The journey is the goal - Team Survival Alpine Crossing

I'm sorry, I can't provide that service.

Team Survival started in Oberstdorf, Bavaria on July 30, 2012 and reached the South Tyrolean village of Vernago completely on foot on August 3. The nearly 115 kilometers were completed without taking any food, but with a camera crew from the Bavarian Broadcasting. In the film, which aired over a week ago, you can see Ronny Schmidt (right) and his expedition partner Daniel Meier (left) struggling over the mountains. This led to heated discussions. SPARTANAT inquired: What happened during the survival march through the Alps?

SPARTANAT: You are a survival instructor and walked over the Alps on foot without food in 5 days. What's your assessment?

Ronny Schmidt: Anyone who lives in flatland and thinks they are quite fit will be proven wrong in the mountains. Despite a weekly running training of at least 3 x 15-20km, I was proven wrong at the first ascents and had to painfully recognize reality. Being fit in flatland does not mean being fit in the mountains.

A very interesting experience is the reaction of your own body to the lack of food and a large sleep deprivation. After an initial down due to hypoglycemia on the first day, the body actually got used to the absence of the usual calorie intake quite well. Of course, the absence of food and the consequent reduced performance accompanied us throughout the tour. But after the body realized on the second day that there was no more proper food to process, it actually adapted quite well and started to use the body's reserves. By the third day, there was almost no hunger feeling anymore, even though we can assume a daily calorie requirement of at least 5000 kcal on the tour.

Another important and instructive experience was using melted snow to cover our water needs. We drank about 6-7 liters per day, which seems quite high for this climate zone. Unfortunately, we only realized our mistake and the reasons for it relatively late. The melted snow was simply too demineralized. Up to that point, I had the opinion that the path of the water through and over the rocks would be enough to re-mineralize the melted water, which is essentially distilled water. But in the end, it wasn't like that.

In summary, I can say one thing. We have learned very valuable information for life and survival in a similar survival situation. This was also a key point for this action, as we can provide our customers in the courses with real and instructive information. This is the main purpose of our actions. Test what works or not. There are certainly many things in books, but only the experience on your own body shows you things that really work or are nonsense. I always tell the participants of my courses, you don't necessarily need to eat in an emergency situation. You can easily endure for several days without any major stress, even for several weeks. And that was exactly what we wanted and what we have proven.

SPARTANAT: There was a film about it. You can see that you were actually not in a good condition at the beginning. Why?

Ronny Schmidt: This was a reaction to many things beforehand. The long journey with the stress of the filming and pre-shoot meetings the day before and before the start of the tour, combined with improper training and a breakfast consisting of half a roll. After 5 hours of running, I was simply hypoglycemic and physically exhausted. However, this passed after 10 minutes and we still walked over 100km to Italy. Such hypoglycemia can affect any person under stress and food shortage. The body needs time to adjust to this completely unknown situation. Daniel didn't have these problems until later, which I also attribute to the 35kg weight difference between us.

SPARTANAT: Your partner is vegan, you eat normally. Do you think this has an effect when suddenly only collecting plants to eat?

Ronny Schmidt: Yes, there are relatively large effects. Daniel inherently has a different basal metabolic rate due to his body structure and diet. His digestive system is better accustomed to plant-based food. However, I must add that we actually collected almost no plants, as the digestion and utilization of raw wild plants, and the admittedly rather low nutritional value, in my opinion, do not have a positive relation. One would have to consume too large quantities to meet the calorie requirement. But this would contradict our 5-day tour guidelines, which were not made easier by multiple reshoots and an extremely tight schedule. If you consume extreme amounts of raw plants, you can almost forget about achieving the required daily performance, as you simply overload the body too much for digestion and utilization.

SPARTANAT: What was the positive highlight of the tour for you?

Ronny Schmidt: The friendship and camaraderie with Daniel, whom I saw for the first time at the start of the tour and who has now become a good friend to me. The positive reactions from complete strangers before and after the tour. The pride of having completed the tour and never giving up despite all the negative moments and self-doubts. A particularly beautiful moment was the statement from the extremely experienced film team that they never expected a positive outcome at the start of the tour. They thought we were a bunch of flatlanders who would give up after a day or two. By the end of the second day, they were already surprised, and by the end of the third day, they knew that they had completely misjudged us. This was a very big moment, to hear such words from people with such experience. And of course, a huge positive experience was seeing, feeling, and experiencing the immense power, beauty, but also harshness of the mountains. The feeling of freedom without obligations in these incredibly beautiful mountains was simply indescribable.

SPARTANAT: You want to do the same tour in winter with three people, from Oberstdorf to Meran, 130 kilometers on foot, partially through the snowy high mountains. Isn't that a bit reckless?

Ronny Schmidt: For me, a small adventure must also involve some danger. If a professional mountaineer living there and being in the mountains every day were to do the tour, it wouldn't be anything special. However, we want to show that this tour can also be done by normal people. We take every precaution that should be taken on such a tour. This time the team consists of three people. The third participant is Sepp Fischer, a native Austrian who now lives in Bad Tölz. He is the trainer of our base in Bavaria and has a lot of experience with and in the mountains. Our equipment consists of top-quality material and safety devices such as an avalanche transceiver are sponsored for the tour. I think these are pretty good conditions for the success of the tour. Of course, one is never completely immune to a snow slide or an avalanche.

I believe the following statement that I published about the tour shows my personal intention and doesn't really need further discussion about the why or the reason: "Why do 3 guys take such a risk? For what? Quite simply - A man does what a man has to do. Takes risks. One should not plan one's entire life and be afraid that something might happen. Where else is the adventure? Where is one still a free person, if not on tours at the personal limit in a life-threatening environment. Don't dream of an adventure - Live the adventure."

RONNY SCHMIDT is the owner of TEAM SURVIVAL. The former sergeant - Parachute Battalion 251 (Calw) and member of Crisis Response Forces (KRK: former special forces with a specialization in crisis intervention) - offers a wide range of military survival training to bushcraft at two locations (Saxony and Bavaria) for interested individuals.

Website: TEAM SURVIVAL

Facebook: TEAM SURVIVAL

Facebook: Ronny Schmidt