all the people and animals who were like guardian angels on my life's path. HOWEVER: If you are lucky enough to be born into a life like mine, then one saying is 100% true: "Luck is what you are."

Georg Fraberger, psychologist and author of "Ohne Leib mit Seele" (Without Body with Soul), puts it in a nutshell in his book.

DID THAT MAKE IT EASIER?

My ego as an achiever has changed. I "skinned" myself like a snake, so to speak. A total change of values was the consequence. The egomaniacal, ambitious and at times probably even narcissistic achiever, who ticked according to rules, duties and customs, became a compassionate family man. The small and sensitive "mountain farmer's bogeyman" took hold and replaced "having" with "being.

The way back to "my freedom" was hard. Emotional intelligence and compassion became the focus of my existence, which strongly influenced both my work as a mountain guide and my development as a musher of Siberian huskies. As a Generation-X purist, looking back, I would have failed miserably at both!

It was not "easy" to trust this development. Especially since the word "easy" has turned out to be very difficult. Because "easy" means to gain "clarity of deep understanding". And only my change could establish this relation from the "now" to the I in the past. To see and understand this difference was the most instructive thing of all. A meeting point to the earth, a weapon against everything that could harm me, my family and this existence. A deep understanding of what is important to me and what seems right.

"The way is the goal" - Confucius expresses this very "simply". What this really means can only be EXPERIENCED.

And since I still feel quite lonely with this approach to life and mountaineering, we at Bergschule Lechtal have decided to convey these messages, which are important to us, on all our guided tours and training courses. Not as a lecture. Subtly. Packaged in the mountain world we take you to.

INDIVIDUAL - PERSONAL - SUSTAINABLE