Christoph Schrahe

Foto: Christoph Schrahe

Christoph Schrahe first studied geography, cartography, urban planning & cultural engineering and geology in Bonn since 1988. From 1991 onwards, he studied business administration at the Cooperative University of Baden-Württemberg and graduated with a BA in business administration. While still a student, he visited ski areas around the globe and published the book "Ski Weltweit". Afterwards he worked in a Swedish ski resort for some time. This was followed by a position at the bicycle tour operator Aktiv-Reisen velotours in Konstanz. In 1996 he moved to Bosch in Hildesheim as a product manager for digital maps for vehicle navigation devices. In 1999 he took over a position as Senior Consultant at ift Freizeit- und Tourismusberatung GmbH in Cologne. There he managed numerous projects related to regional and product development in tourism. Among others, he prepared master plans for the Ministries of Economic Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia and Lower Saxony for the development of winter sports offers, which dealt with questions of sustainability, the development of measures, economic effects and above all snowmaking against the background of climatic changes.

Together with the Swiss Federal Snow and Avalanche Research Institute (SLF) in Davos, Christoph Schrahe developed the SnowPlan simulation program for the planning of technical snowmaking systems. The master plan for the Wintersportarena Sauerland, which has been initiating projects for upgrading the wintersport infrastructure in the Sauerland since 2000 with an investment volume of more than 130 million euros, is largely based on his initiative.

Since 2008 he and his company Montenius Consult have been working on the development of winter sports areas. His focus is on Germany, but he has also worked on projects in Austria, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey and Pakistan. Currently he is responsible for projects with a total investment volumen of more than 200 million Euros.

Christoph Schrahe is lecturer for Ski Area Planning at the FH Vorarlberg in Dornbirn, Austria. Christoph Schrahe lectured at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Ravensburg on "Winter Sports Facilities Management" and also held lectures at the International School of Management in Dortmund. His lecturing activities on topics of the winter sports industry took him to the booming winter sports region of Heilongjiang in northeast China and to Greece as part of a UN project. Christoph Schrahe also gave lectures at the World Winter Forum in Vienna and regularly at the German Seminar for Tourism.

Christoph Schrahe is also one of Germany's best known travel writers and has visited more than 500 ski areas in 41 countries on six continents. Further to publishing several books such as »Ski Weltweit« (1994), »Vista Point Ski Guide Nordamerika« (2005) and »111 Skipisten die man gefahren sein muss« (2020), he published hundreds of articles in renowned German and international daily newspapers and magazines such as Ski Area Management, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Hamburger Abendblatt, Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Stern, ADAC Reisemagazin, Lufthansa Magazin. He also contributed to all ski guidebooks on the German market. Christoph Schrahe also reported about ski resorts around the world on various TV- and radio channels (ARD, SWR etc.).

Christoph Schrahe successfully completed the ski instructor exam of the Tyrolean Ski Instructors Association.

Christoph Schrahe is married to musician Meike Herzig. Son Leonard was born in 2005.