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ALPINE

Swiss peak serves as stage for slackline meet

Hikers on the summit of le Moléson witnessed a nerve-wracking sight at the weekend as dozens of athletes took to a slackline tens of metres above their heads.

Published: 12 September 2016 09:49 CEST
Swiss peak serves as stage for slackline meet
Slacklining is becoming more popular. Photo: la-gruyère.ch

The Highline Extreme competition brought together the best in the sport from all over Europe to show off their impressive skills over four days.

Slacklining involves balancing along a suspended length of flat webbing that is held taught between two anchors. It is similar to tightrope walking.

Eight highlines were stretched out over the mountain valley in the canton of Fribourg, the longest with a length of 585 metres.

A 45-metre line was available for amateurs and newcomers to the sport were also able to try it out with assistance.

The European event was co-organized by Samuel Volery, who last year set a new world record of 477 metres at Moléson.

The record now stands at over one kilometre.

While no records were broken this year, Volery said more people were now engaging in the new sport and le Moléson was becoming established as an important centre for it.

“This weekend a dozen people successfully crossed the 585 metre line,” Fribourg newspaper La Liberté quoted Volery as saying.

“The sport has only been going for five to ten years and it is evolving very quickly.”

 

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MOUNTAIN

Hochvogel: A famed mountain straddling Germany and Austria faces a rocky collapse

It is one of the most famous mountains in the Allgäu Alps - and it could soon be history. According to experts, the summit of the Hochvogel will soon collapse, and up to 260,000 cubic metres of rock could fall into the valley.

Published: 21 November 2018 16:10 CET
Hochvogel: A famed mountain straddling Germany and Austria faces a rocky collapse
The summit of Hochvogel. Photo: DPA

Yet the possible scenario is hardly shaking up the locals: According to the authorities, there is no particular threat to the population near the mountain.

For years now, a huge crevasse at the summit on the border between Bavaria and Tyrol has been growing in size, and the first rock falls have already occurred. Researchers use sensors to monitor the movement of the massif in order to be able to predict large rockfall.

SEE ALSO: Weekend Wanderlust: Reaching new heights in the Allgäu

The only building near the Hochvogel summit is the Prinz-Luitpold-Haus, an almost 140-year-old refuge of the German Alpine Club. But it is so far away that hardly anything can happen to it, says Andreas Kaenders of the Oberallgäu District Office.

There is no built-up area on the Austrian side, says Thomas Figl from the Tyrolean Landesgeologie association. “If there is the big rockfall, there will be a cloud of dust in the Hinterhornbach community depending on the wind, but the area is definitely not threatened,” he says.

The village is more than two kilometres as the crow flies from the mountain.

The rock movements at the Hochvogel are monitored by researchers. According to them, the crack at the summit is currently a good 40 metres long, 8 metres deep and 3 metres wide.

In the Zugspitze area as well as in two other regions in Austria and Italy, threatened mountain regions are also being monitored by drone flights and measurement technology.

It is unclear whether the Hochvogel summit will actually come to an end with a great deal of noise. “There have been smaller and larger events for years,” says state geologist Figl.

It is difficult to assess whether the rockfalls will continue piece by piece or whether the “big bang” will suddenly occur.

 
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