Active Campaign

Tree Runs

A Project by Protect Our Winters, FATMAP, Freeride Nights Innsbruck and our POW Athletes

Together with Freeride Nights Innsbruck and Eden Reforestation Projects we want to plant trees by hiking vertical meters. This project consists of two ways of planting trees. On the one hand our athletes are hiking one vertical meter for every tree you guys plant through your donations – the goal is 50.000 trees. On the other hand, you can join us during the community weekends, practicing your favorite outdoor activity and collect vertical meters yourself, which will be tracked over FATMAP App – if we all together reach the goal of 50.000 vertical meters over the weekend, our partners will sponsor 20.000 trees.

Because we are not experts in planting trees – and we want to have as a positive effect as possible – we work together with Eden Reforestation Projects. The trees will be planted, where they are needed the most – in Madagascar, providing labour for local people too.

Athletes Project

Some of our POW pro Athletes are collecting vertical meters by skis for every donated tree. Our goal is to reach 50.000 trees by the end of the winter season.

Participating athletes: Kilian Echallier, Rosina Friedl, Francesco Drago, Benjamin Kalra, Christian Pessl, Lena Stoffel, Nuria Castan, Valentin Werner-Tutschku, Neil Williman. (constantly more are joining)

How does it work?

– We are collecting donations via Edenreforestation Project and Freeride Nights Events;
– With the money that we raise, trees are planted;
– For every planted tree our athletes are hiking – at least – one vertical meter;
– $1 = 10 trees = 10 vertical meter;
– Our goal is to plant – by the end of the skiing season – 50.000 trees.

TreeRuns Community Weekend powered by FATMAP

UPDATE: We reached in total 79,000 vertical meters. Thanks for your support.

Join us in our goal to plant 20,000 Trees on the weekend of 29th – 31st January 2021.*

We trust in our community of mountain sports enthusiasts. Together we can achieve the goal of 50,000 vertical meters hiked, when this happens FATMAP will plant 20,000 trees worth 2000€.

How does it work?

1. Download the FATMAP app here and create an account (if you haven’t already):

– If you are already a POW member you will have received a voucher code for the FATMAP Explore account by email that you can use to access the Explore Membership (If not please contact us).

– If you are not a POW member yet, join now and get a 3 months voucher code for FATMAP Explore.

2. Connect your FATMAP account with your tracking device (Suunto, Garmin, Strava – how-to instruction guide here) so that your tracks get automatically sent to your FATMAP account 

3. Go ski-touring, split-boarding, hiking, trail running on the weekend of 29th – 31st January* – anything that will gain some vertical meters!

And don’t forget to track your tour via Garmin, Suunto, Strava!

4. Check that your tour has been synced to your FATMAP account (you will find them in the „My Adventures“ section in your FATMAPprofile)

5. Important! Add the hashtag #TreeRunsPow to the title of your tour (your vertical meters will only be tracked if you include the hashtag) – How-to Instruction Guide here

6. We’ll announce on social media the following week if we achieved our goal 😀  follow us here ( FATMAP and POW Austria)

 7. Motivate others to join by sharing your tour and the tree runs project on social media! 

Here are further instructions on how to set up a FATMAP account.

_{*Important: The date of our community weekend is still during lockdown in Austria. This means please take all lockdown rules into account. Go only hiking / skitouring with people from your household, wear FFP2 masks in skibusses (if you approach by public transport) and most of all stay safe. Consider the current avalanche situation and make decisions according to it. If you want to get more current information on the situation in Austria check the link here.}

General Information

Why skiing and planting trees?

Going for a ski tour or enjoying some fresh powder turns. Our passion is our biggest strength at Protect Our Winters. Through our sport, we have an influence on our community. We want to transform the privilege we have in Austria to be able to do winter sports, into positive effects. That’s why: you are donating and our athletes are hiking. Motivate our athletes to gain more vertical meters by planting trees. The more trees are planted the more jobs are created and the higher the impact where it is needed the most. Climate Change doesn’t stop at borders.

How are the hiked vertical meters tracked?

We have partnered up with FATMAP and our Athletes and community will all track their ski tours / splitboarding tours via FATMAP, where all the vertical meters will be added up. You can easily connect your FATMAP account to Suunto, Garmin or Strava and have your tours automatically synced to your FATMAP account (how-to instruction guide here)

Download the FATMAP app here! 

Why Eden Reforestation Project?

The whole project was initiated by Pete Oszwald (POW Newzealand Athlete) under the name ski for trees. Pete and Soph are working since more than 4 year with their business Little Difference together with Eden Reforestation Project and have already planted more than 90.000 trees. They even paid them a visit in Madagascar by themselves to ensure the credibility of the project and that the money goes where it should go.

Why Madagascar?

Madagascar is where we can make the biggest impact for the investment, the need there is far greater than here.

90% of Madagascars forest is gone, the remaining 10% hangs by a thread, the native animal and plant species rely on these last stands of forest to avoid extinction. The local Malagasy human population also needs these last stands of forest to avoid environmental collapse and starvation. Currently Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in Africa and the world, is being ravaged by a deadly outbreak of dengue fever and the COVID19 virus is also starting to take a hold. Planting trees towards reforestation has the following affects:

• – provides habitat for endangered species,
• – restores ecosystems,
• – rainfall returns,
• – land becomes more fertile,
• – life returns to the shallow coastal seas as the silt disperses,
• – food stocks are replenished
• – people are lift out of poverty giving them dignity, independence and access to medicine and education.
• – The need to cut trees down to survive is eliminated

Mangroves the super trees:

1 mangrove tree sequesters 12.3 kg of CO2 per year over its average life of 25 years. Studies have shown that mangroves “sequester carbon at a rate two to four times greater than mature tropical forests”, and contain “the highest carbon density of all terrestrial ecosystems.” – source https://ourworldindata.org/per-capita-co2.

How many trees do I need to plant with Ski for Trees to offset my footprint?

The average footprint of the average person worldwide is 4.8 metric tonnes of CO2 per year. 1 mangrove tree sequesters on average 12.3 kg/year, 390 mangrove trees would be needed to off set the global average of 1 persons emissions. But if you are like me and live in a developed country, your footprint is probably higher. 

Below is a table of CO2 emitted by country per capita, I have also put the number trees needed to plant with Ski for Trees which will offset your emissions each year for the life of your mangrove trees (25 years), and what that will cost you:

I donated and emitted my footprint so now I don’t have to do anything anymore?

No that’s unfortunatley not true. It is a positive first step in the direction of climate protection – but we need to do way more. Climate neutrality is good but climate positivity is even better. Spread the message and check our other projects.

And if you go skitouring thing about getting public transportation to your starting point of the tour. Or might even be interesting to access it by bike, another challenge?

*coverpicture © Simon Rainer Fotograf und Ben Kalra Rider