Height Phobia Coaching: Mountain Hike | The first step towards greater confidence in exposed terrain

• Procedure and meeting place

  • Meeting place

    around 9.00 am, at the information point for the relevant walking area

    You’ll make your own way here. We’ll meet directly in the respective hiking area:

    Haldigrat walk: Meeting point at the Niederrickenbach valley station
    Lisengrat walk: Meeting point at the Säntisbahn valley station

    You’ll receive full details of the meeting point and the itinerary a few days before the tour begins.

  • Arrival & Preparation

    We’ll start with a group discussion. You’ll reflect on your past experiences with a fear of heights and set yourself a personal goal for the day. Together with the coach, you’ll discuss what you’d like to focus on and which strategies might help you cope with feelings of uncertainty.

  • Coaching on the go

    During the walk, we’ll start by laying the foundations. On gentle terrain, you’ll get to know your own personal reaction patterns and learn simple, practical methods for maintaining calm and feeling secure in challenging situations. At the first exposed sections, we’ll put these tools into practice straight away. Together, we’ll observe what changes and how you can build confidence step by step.

    You’ll work your way through the first passages at your own pace. In doing so, you’ll learn to focus your attention, become aware of your physical responses and consciously apply strategies.
    We take the time to reflect on our experiences and try out useful methods directly in practice. This allows you to consolidate what you’ve learnt and discover new ways of approaching things.

    After a break at the summit, the return journey along the same route offers further opportunities to put what you’ve learnt into practice. The path always looks quite different on the way down. This allows you to gain experience in a variety of situations. At the end of the day, you’ll look back on the many challenges you’ve overcome and take your personal toolkit home with you.

  • Looking back together

    At the end of the day, we’ll look back together: What helped you? Which strategies would you like to continue using? And what will you take away with you for future tours? You’ll go home with new experiences and practical approaches that can guide you on your journey towards greater confidence in exposed terrain.

  • Conclusion

    around 5 pm, valley station of the relevant hiking area

    We’ll finish the tour together back in the valley. On the way home, there’ll still be some time for everyone to reflect on the day’s experiences.

• Venues and course details

  Haldigrat T3 Walk
  The Haldigrat mountain hike is a varied route taking in ridge sections with stunning views and summits offering impressive panoramic vistas of the surrounding mountains. Along the way, you’ll encounter a few exposed sections of the path, which offer the chance to tackle your fear of heights step by step. The Haldigrat is particularly well-suited for trying out initial strategies for dealing with uncertainty directly in the terrain and building confidence in your own abilities.

  Lisengrat T3 hike
  From the Säntis, the scenic Lisengrat ridge trail leads straight across the striking Alpstein mountain landscape to the Rotstein Pass. The narrow ridge path offers impressive views down into the valley and a varied range of terrain. Thanks to improvements to the path and the addition of steel cables, what was originally a challenging T4 route is now marked as a T3 mountain walk. An impressive ridge walk where you can familiarise yourself with the exposed terrain step by step.

  Who is this course suitable for?
  This course is for you if:

  • you’d like to go on mountain hikes, via ferrata routes or high-altitude treks, but exposed sections keep making you feel uneasy or holding you back.
  • You know that a situation is objectively safe, but your body still reacts with fear.
  • your legs freeze up, your heart starts beating faster, or you lose the nerve to carry on as soon as the path drops steeply to the left or right.
  • you want to understand your fear better, rather than letting it control you.
  • you’d like to learn to be more aware of your physical reactions and to develop some initial strategies for dealing with your fear of heights.
  • you want to regain your self-confidence and expand your capabilities on the mountain.

  Course content

  • Gaining a better understanding of the fear of heights and physical reactions
  • Recognising your own triggers and reaction patterns
  • Discover simple and effective coaching tools
  • Applying strategies directly in the field
  • Learning to consciously control your attention, breathing and thoughts
  • Building confidence in objectively safe situations
  • Gaining confidence, step by step, in exposed sections
  • Developing a personalised kit for future mountain tours

  The aim of this training is not to eliminate fear completely. It is about understanding it better, consciously regulating your reactions and, step by step, remaining able to act.

  The routes were carefully chosen in consultation with a mountain guide. As a T3-rated mountain hike, it offers objectively safe, easily navigable sections with varying degrees of exposure. The tour provides the ideal conditions for building confidence and gaining new experiences in a safe environment.

• Requirements

  • Fitness level required for a mountain hike of around 4–5 hours and 900 metres of elevation gain at a leisurely pace (~300 metres of elevation gain per hour)
  • Sure-footedness on mountain paths
  • Willingness to come to terms with one’s own fear of heights
  • Openness to reflection and coaching in a small group

• Price and services

  • CHF 225 per person
  • Small group of 4–6 guests
  • Including planning and delivery with the coach, and her travel expenses.
  • Excluding personal travel expenses, train tickets and personal expenses.

• Material and equipment

  For this coaching day, you will need the following equipment:

  • clothing suitable for the weather and for the mountains
  • Mountaineering boots, walking boots or good approach shoes
  • Possibly telescopic walking sticks
  • 20-litre day rucksack containing sunglasses, sun cream, a water bottle and lunch
  • Pen and notebook for personal notes

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