To protect the local recreation area: Canyoning in the Stuiben Falls will be heavily regulated from October

Updated 29.07.2022

More than 8,100 entries in 2021, of which more than 3,000 in July alone: the Stuiben Falls at Plansee are now approached by more than 35 outdoor providers and are literally overrun by their guests. The flare-up of criticism has now been taken as an opportunity to severely restrict canyoning for the benefit of the other user groups as of October.

Back then, the Stuiben Falls were set up by the municipalities of Breitenwang and Reutte, the tourism association of the Reutte Nature Park Region and the Reutte Electricity Works as a hiking and recreation area. However, from the point of view of many recreation seekers, there was hardly any talk of recreation. Because the front-runners among the beneficiaries of the infrastructure maintained by the TVB, the municipalities and the mountain guide office are now obviously the canyoning providers based mainly in the Allgäu and in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

They appreciate the Stuiben Falls not only because of the artificially limited and thus constant water flow, but also because of the parallel hiking trail. This allows beginners to easily bypass the obstacles that are too challenging, making the route perfect for participants of different levels.

"In addition to the feedback from the population, the figures collected illustrate the need for a significant reduction in the number of canyoning tours in order to protect the highly sought-after natural area and other user groups," explains Hermann Ruepp, chairman of the TVB Naturparkregion Reutte

In order to be able to regulate and monitor the access of commercial providers as well as private groups in the future, the right of use for canyoning will be leased by the municipalities of Breitenwang and Reutte to the local company Bergführerbüro Reutte / Jörg Brejcha. The Bergführerbüro will then manage the access rights and monitor compliance from October onwards. The number of ascents will be drastically reduced by about 2/3 by contract. Parallel to this, the access fee is also to be raised significantly. However, access for e.g. local school groups will still be possible.

"The regulation of the number of visitors is entirely in the spirit of nature-based quality tourism and fits ideally with the concept of sustainable tourist use of the Plansee area," says Breitenwang's mayor Hanspeter Wagner, expressing his satisfaction with the solution found for the Stuiben Falls.