Junior Ranger Program

The next generation explored 85 kilometers of mountain in 10 days

The Junior Rangers with the Schlatenkees in the background.(Bild: NPHT)

This year, 15 junior rangers experienced a special summer program in East Tyrol. The Hohe Tauern National Park trained the children and young people to become true experts. They had a lot to learn and many kilometers to cover.

As every year, many future rangers were able to explore the vastness of the local mountain world and go on a training tour in the Tyrolean part of the Hohe Tauern National Park (NPHT). 15 children aged between eleven and 14 from Austria and Germany not only discovered the treasures of nature, big and small, but were also able to learn about the job of a national park ranger. The fact that this is also largely physical work is reflected in the youngsters' résumé: during the ten days of training, the young rangers covered 85 kilometers on foot in the national park area and also climbed an impressive 4200 meters in altitude. Public transport was also used to explore and reach the training tours.

The Junior Rangers 2024.(Bild: NPHT)

Not only flora and fauna or geology and glaciology were on the "timetable", but also orientation, meteorology and alpine hazard awareness in the mountains of the Hohe Tauern.

The theory was followed by practice
The junior rangers were then able to put the knowledge they had learned into practice. The 15 young people were allowed to lead their own guided tours. The locations for these undertakings could not have been better: The Innergschlöss glacier trail, the Umbaltal valley with the famous Isel cataracts, the Ködnitz valley with its population of steep-sided game and numerous other beauties of the national park were placed in the hands of the children and young people.