With heart and soul

On tour with rangers: “National Park is a jewel”

Rangers Andreas Baldinger and Roland Fricker: among other things, they offer visitors insights and views into the unique world of the Sulzbachtäler wilderness area.(Bild: Roland Hölzl)

"Meet a Ranger" is the motto during the vacations in the Hohe Tauern National Park. Two of these mountain experts - Andreas Baldinger and Roland Fricker - spoke about their dream job and about children who are "like a new person" after a tour during a visit to the "Krone". 

Is there a better place to work? No, say Andreas Baldinger (29) from Kaprun and Roland Fricker from Leogang (45). The mountain guide and the hiking guide bring hikers, e-bikers and children's groups closer to the Hohe Tauern National Park. During the school vacations, they and their colleagues are out and about more often, when the motto is "Meet a Ranger".

"Did you hear that? A marmot. And another one," says Fricker to the editor during a visit to the "Krone". He passes on his enthusiasm for the animals of Europe's largest national park to visitors. "We offer our spotting scope to hikers and e-bikers that we see along the way. They can then also see chamois or ibex," says the ranger.

The mountain is in motion, rocks thunder down into the valley. The picture shows the Sattelkarr landslide in the Obersulzbachtal valley. Here you can observe the effects of climate change up close.(Bild: Roland Hölzl)

The two explain the special features of this secluded, strictly protected natural jewel to young and old alike. "Only if many people know about it will it continue to exist for a long time to come," Baldinger is convinced. Climate change is also making itself felt in the Obersulzbachtal - the mountains are crumbling. "A huge mudslide has buried the former pastures here," he says when he arrives at Sattelkar. And you can already hear another rumble. Every day, boulders thunder down into the Obersulzbachtal valley. For some plants, this is also an opportunity, says Baldinger. "I've never seen a landscape like this before," say children who hike along these paths time and time again. The national park is also an unknown world for Arab guests. "How do you pump the water up here?" they ask him at waterfalls.

Sometimes the rangers have to clarify the rules. Free-roaming dogs endanger marmots - and themselves, because the rodents have long teeth. "It's the tone that counts," the colleagues agree. Basically, most visitors also want this natural jewel with its unique flora and fauna to exist for a long time to come.

Andreas Baldinger offers visitors his spotting scope on the paths. Sepp from Neukirchen uses it to take a look at the peak of the 3360-metre-high Großer Geiger.(Bild: Roland Hölzl)

Happiness for the rangers is when children "arrive"
"The children are the key to this," says the forest ranger, who is currently on a patrol. Baldinger and Fricker see the success of their work after tours: when children have really "arrived" in the national park or have changed - and suddenly take off their shoes on the way back to the parking lot to be close to nature.