Important information at a glance
Summit registers are like mountain guest books. Anyone who makes it to the top writes their names here. Sometimes just their name with the date, often with a greeting too, with thoughts and poems. Tamara Schweidler embellishes the registers with colourful and hand-painted covers.
A magnificent sunrise on the Haaralmschneid (1,594 m). Everything gleams deep gold. Tamara Schweidler started out early, long before the first hikers set off on the alpine pasture. Even the cows are still dozing on the wayside. All that can be heard is the occasional bell. Nanouki, the fluffy white Samoyed dog, walks well ahead on a long leash. Tamara grew up in Ruhpolding and even though she now runs a farm with her partner and also works as a media teacher, she often loves to head into the mountains around Ruhpolding.
The 25-year-old especially loves the Hochfelln (1,674 m) and its foothills, the Hörndlwand (1,684 m) and the Haaralmschneid. The last metres of the meadow path up to the summit cross are still extremely steep at times, but Tamara likes this. “The steeper the better,” she says with a wink and starts to climb. While we take a first break, Tamara soaks up the panorama. To the east the Rauschberg, opposite the Hörndlwand, further to the west the Kaiser Mountains, in the distance the High Tauern and very close in the north: the Hochfelln.
Tamara takes off her backpack and carefully pulls out a large sheet of paper. There’s actually a reason why she has come to the Haaralmschneid today. Even as a child, Tamara loved to paint. "But everyone preferred my older brother’s pictures, no-one wanted mine. They just hung over the toilet in the bathroom." She laughs and unfolds the paper in her hands. An abstract painting, colourful, bright yellow and pink with blue and green polka dots. Two years ago, Tamara started to make summit registers. She buys notebooks, covers them in her pictures and then places them on the mountains. Her mother, indirectly, inspired her to do this. She asked Tamara to embellish her notebooks. Tamara started to focus on summit registers because she noticed that they were often in a poor state: wet and full and with torn pages. So she took on the summit registers up her home mountains.
Most summit registers are attached to the summit crosses in weatherproof covers or metal cases. They are provided by the relevant sections of the Alpine Association, by the mountain innkeepers, tourism associations and mountain guides. There are no standardised, binding rules. Summit registers first appeared in the 1850s. They were probably an imitation of the registers found at places of pilgrimage. Many hikers leave behind rhymes, poetry, drawings or even entire diary entries.
Aside from all the creativity, these summit registers also fulfil a very important purpose: the mountain rescue team uses information such as names, dates, planned tours, weather and companions as important reference points in emergencies. If a hiker is missing, entries in the summit register can save lives.
Tamara also asks that you always enter all the important information in her summit registers and don’t waste any space or skip pages. If you do, then the chronology of notes would no longer match up and mountain rescuers would have to search through the books first.
»I was hardly able to keep up and my friend Mira helped me.«
Up to now, Tamara Schweidler has produced around 300 summit registers; in peak times, this was up to 40 per week. "I was hardly able to keep up and my friend Mira helped me." This is because news of Tamara's voluntary campaign quickly spread. With increasing frequency, hikers have ordered her books to deposit on mountain summits all over the place, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. One summit register even made it to Monte Cinto in Corsica.
Tamara has set up her painting corner on the balcony, she uses acrylic paint and large painting pads. As soon as she holds the brush in her hand, she is able to switch off, disconnect, be at peace. She favours colour: lemon yellow, reddish orange, kiwi green, azure blue. She wants to replace the green patterned binding of the Haaralmschneid summit register today because it no longer looks nice. She takes the book from the metal box on the cross, places the picture on her lap and ties it around skilfully.
Tamara stresses that she never removes any of the books from the summits, just simply adds new ones to the box. Generally, full summit registers are handed over to the relevant mountain hut. How quickly the pages of a book are filled depends on how busy the summit is. Tamara replaces the newly bound summit register, in which she has quickly written an entry herself, again and carefully closes the metal box. Nanouki senses that they are heading home again and jumps to her feet joyfully. On the descent, we meet the first hikers and the cows are engrossed in the fine meadow herbs.
On the Haaralm, the so-called “Kaser” huts take turns to provide refreshments each year. We take a spontaneous break and enjoy a steaming coffee and freshly baked cakes. This is what it said in the summit register:
"Die Ruhe ist dem Bergsteiger heilig, nur Narren haben’s eilig.” (Peace is sacred to mountaineers, only fools are in a hurry.)
If you would like to accompany our summit book designer on a hike, be sure to check out Wanderwelten Chiemgau! Tamara doesn't just jump from summit to summit, but also offers guided tours with her donkeys, through the stream bed or by moonlight. Variety and fun guaranteed!
