Relationships between alpinism and natural processes in the Gesäuse Mountains

Diploma thesis In this thesis, the influence of natural processes on alpinistic activities in the Gesäusebergen studied. According to an integrative approach, the central question was how great the influence of natural processes on the committing or not walking of climbing routes/walls has been in the different periods of time up to the present. This is due to the fact that the attitude/value ideas of the alpinists have changed over time. In the theoretical part of the thesis, by comparing the contents of secondary literature, the history of alpinism, alpine dangers and the area of investigation were discussed. In the empirical part, guided works of different epochs were analysed with regard to relevant aspects. In addition, interviews were conducted with expert individuals. The results of these two pillars of the empirical part were related to each other and with the knowledge from the theoretical part. Controversy aspects were discussed in more detail in a discussion chapter. It has been shown that the respective attitudes of the alpinists in the different eras greater influence on the choice of climbing tours can be attributed to the Natural processes per se or in other ways with natural processes in their appearance as dangers it’s being handled. The interwar period has turned out to be extremely concise. During this time, dangers were targeted, for example in the form of rock-hazardous climbing tours/ Walls, visited. Today, there is a high degree of heterogeneity in the attitude of climbers, however, the majority of them have a very high level of safety awareness. Therefore, dangers, also in the form of natural processes, as avoided as possible.