The Purelements Story: From the First Tour to ISO Certification

Our story didn’t begin with a business plan, but with a child on skis. Founder Thomas Waibel first stood on skis at age two, went on his first climbing trip with his father at age three, and has been professionally guiding guests on rafting, canyoning, and caving tours since 1999; and to this day, he works as a guide, ski instructor, and as a trainer for canyoning guides worldwide. From this hands-on experience, purelements grew, with its headquarters in Sonthofen in the Allgäu region, a second location in Ticino, and a safety concept that made it the first and only German-Swiss outdoor company to be certified company-wide to ISO 21101. This page recounts the milestones of this development.

The company has grown from its home base in Sonthofen, where its office and canyoning camp are located at Mittagstraße 3—centrally situated on the edge of the Allgäu Alps and easily accessible for day visitors from Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, and Munich. The five in-house canyons—from the Starzlachklamm to the Stuiben Falls on Lake Plansee—remain the foundation of the tour program to this day. A second location was added in Ticino, a world-renowned canyoning region where purelements CH, led by Managing Director Florian Schauwecker, is based at its own canyoning base in Cresciano; there, granite gorges with emerald-green pools, canoe trips on clear waters, and even heli-canyoning complement the offerings of the German locations. At the same time, a global network of professional guides has developed over the years—many of whom were personally trained by Thomas Waibel—that organizes adventure trips on nearly every continent, from the Azores to South Africa. Collaboration with local companies on the ground is an integral part of the concept. The page about the company behind purelements provides an overview of the team and structure.

Safety has been an integral part of our history from the very beginning, as we developed our own safety concept early on based on the standards of international professional associations—a concept that addressed both quality assurance for guides and tours and accident prevention in the canyon. We have consistently continued along this path and have transformed the concept into a Safety Management System compliant with ISO 21101 for Adventure Tourism, which we had externally certified—making us the first and only German-Swiss outdoor company to do so company-wide across all locations; At our Ticino location, we have also held certification in accordance with the guidelines of the Safety in Adventures Foundation for many years. Throughout all stages of development, the core principle that has driven the company from the very beginning has remained: the conviction that a genuine experience takes time, that people are at the center, and that nature remains the teacher—a philosophy embodied by a team of outdoor enthusiasts from around the world. The founder’s guiding principle—to experience places you’ve always dreamed of—remains unchanged. Our History page documents the various stages of the company’s development, including all its milestones.