Swiss Mountain Guide Association

Swiss Mountain Guide Association SBV
Founded	1906
Place of foundation	Interlaken
president	Marco Mehli
Members	1800
Homepage	www.sbv-asgmc.ch

The Swiss mountain guide Association SBV (French: Association suisse des guides de montagne ASGM, English: Swiss Mountain Guides Association ) is the umbrella organization of the Swiss Mountain Guides and their regional and cantonal mountain guide associations with headquarters in Bern .

aims

The SBV defines its values and goals through its mission statement and professional standards.

As the organization of mountain guides, hiking guides, climbing instructors and rope access specialists, it is open to innovations.
He is committed to the preservation of nature and the protection of the professional interests of its members.
He advocates the free market and, in the interests of safety, demands a high standard of training from all providers.
He advocates thorough professional training with a contemporary range of courses that meet the human, technical and professional demands of its members. Accident prevention has priority: The members of the SBV willingly provide information about route conditions and material, and rescue people in need is an ethical imperative for them.

organization

The SBV is the umbrella organization for 1,800 members, 115 of whom are women (including 40 female mountain guides) as well as 8 regional associations and 21 sections (local mountain guide associations) (as of 2020). The executive body is the central board. He represents the SBV externally and is responsible to the assembly of delegates. There are also a number of commissions. A permanent office is responsible for administration.

history

1129 was the first mention of a guide activity by locals for pilgrims, traders and other alpine travelers on the Great Saint Bernhard . With the European Enlightenment , interest turned in particular to the Alps in Switzerland . When climbing the Jungfrau in 1811, Valais Gemsjäger led the gentlemen to the summit, an interesting additional income for the simple farmers. In Chamonix , France , the mountain guides came together in 1832 to regulate the mountain guide license and the tariffs. St. Niklaus VS is considered the cradle of professional mountaineering in the second half of the 19th century. Today the first mountain guide museum is located there .

Eduard Feuz, Selkirk Mountains

Around the middle of the 19th century, the golden age of alpinism began , with which the actual mountain guide profession developed. Above all, British mountaineers with mountain guides from Switzerland and France carried out the first ascent of the high peaks of the Western Alps. The Swiss cantons issued the first rules, ordinances and laws for the mountain guide profession. The canton of Bern introduced a set of rules in 1856. Valais followed a year later (sponsorship obligation in 1870) and in 1863 the Swiss Alpine Club was founded, which created lists of suitable mountain guides.

Zaniglaser and Zermatt mountain guides merged in 1858, and other local mountain guide associations were formed in: Grindelwald 1857, Zermatt 1858, Pontresina 1871, Haslital 1893, Arosa 1926, Saastal 1927, Chur 1971, Rhonetal 1989, Surselva 1991.

In 1899 the Canadian Pacific Railway employed 27 Swiss mountain guides from Interlaken . They began to accompany the guests professionally in the station Glacier House at Rogers Pass and soon in all railway hotels. This marked the beginning of the conquest of the Canadian Rockies, among others by the mountain guides Eduard Feuz, Christian Hasler and Peter Kaufmann, who are employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway .

Around 1900 the local mountain guide associations merged to form cantonal associations: Glarus 1864, Graubünden 1871, Wallis 1909, Bern 1906, Uri 1916, Unterwalden 1912, Waadt 1948.

The Bernese and Uri mountain guides founded the Association of Swiss Mountain Guides (VSB) in Interlaken in 1906, which was replaced by the Swiss Mountain Guide Association (SBV) in 1929. The real boom in association activity came after the Second World War under the leadership of Christian Rubi and his successors.

The Swiss Mountain Guide Association has been a member of the International Association of Mountain Guide Associations ( IVBV) since 1965 .

In 1998 there were around 1300 mountain guides and 11 female mountain guides. About half of them were active and a quarter full-time. The first mountain guide course was held in Interlaken and lasts one week. The profession of mountain guide was recognized by the BIGA (now the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology OPET) in 1992 . The training now extends over three years and is a theoretical and practical training in summer and winter. It is carried out by the Swiss Association of Mountaineering Schools, founded in 1969, at 29 training centers between Geneva and Pontresina (as of 2000).

Partner associations

Uri mountain guide badge from 1888

Honorary members

Daniel Lauber
Werner Munter
Nicole Niquille , first Swiss mountain guide
Urs Wiget
Wolfgang Woernhard

President

1975–1979: Bernhard Truffer, Uvrier
1980–1983: Gubert Luck, Malix-Brambrüasch
1987–1991: Hermann Biner, Zermatt
1995–1999: Armin Oehrli, Gstaad
2003–2006: Patrick Hilber, Schönenberg
2006–2008: Georg Flepp. Chur
2009 ad interim: Dominik Hunziker, Samedan
2009–2013: Urs Wellauer, Meiringen
2013–2016: Pierre Mathey, Martigny
since 2016: Marco Mehli, La Punt-Chamues-ch

Guide book by Josef Gasser-Gasser 1907

Memberships

The SBV is a member of the following organizations:

Swiss Alpine Club SAC
Core training team for avalanche prevention KAT, WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
Swiss Snowsports SSSA (umbrella association of Swiss ski schools and instructors)
Swiss Society for Mountain Medicine SGGM
Advice center for accident prevention BFU
Swiss working group for mountain areas SAB
Nature & leisure
Swiss trade association SGV
Swiss Tourism Association STV
Trade Switzerland AK 71
International Association of Mountain Guide Associations IVBV

Partner associations

Army Competence Center Mountain Service of the Army (Komp Zen Geb DA), Andermatt
Youth + Sport Y + S
Swiss Outdoor Association SOA
Swiss hiking guide SWL

literature

Collective of authors: Swiss mountain guides talk. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1936–1963. (7 editions)
Max Senger: How the Swiss Alps were conquered. Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1945.
Francis Keenlyside: Mountains and Pioneers . Orell Füssli publishing house, Zurich 1976, ISBN 978-3-28000862-1 .
Paul P. Bernard: Rush to the Alps . Columbia University Press, New York 1978.
Jost Perfahl: Small Chronicle of Alpinism. Rosenheimer Verlagshaus 1984, ISBN 3-47552426-0 .
Thomas Antonietti et al .: In rock and firn. Mountain guides and mountaineers in the past and present. Werner Bellwald (ed.). Lötschentaler Museum, Kippel 1994.
Hermann Ogi: Kandersteg Mountain Guide 1856–1998 . Interesting information from 70 guide books by Kandersteg mountain guides. Self-published by Hermann Ogi, Kandersteg 2000.
Chris Bonington : Triumph on rock and ice. Pietsch publishing house, 2000, ISBN 3-61350237-2 .
Roger Frison-Roche , S. Jouty: Histoire de l'alpinisme. Arthaud publishing house, 1996, ISBN 978-2-08139684-5 .
Andrea Hungerbühler: Kings of the Alps: On the culture of the mountain guide profession. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 3-83762240-1 .
Wibke Backhaus: Mountain comrades. Close social relationships in alpine discourse (1860–2010). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 3-59350574-6 .
Kurt Lauber: Matterhorn, mountain guides tell. Summit stories collected by Kurt Lauber . Verlag Knaur Taschenbuch, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-426-78741-0