Young mountaineers under the embrace of the mountains for 60 years

Already soon after the emergence of organized mountaineering, young people stepped in line with more experienced mountaineers, enlivening life in the mountains with their understanding of nature, curiosity, and exploratory spirit. Rock climbers were already involved in educating the young, and the umbrella mountaineering organization early recognized the importance of including children and young people in its ranks, carrying out work with youth already in the first half of the 20th century. In April 1956, the Alpine Association of Slovenia established the Youth Commission (MK) on Šmarjetna gora and harnessed it into the noble care for the upbringing and education of young people in mountaineering. Together with youth sections operating within mountaineering societies, for six decades it has been caring for the popularization and quality of mountaineering through various actions, encouraging youth organization and youth work, and training professional staff who work with young people. The meeting on the 60th anniversary of the PZS Youth Commission will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2016, at 5 p.m. in the Slovenian Mountaineering Museum in Mojstrana.



"The mission of the Youth Commission has not changed much since the very beginning. Our main task remains passing on knowledge to younger generations – care for the environment and nature conservation, safe movement, healthy lifestyle. These are the things we want to bring closer to mountaineers from an early age and thus give them a foundation for their further development. Not only in the mountaineering field, but also in everyday life, as genuine contact with nature and socializing with peers is increasingly being displaced by technology," describes the evergreen mission of the PZS Youth Commission leader Barbara Bajcer, herself a PZS guide dedicated to working with youth: "The story we have been writing for 60 years would not be possible without the people who have invested a huge amount of their free time and energy into it. Mentors, guides, youth leaders, and all others who work with young people are the driving force of the Youth Commission, and I believe that in the future there will be no shortage of motivated people."



Immediately after its establishment in 1956, the PZS Youth Commission began training youth guides who cared for the mountaineering youth in societies, and as early as 1963, they began implementing the first mountaineering schools in youth sections of mountaineering societies, training young people for safer hiking in the mountains, which have been preserved to this day. To guide young mountaineers towards a healthy life in nature, familiarize them with the basics of mountaineering activities and safety in the mountains, while developing virtues such as camaraderie, perseverance, and curiosity, the actions Young Mountaineer and Little Mountaineer came to life in 1969 and 1975 respectively, and with their joyfully renovated logbooks in 2010, both programs still encourage organized mountaineering and train all young mountain visitors for more independent and safer movement in the mountains. A milestone in youth activities is the 1995 booklet Young People in Mountaineering and Mountaineering Organizations, which indicated new directions for organizing and operating youth within PZS, most of which have been realized.



The world stands on the young, and youth mountaineering activities stand on people who educate, guide, and encourage growing youth to engage in mountaineering. MK established the Committee for Upbringing and Education already at the end of the sixties, and between 1971 and 1973 introduced a seminar for mentors of mountaineering groups, who are today key persons for teaching mountaineering content and the right hand of guides on trips and camps. Educational activities under the auspices of MK found a home in Bavšica in the eighties, where an educational center was built, and in 1999 the Mountaineering Learning Center Bavšica was constructed, still today a center of youth – and other mountaineering – training. In addition to training for youth leader, which represents a bridge between children and PZS guides and has been a real success in recent years, among the non-formal education of PZS MK it is worth mentioning the winter mountaineering school, course for hiking on difficult and very difficult paths, orientation course, and sociability seminar.



For quality work with young mountaineers, MK has been awarding the recognition youth and mountains since 1993, its highest recognition for achievements in the field of upbringing and education of mountaineering youth. The MK PZS Bulletins, which in printed form saw the light of day in just one issue in 1997, developed into the Youth Supplement to PZS Bulletins, which was followed in 2011-2013 by the magazine Let's Go under the Embrace of the Mountains, in 2015 the long-awaited workbook on mountains Mountaineering Fun Book was published, songs from the CD Let's Go under the Embrace of the Mountains have been indispensable companions of youth mountaineering since 2010, and the Mountaineering Songbook for more than two decades.



To spice up the work with youth, MK together with PD Domžale organized the competition Youth and Mountains in 1989, the most established competition for young people from knowledge, skills, and experiences in mountaineering activities, which in 27 years has firmly rooted in the hearts of primary school students across Slovenia, this year it also premiered the competitive challenge for high school students. In the second half of the nineties, MK revived mountaineering orienteering competitions, which particularly took root in Styria. Thus, in 1998, the first Slovenian Mountaineering Orienteering Competition (SPOT) took place on Menina planina, and mountaineering orienteering celebrated its 60th anniversary last year on Rakitna. Fun knowledge acquisition for independent and confident mastery of movement in the mountain world is still today the guiding light of orienteering challenges, which take place in eight regional leagues and seven age categories.



The real magnet for young knee-biters are mountaineering camps, which (tent) wings first spread in 1925 on Vogrsko, and since the establishment of MK they carry the laurels of one of the most popular methods of working with youth in mountaineering. Multi-day mountain experience, sleeping under tent canvas, and socializing around the camp fire also ignite sparks in children's eyes. Despite the great organizational effort, in many sections they are the crown of the whole year's work of mountaineering circles and groups, whether under the roof of a mountain hut, in the form of classic summer tent camping, or as a hiking camp. Simplicity, modesty, and genuine contact with nature teach young people a life different from the increasingly electronic everyday life, while at the same time honing them in mountaineering knowledge through diverse activities.



Both the Alpine Association of Slovenia and the youth under its auspices boldly cross Slovenian borders, as they have been participating in camps, seminars, and exchanges in other countries for half a century, and MK is justly proud of its reputation abroad, where it has often been a model for working with youth. The PZS Youth Commission has the status of a national youth organization and a youth organization in the public interest in the youth sector. It fruitfully cooperates with youth and volunteer organizations in Slovenia and in the work of the UIAA Youth Commission, the largest international mountaineering organization of which PZS is a member.



"In the mountaineering organization, activities for young mountaineers began to be carried out soon after its establishment, and for the last 60 years such activities have also been organizationally integrated into the work of our organization. In the initial period of organized operation, various forms of work with youth were carried out, but over time, youth work also developed, which today is one of the very recognizable areas of our organization's activities, both at home and abroad. Numerous generations of young and slightly less young mountaineers have contributed to the development and popularization of youth activities at the level of the mountaineering association as well as in societies and inter-society committees, for which they deserve great thanks. In addition, youth activities have been strongly marked and also reshaped by many activities, among which I would like to highlight training for youth mountaineering guides, Mountaineering School, actions or programs Little Mountaineer and Young Mountaineer, training for mentors of mountaineering groups, competitions Youth and Mountains, and in the recent period also non-formal education for youth leaders," emphasizes PZS President Bojan Rotovnik on the anniversary, who headed the PZS Youth Commission between 1996 and 1998: "Many enter active work in the mountaineering organization precisely through activities intended for young mountaineers. I am happy and proud to be one of them, as the knowledge and experience gained from working in the youth section of the parent society and in the PZS Youth Commission greatly benefits me in performing my current work as PZS President and also in everyday life."