Up and down! Four season activity in the mountains: skimo and trail running

Both ski touring (backcountry skiing, where both uphill and downhill travel is made on skis without the use of any motorized equipment, e.g. without the use of lifts, also called ski alpinism and ski mountaineering or skimo) and trail running have become more and more popular in the recent years all over Europe. However -especially in non-Alpine and small countries- the necessary background knowledge in health and safety is often missing, and while the two sports are highly complementary, yet cheap outdoor activities, and provide an all year round healthy cardio lifestyle, usually they are still not encouraged strongly enough together. Thus the main focus of the current project was to discuss the necessary steps to increase partaking and the number of voluntary activities in these sports, raise health and safety awareness and the knowledge on their health-enhancing effects, and to start developing a network of European organizations focusing on these sports.The backbone of the project were 3 Transnational Meeting, where the participants shared their knowledge and experiences and had the opportunity to train together on a set of predetermined topics. The three Meeting were the following: Transnational Meeting on improving safety in the mountains in winter (Slovenia, March 2018)​, Transnational Meeting on Increasing participation in Skimo sports and promoting a healthy lifestyle (Hungary, August 2018) and Transnational Meeting on Improving safety in the mountains all year round (Iceland, April 2019). The main activities during these Meetings were lectures, round table discussions (workshops) and joint trainings. A special emphasis was put on increasing the safety aspects of these sports, as we believe this is the biggest of challenges each Project country faces. We expect that the project results will have a wide impact on the local skimo and related sports communities, but because of the safety aspect, not just on them, but on all people who would like to visit the mountains, as with wider awareness comes increased safety and motivation to educate ones self.