Alpine Club Guide

The Alpine Club Guides (German: Alpenvereinsführer, commonly shortened to AV Führer or AVF) are the standard series of Alpine guides that cover all the important mountain groups in the Eastern Alps. They are produced jointly by the German (DAV), Austrian (ÖAV) and South Tyrol Alpine Clubs (AVS). They have been published since 1950 by the firm of Bergverlag Rother in Munich, Germany.

The AV guides contain all the routes – hiking trails, mountain hut approaches and summit climbs as well as ice and high mountain routes and klettersteigs in each mountain range. The descriptions are factual and dry, with few illustrations - rather unlike mountain books by e.g. Walter Pause – and despite introductory sections require general Alpine knowledge and experience. Examples are the AVF Allgäuer Alpen and the AVF Verwallgruppe.The AV guides are often used as the basis for other publications and complement the Alpine Club maps or other map series.