The right to risk

About rights and liberties in mountain sports

According to current Italian law, whoever unleashes an avalanche can be held liable for it. If a hiker slips on a wet patch of a trail, is it the farmers' fault because of excessive irrigation of their nearby fields? And if a climber gets hurt on a via ferrata, is it because the via ferrata isn't safe enough?

This relatively recent but increasing tendency to look for "external" culprits may be a sign of a very worrying social development: an unhealthy way of dealing with the issues of risk and individual responsibility. On the one hand, large parts of our leisure-loving society crave adventures and thrills - and usually looks for them in outdoor sports. However, the necessary experience, individual responsibilities and a more conscious approach to taking risks seem to play an ever more insignificant role. Mountain activities are often considered an adrenaline buzz and exploited massively for their economic potential while the mountains themselves are staged as a spa and wellness oasis or as a huge adventure park with artificial infrastructure - often with the aid of public funds. With countless and often pointless product lines, under-qualified human resources and dubious technical innovations, the tourism sector, media, politics and related industries have managed to create a level of access to mountain sports which many expert organisations consider simply unacceptable, and suggest a false sense of safety.

This phenomenon will be the central focus of an entire conference day dedicated to Alpine Clubs. On 02 November 2010, the IMS Congress analyses the individual influence which politics, the media, mountain rescue organisations, legal authorities and the industry as well as mountaineers and mountain guides themselves have on this tendency. In an expert forum filled to the brim with outstanding protagonists from a number of different sectors, representatives of several regional and national Alpine Clubs (AVS, DAV, OeAV and CAI) will give talks and interviews throughout the day and pave the way for a fascinating and controversial debate in the evening. Highlighting the central issues of the day's talks, the evening discussion will see our celebrity guests debating on the comprehensive topic "Liberties and responsibilities in mountain sports".

Just how much responsibility does each one of us have to assume in the mountains? Advocating for a responsible attitude towards risks, the present Alpine Clubs will get a chance to voice their demands to interest groups and the mountaineering community. The aim is to ensure a continuing right to assume risks in mountain sports, since risks are a significant part of mountaineering experiences.

The Congress Program in Details!!

Partner:		Alpenverein Südtirol (AVS) Contact person: Gislar Sulzenbacher - chief executive officer
		Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV) Contact person: Thomas Urban – chief executive officer
		Österreichischer Alpenverein (OEAV) Contact person: Robert Renzler – chief executive officer
		Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) Contact person: Umberto Martini - chief executive officer