Erlebniswald Altenmarkt: climbing from 80 centimetres

No facility in the directory lets children up as early as this one in the Pongau. Alongside it a 3D archery course on the same grounds, and a price that follows the extent of your visit rather than your age.

Christoph Hölz wrote to us himself in August. We had contacted him about Kletter-Welt Kleinarl, and he answered with a question of his own: whether we wanted his second facility as well – Erlebniswald Altenmarkt was missing from the directory. Now it is in, and since this week the entry shows the pictures too.

80 centimetres – the lowest reach in the directory

Most climbing parks start at 110 or 130 centimetres. The Erlebniswald begins at 80 centimetres, and across all 373 facilities in the directory only one other does the same, Skypark Schwäbisch Gmünd. In practice that means three-year-olds get up there too, accompanied directly until nine and on their own after that.

What separates this from the children's course many parks offer is the range. There is not one low round for the little ones and then nothing for a long while – six courses with 50 stations run through the forest along the Zauchbach, and the entry point sits low enough that a family with children of different ages does not split up.

You pay for the extent, not for your age

That is the second peculiarity. Three courses cost 25 €, four including the ziplines 30 €, all six 35 €. Anyone who only wants a taste does not pay what someone staying the whole afternoon pays – a graduation rarely found in this form. Most facilities in the directory know only child and adult.

The archery course beside it

On the same grounds lies an archery range: a shooting range to practise on, then a 3D hunting-bow course with 18 stations, taught by ÖBSV instructors. Anyone bringing their own equipment can use the course from 1 May to 31 October, from sunrise to dusk, for 10 €. For mixed groups in which not everyone wants to go up into the trees, that is the site's real strength – and two of the five photos show exactly that.

Check before you set off

The opening hours are unusual: outside the main season the site opens only on individual, pre-announced blocks of days, mostly Friday to Sunday. From 8 July to 11 September it is open daily except Saturdays, with last entry 90 minutes before closing. A look at the operator's page really is worth it here.