Exhibition “In the footsteps of mountain guides”.

POPRAD (November 22, 2022) – In the premises of the state archive in Prešov, the workplace of the Poprad archive opened an exhibition entitled In the footsteps of mountain guides. The exhibition is held as an accompanying program of the General Assembly of the international organization representing mountain guides from all over the world IVBV/UIAGM/IFMGA, which will be held from 21 to 25 November in the Grand Hotel in Stary Smokovec. On this occasion, the President of the IVBV/UIAGM/IFMGA Peter Cliff and the President of the National Association of Mountain Guides of the Slovak Republic (NAHVSR) Jozef Janiga took over the patronage of the exhibition and at the same time inaugurated the exhibition.

The exhibition takes place on the occasion of two important anniversaries that mountain guides are currently commemorating. On the one hand, it is 150 years of organized guiding in the High Tatras and it is also another milestone, already in modern history, namely the 30th anniversary of the NAHVSR.

The profession of a mountain guide had a specific status in the past and it still has it today. The first written records of people coming to the Tatra Mountains for adventure, exploration and research date back to the middle of the 16th century. Local inhabitants of the villages in the Tatra foothills were used as guides – whether they were shepherds, herbalists or treasure hunters, later they were also representatives of other professions. In the present-day understanding, it was more of a guiding activity, which, with the development of tourism and the increasing demands of visitors, gradually developed into the form in which we know and perceive it today.

The 150-year journey can be divided into four stages. Between 1873 and 1918 the mountain guides were organised by the Hungarian Carpathian Association. It was first discussed at a plenary meeting on August 2, 1874 in Stary Smokovec. The guides had to pass exams, they were given guide books where they wrote down all their hikes and badges. The mountain guides were divided into starting points and hiking destinations.

The new geopolitical situation after the First World War, the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic and the adoption of a new federal law in 1919 led to the abolition of the UCC. After the First World War, the activities of mountain guides as well as a number of other activities came under the umbrella of the Czechoslovak Tourist Club (KČST). Thus, an association was formed under the name Tatra Guides of the KČST by profession.

After the liberation in 1945, the numbers of mountain guides in the High Tatras were decimated. With the establishment of the Tatra National Park, space was created for the establishment of a professional mountain guide service. This happened in 1950 and a few years later a new guide statute was issued. It was valid for the High and Western Tatras from 1 July 1957. Mountain rescuers could become guides, but also volunteers who had passed the prescribed qualification exams and had obtained a licence for guiding in mountain terrain could become guides. They were classified into three qualification classes, with a designation of the area where they could carry out guiding services.

Although already in the 1970s the mountain guides of HS TANAP tried to join the International Organization of Mountain Guides UIAGM (Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes), they managed to gain membership only on 5 October 1996 at the General Assembly held in Zermatt. Mountain guides who had undergone several years of rigorous training and passed the exams were then able to set up their own business. The guides are represented by the National Association of Mountain Guides of the Slovak Republic, whose statutes were registered by the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic on 21 December 1992.

At the exhibition you can see yearbooks of the Hungarian Carpathian Association, period photographs, documents that map the activities of mountain guides and postcards that capture them in their activities. It is also possible to see the equipment they used (crampons, crampons, scrapers, ropes, welders, etc.).

The guests were welcomed by the Head of the State Archive in Prešov, the workplace of the Poprad Archive PhDr. Zuzana Kollárová, PhD. and the exhibition was accompanied by the curator of the exhibition Mgr. Ingrid Janigová. Part of the welcome was a welcome with bread and salt by children from the Folklore Ensemble Letnička. Miroslav Oračka and Ján Cina from the Letná Primary Art School in Poprad made the opening of the event musically pleasant.

The exhibition is open to the public and can be viewed until July 2023.