Bernese hiking trails expect deaths on the single trails

Because there is no space on the trails, hikers and mountain bikers are likely to fall to their deaths. This scenario has recently been painted on the wall by the Bernese hiking trails. The trigger is a video by Kilian Bron, among others on the Augstmatthorn. People in Bern are now afraid of countless imitators.

First things first: the Bernese hiking trails are considered a hot topic among hikers and are not representative of the overall mood in Switzerland. Nevertheless, the latest statements by Bernhard Schmidt, Managing Director of the Bernese Hiking Trails, make people sit up and take notice. You have to expect people to die, he told the Jungfrau Zeitung on 15 May 2022. The bone of contention is a video clip of Kilian Bron from November 2021, in which he can be seen for a short time on the Augstmatthorn. The video itself does not specify where the trail is located, and yet the Bernese hiking trails are on edge.

Schmidt now inevitably expects imitators who want to put themselves in the limelight like Kilian Bron and collide with hikers in the process. In such a case, hikers and bikers would fall to their deaths. However, until the article was published in the Jungfrau-Zeitung, very few experts were able to identify where this very short scene was filmed. Imitators, if there are any, will only become aware of the trail through the polemic of the Bernese hiking trails.

Separation instead of coexistence

The background to Bernhard Schmidt's sharp comments to the Jungfrau Zeitung, however, is different: the Bernese hiking trails have been calling for some time, and ever more vociferously, for the previous coexistence strategy to be abandoned and for hikers and mountain bikers to be separated across the board. If mountain bikers had their own trail parallel to the existing hiking trails, they would be able to ride down freely and hikers could enjoy the mountain bikers, Schmidt told the Jungfrau Zeitung. With this vision, however, the Bernese hiking trails are isolated throughout Switzerland. The consistent separation is not considered feasible by experts and is questionable from an economic and ecological point of view. In Switzerland, a large majority of associations and authorities are convinced that coexistence is a sound and sustainable strategy.