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    Alpine Way of Life

    Many young people in Austria’s backcountry no longer feel drawn to the bright lights of the city. They choose to stay in the mountains, or return home to them. Let Anne-Sophie, Anna, and Guido introduce you to their peaceful way of life below.

    Meet Austria's Nature Lovers

    • An Alpine Sense of Life
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    An Alpine Sense of Life
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    Starting Your Day Stress-free

    The energy of the Alps is most palpable in the morning. Dawn rises over the mountain ridges and crowns them with a band of sunlight. There is no stop-and-go traffic, no car horns, no crowded public transport, no need to be anywhere else.

    Instead, birds chirp in the trees behind your house and somewhere a church bell rings. The smell of forest and cut grass wafts in through the window. In the mountains you wake up knowing that the day is full of opportunities like these, to pause, breathe in the fresh air, and take time for yourself. It is this mindfulness that makes more and more people to skip stressful city life and settle down in the Austrian Alps.

    Music on the landing dock
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    That Alpine Feeling

    So what exactly is this alpine sense of life? Is it an attitude, a lifestyle, a sense of belonging? The people who choose to spend their lives in the mountains agree that it is a little of everything. Some particularly value the sense of community a village has to offer.

    Some love that, at the end of a day’s work, they can cycle home across fields rather than through rush hour traffic. Some revel in the might of the mountains, the pure, clear air, and the silence of the forest. Some simply want their weekend getaway in nature to last forever. All of them want to breathe freely and find peace.

    Three people, three alpine ways of life

    • Anna-Sophie, photographer
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    • Boat tour with Anna Pirtscher
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    • Climbing / Alpine way of Life
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    In Austria's Alps...

    • 4,000,000 people live in the Alps. Innsbruck is the second largest city.
    • 4,500 different plant species grow here.
    • 731 mountain peaks are over 9,000 ft (2,743 m) high.
    • 7,000 farmers look after 51,000 dairy cows, 265,000 cattle, 9,000 horses, 114,000 sheep, and 10,000 goats. 40,000 ibex live in the wild.
    • 30 glaciers cover a surface of 134 sq-miles (347 sq km), the size of Philadelphia.
    • Austria’s highest peak, Grossglockner mountain, measures 12,460 ft (3,798 m)
    • the Alps are 290 - 350 million years old – and some parts are considerably older.
    • 20,850 sq-miles (54,001 sq km) is Austria’s share of the Alps. Altogether they cover an area of 77,220 sq-miles (199,999 sq km).
    • 25 registered mountain guides share the secrets of the Alps.
    • 480 thousand billion tons is the total weight of the Alps.

     

    An Alpine Sense of Life
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