| Honorific Prefix: | Colonel |
| Georg Bilgeri | |
| Birth Date: | 11 October 1873 |
| Birth Place: | Bregenz, Austria-Hungary |
| Death Place: | Patscherkofel, Federal State of Austria |
| Placeofburial: | St. Gallus Cemetery, Bregenz |
| Branch: | Austro-Hungarian Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1894–1920 |
| Rank: | Oberst |
| Battles: | World War I |
| Laterwork: | Gendarmerie, ski school |
Georg Bilgeri (11 October 1873 – 4 December 1934) was an officer in the Austro–Hungarian Army, mountaineer, and Austrian pioneer of skiing.[1] Bilgeri learned to ski in Gargellen about 1893.[2]
As a Lieutenant in the Tyrolean Imperial Hunters (Tiroler Kaiserjäger Regiment No. 4), Bilgeri instituted ski training in the high Alps as early as 1896 and became the creator of mountain and ski training in the Austro-Hungarian army. Bilgeri led military patrols in winter treks in the Zillertal Alps (1899) and to Kitzbühel (1905).[3] From 1905-08 he led instructor courses for officers. Bilgeri directed a military ski factory in Salzburg from 1906-10. In 1908-09 he was a commander of border guards in the Dolomites. He was an officer of the World War I National Defense Command in Tyrol, leading the formation and training of the Mountain guide companies. He retired in 1920 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and later was awarded Colonel.[4]
He provided free ski instruction in Austria (starting 1906), Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary and Turkey and wrote an early ski manual advocating the use of two shorter ski poles, Der alpine Skilauf (1910). Bilgeri was involved with the creation of the Salzburg Ski Club in 1910. Starting in 1919 he was a member of the Swiss Alpine Club. He devised improvements to mountain boot shoelace fasteners, crampons, ice axes, anti-slip skins, collapsible ski poles, ski wax, ski bindings, rucksacks, and crevasse rescue. He provided ski training for the police and customs starting in 1921. The first Alpine manual for the Austrian gendarmerie was published in 1927, which had been developed by Bilgeri and Colonel Josef Albert. In 1930 he founded a ski school at Patscherkofel in the Tyrol.[5]
Der alpine Skilauf München: Deutsche Alpenzeitung, 1910
Alpine Weisungen für den Gebirgskrieg Verlag K. u. K. Landesverteidigungs-Kondo in Tirol, 1917
Alpin-Vorschrift für die österr. Bundesgendarmerie: nebst einem Anhang über die Zentralmeldestelle für alpine Unfälle in Wien und der Instruktion für alpine Rettungspatrouillen des Bundesheeres Wien: Gendarmerie-Zentraldirektion, 1927
Méthode Bilgeri pour l'Enseignement du Ski Swiss Alpine Club Lausanne: F. Rouge & Cie S.A., 1931
Alpiner Skilauf Skihochtouren Bregenz: Bilgeri-Werk, 1934
The following have been named after him: