News

Securing the future of the Via Alpina

18.02.2022

Breathtaking landscapes, magnificent panoramas, unexpected encounters on the way up to the summit: the Via Alpina is a unique long-distance hiking trail across all eight of Europe’s Alpine countries that connects their diverse landscapes, languages and people. The International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) is working to safeguard this diversity for the future and to further develop the Via Alpina.

To do this, CIPRA aims to improve safety and orientation through already existing routing apps along the updated Red Trail, which connects all eight Alpine countries from Trieste (Italy) to Monaco. They will also update the Via Alpina website and expand it into a comprehensive information and networking platform in English and the Alpine languages so hikers and all those interested can find up-to-date information and exchange knowledge about the Via Alpina (e.g. hiking conditions, mountain huts, points of interest, routing, etc.).

In the long term, CIPRA will revise the signposting and improve their cooperation with partners from the national alpine clubs and other associations to maintain the trail.

In summer 2022, eight “Via Alpina Explorers” will test the updated red route and spread the word about the Via Alpina. CIPRA will support them during their journey and invite them to meetings and events with local actors along the way to strengthen the Via Alpina network across the Alps. Furthermore, in September 2022, CIPRA will organize a small birthday celebration during AlpWeek.

A member of the Mountain Partnership, CIPRA is an autonomous, non-profit umbrella organization committed to the protection and sustainable development of the Alps. It has an international executive office in Liechtenstein, seven national agencies in the Alpine states and one regional agency in South Tyrol. As a network operating across the Alps, CIPRA represents around 100 organizations and institutions as well as individual members.

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News by CIPRA International 

Photo: Stefan Lehner/Unsplash