Esri GeOlympic Sommercamp 2022
Preparation for the international GeoOlympics
Congratulations to the 20 candidates who qualified for the Esri GeOlympic Summer Camp 2022! During one week we will prepare together in Zernez for the final elimination in autumn and the Geography Olympiad 2023 in Bandung, Indonesia.
The GeOlympic Village Zernez
Trainstation Zernez
Arrival point of the geo-athletes
Webcam from the church tower
The village of Zernez
Hotel Bär & Post
Accomodation of the athletes
Auditorium of the Swiss National Park
Working and learning space for the geo-athletes
Swiss National Park Centre
Park Visitor Centre
Participants
Never before we had such a diverse team from all over Switzerland. Therefore it is also in English for the first time.
2022 Sommercamp TN
Day 1, Intro
Day 2, Hike
Starting the Hike
Andrea from the Swiss National Park started the hike by giving some background about the 1914 founded park.
Debris flow in June in Buffalora
Compared to the rest of Switzerland, the National Park had heavy rainfall in June. This caused a debris flow below Piz Nair, which reached as far as the Buffalora mountain restaurant. This was a great opportunity for the students to see such a mass movement in real and not only in a textbook.
Entlang des Ova dal Fuorn
The Ova dal Fuorn (Ofenbach) stream was long used to transport wood and charcoal from this area, which was exported to Austria. We also hiked along this stream towards our actual destination - the Margunet nature trail.
Alp Stabelchod
After 100 years of no cattle being allowed to graze on the Stabelchod Alp, it is still not overgrown with trees. Mostly deer take over this task and keep the alp open. At least the two marmots we saw were very happy that they can still sunbathe without trees getting in their way.
Debris flow destroyed old trail
After Alp Stabelchod, the slope increased and it became more strenuous. The path was newly built in 2018 after a debris flow had destroyed the old path. The debris flow was reported to the park administration by eyewitnesses and after a few anxious hours, it was fortunately known that no one was injured.
Extinction of the bearded vulture
This is where the bearded vulture was first reintroduced to the Swiss National Park in 1991. The bearded vulture was given a chance to reestablish itself in the Alps and now has one of the densest populations in the region.
The sound of a bearded vulture:
The Top: Margunet viewpoint
At the highest point of the hike, the athletes earned their lunch! Lunch was accompanied by an exciting story about the ibexes by Andrea Millhäusler. At the beginning of the 19th century they were extinct in Switzerland. It was only through illegal smuggling from Italy (officially ordered by the Federal Council!) that Switzerland was able to recover the ibexes. We were also able to observe some wild deer on the opposite slope, relaxing in the afternoon sun like the marmots in the morning.
Getting tired
After a long hike, the athletes were starting to get tired and were happy to sit down. While they were there, Andrea showed them the different ornaments (horns and antlers) of deer, roe deer, chamois and ibex. Do you know the difference? Antlers are made of bone material and are therefore lighter. Horns are made of the same material as our nails.
Dinner
After the rigorous hike, the athletes got their well-deserved dinner. This lasagne was served as a starter. So the athletes certainly didn't miss out, at least in terms of food.
Day 3, Fieldwork
Day 4, Geocoaching
Thursday was dedicated entirely to geocoaching, to prepare the athletes properly for the exam at the Olympics. - What kind of questions will be asked at such an exam? - How is such an exam solved? - What tips and tricks are there? These were all questions that could (hopefully) be solved during the day. An additional task for the evening was the manual mapping of the town of Zernez with some specific tasks (e.g. number of floors per house, type of use per house, etc.). In preparation, all athletes drew their mental map of Zernez after having already walked through the village for 4 days. The results were amazing ! While some mental maps were very specific and technical, others were more guided by interests. Take a look for yourself below in the third picture.
In the evening, all the athletes and the camp leaders enjoyed a barbecue on a hill near Zernez. First we enjoyed the last rays of the sun before it got dark and very cold on this clear night. We moved inside to the hut next to the barbecue and enjoyed a nerve-racking pub quiz. Everyone enjoyed this last evening together before heading back down the valley to the Hotel Bär und Post.
Day 5, Presentation day, Geocoaching and Goodbye
After a very demanding week came the crowning finale. All groups presented their project results in front of a small audience - but in English and with a live broadcast via Zoom. They had to answer critical questions from us and skilfully defend their approach and results. For each project also a storymap was created to communicate the project and project results. This makes it possible to share these projects here.
After our last lunch together the athletes had their last preparation geoolympic-workshop. This also included a round of playing Geoguessr , where some participants had astonishing hitting rates. When finally saying goodbye at the trainstation we recognized that we totally forgot to make a group photo during the whole week. So we used the last 2 min before getting on the train to take one.
I thank all the camp leaders, sponsors, helpers from the national park and in particular all the Geo-Athletes for their help and incredible work during this week. I wish you all the best and good luck for the Swiss finals!
"In life, you always meet twice"
Camp leaders
Christian Sailer, Yannick Friedli, Stefan Graf
Big thank goes to our supporters!
We thank for the great support of: Esri Schweiz AG , geography.olympiad , Schweizerischer Nationalpark und HOTEL BAER & POST
