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Mountain guide Susanne Süßmeier: "We were the classic tourists far removed from the mountains who overestimated each other"
Photo: Bernhard Hangl
The start into working life is exciting, exhausting - and often different than planned. In the series “My first year in the job” young professionals tell how they experienced this time. This time: Susanne Süßmeier, 30, works as a freelance mountain guide in the Alps.
»On my second tour as a fully qualified mountain guide, I reached my limits.
Two days ski tour on Mont Vélan in Switzerland.
I had prepared everything conscientiously, looked for signs of avalanches on the first steep slope and then caught up with my guests.
At a bottleneck with rope insurance, faster tourers overtook us.
But they had little feeling for the route and climbed because they could not find the way under the snow.
So soon I and my group were back on the right track in front of them when these people completely misbehaved: They hooked themselves into my safety rope and thus hindered me.
You should be an all-rounder on the mountain
"If I were a tall, bearded mountain guide, the people overtaking would certainly not have dared to do it."
Mountain guide Susanne
I didn't say anything at the moment because I was too busy getting my guests across the transition safely.
Only afterwards did I realize how disrespectful it was.
If I were a tall, bearded mountain guide, the people overtaking would certainly not have dared to do it.
But I learned from it.
If something like this happens to me again, I will certainly not accept it without a word.
As a mountain guide, I am an alpine all-rounder.
I manage everything for which you need more than a pair of hiking boots: glacier tours, rock climbing, ice climbing, ski tours and combinations thereof.
Of course, I have to master the disciplines myself at a high level.
I learned how to lead during my training as a mountain and ski guide, which lasts at least two and a half years.
I took my last exam in April, and since then I have been able to offer private tours.
I am self-employed and can choose my job.
I am allowed to lead from the Eastern to the Western Alps, on climbing rocks in Franconia and on ski tours in Norway.
150 tour days per year are realistic, with a daily rate between 270 and 600 euros, depending on the client and the demands of the tour.
In October, November and May there is less to do, in the high season in summer and winter I could split myself into four parts.
I hope that this year, despite the failed winter season, I will achieve a turnover of 30,000 euros.
Grew up in the lowlands
I grew up near Stuttgart, in the lowlands.
As a teenager, I was in a climbing group and I went skiing.
When I got my driver's license, I was finally able to go on my first mountain tour to the Zugspitze.
Together with a friend, I took the more difficult ascent, over Höllental and a via ferrata.
On the second day we walked along the Jubiläumsgrat, with no experience whatsoever, at almost 3000 meters above sea level over the ridge.
Left and right the walls fell steeply into the valley.
Back then it felt a bit like running a slackline: one misstep and you're gone.
"We were the classic tourists far away from the mountains who overestimated each other."
We had no experience and no respect for the mountains.
We were the classic tourists far removed from the mountains, who overestimated each other and inferred from hiking in the hills to the mountains.
As a mountain guide, I now also give training courses so that inexperienced people like me have a safer start.
This early summer, I did the spaghetti round for the first time over ten four-thousand-meter peaks in the Monte Rosa massif in Valais between Switzerland and Italy. The name comes from the Italian huts that often serve pasta. Because I had never led the tour before, I prepared myself particularly thoroughly. Fortunately, there is a lot of material: tour planning portals, guide literature, tour reports and photos. And of course I work with topographic maps, look for the route, note how long the stages take, how difficult they are and what alternatives are available. I prepared two to three days for the six-day tour. I want to know what to expect.
Even though I have turned my hobby into my profession as a mountain guide, I have to do a lot differently during work.
In many places where I secure guests with the rope, I don't need any privately.
In my job I have to act in such a way that nobody can accuse me of negligence.
As far as possible, nobody should get injured.
Nevertheless, it happens again and again, luckily nothing bad so far.
Accidents on the mountain are particularly problematic: with a sprained ankle you wouldn't even go to the hospital in the valley.
But in the mountains the helicopter has to come as soon as someone can no longer get off himself and there is no other way.
Fortunately, the air ambulance in Tyrol is usually there in a quarter of an hour.
Be careful in your free time
I rarely have any fear of hurting myself on my tours.
But in my free time I ride less mountain bikes during the season and don't boulder difficult trains at great heights.
I cannot work with an injured foot.
Before, in Stuttgart, I didn't know anyone who died mountain climbing.
Now I live in Innsbruck, so I notice it quite often.
It wasn't until the spring that a young mountain guide who had passed the test with me had a fatal accident.
"There is simply a residual risk in the mountains."
Something like this can always happen, even if you do everything right.
There is simply a residual risk in the mountains.
These stories hit me most when the accident was bad luck.
Then I think: 'I was there the other day, that could have happened to me as well.'
I think that we mountain guides earn too little for the high physical and psychological stress.
But it is still the most beautiful job in the world.
It doesn't always have to be the most difficult summit, a walk to the alpine pasture is also nice.
I don't yet know how long I have been leading full-time.
In principle, you can go mountain guiding until you retire.
In the long run, I can already imagine doing a job with a little more planning security, fewer dangers and less physical stress.
At the moment I am still motivated to bring all mountain enthusiasts to their goals. "
Have you just started your career yourself and would like to tell us about it? Then write to us at SPIEGEL-Start@spiegel.de.
