Inside the Thrilling, Slightly Terrifying World of Austrian Hut-to-Hut Hiking

[DGUtley]

Inside the Thrilling, Slightly Terrifying World of Austrian Hut-to-Hut Hiking - In Austria, where the Alps cover 62 percent of the country, hiking is just a part of regular life. An intrepid American writer laces up his boots.

ezgif-4-745c7f0d9a9c.jpg


ezgif-4-a8f6fc2479a8.jpg


A four-day, three-night hike through the Austrian Alps had struck us as ideal for our purposes. Our purposes were: Have fun. Don’t carry too much stuff. Let someone else cook. Finish each day’s trek at some sort of convivial group lodging, without having to hike back into town each night. Each day’s hike was around six miles (except for the last day, which was 12 but mostly downhill). We were all decent if hardly obsessive hikers, and the hope was to brush up against what remained of the golden age of alpinism, that decade or so of mountain lust in the mid-19th century when many of Europe’s highest peaks were summited, and Romantic sensibilities about them helped transform conceptions of nature itself. Of course we wanted that.


Making all this possible was the patchwork of humble but homey mountain huts erected mostly toward the end of that century, perched on rocky promontories and tucked into soft, rolling valleys. You can find these buildings throughout the Alps, though the flavor and provenance differ by country. Many huts in Slovenia were created by anti-fascist Partisans, for example, while Austria’s huts were born of a more romantic sensibility: balm for the soul, solace from the depletions of the industrial world, and so on. Many of Switzerland’s huts date back to the Middle Ages, when shepherds needed shelter during their months in alpine pastures.


ezgif-4-cdb75c57f355.jpg

ezgif-4-a8caff28b041.jpg

ezgif-4-5efaddbe74c5.jpg

The appeal of these places isn’t just cozy lodging and a home-cooked meal, but the wholly different spirit behind them. Like a comprehensive rail system or functional health care, the mountain hut is one of those institutions we don’t really have in the States. Various structural explanations exist, but ultimately it bespeaks a basic difference in how we relate to our wildlands. In the United States, we sing about our mountains, carve faces on them, send postcards of them, and, once in a while, after much preparation and buying of gear, we actually climb them. Mountains for the average American are Special Occasion geography. In Austria, where the Alpine Club boasts more than 600,000 members (nearly 7 percent of the population) and an afternoon Wanderung is as accessible and likely as a coffee, mountains are just a regular part of life.


https://www.afar.com/magazine/an-adv...=pocket-newtab

[Peter1469]

That would be a neat trip.

[Cletus]

I used the hut system extensively in Austria and Switzerland. There is also a series of unoccupied huts that are accessible for shelter and hold emergency supplies if you get stranded in bad weather. Some of the older ones at the higher altitudes actually have steel cables running over the roofs to keep the roof on and keep the hut from being blown off the foundation during storms. The unmanned huts work on a trust system. They generally have a small cache of food, a wood stove and some firewood in them.

[RMNIXON]

Do they all have a Pub?

[donttread]

Inside the Thrilling, Slightly Terrifying World of Austrian Hut-to-Hut Hiking - In Austria, where the Alps cover 62 percent of the country, hiking is just a part of regular life. An intrepid American writer laces up his boots.

Attachment 37002


Attachment 37003


A four-day, three-night hike through the Austrian Alps had struck us as ideal for our purposes. Our purposes were: Have fun. Don’t carry too much stuff. Let someone else cook. Finish each day’s trek at some sort of convivial group lodging, without having to hike back into town each night. Each day’s hike was around six miles (except for the last day, which was 12 but mostly downhill). We were all decent if hardly obsessive hikers, and the hope was to brush up against what remained of the golden age of alpinism, that decade or so of mountain lust in the mid-19th century when many of Europe’s highest peaks were summited, and Romantic sensibilities about them helped transform conceptions of nature itself. Of course we wanted that.


Making all this possible was the patchwork of humble but homey mountain huts erected mostly toward the end of that century, perched on rocky promontories and tucked into soft, rolling valleys. You can find these buildings throughout the Alps, though the flavor and provenance differ by country. Many huts in Slovenia were created by anti-fascist Partisans, for example, while Austria’s huts were born of a more romantic sensibility: balm for the soul, solace from the depletions of the industrial world, and so on. Many of Switzerland’s huts date back to the Middle Ages, when shepherds needed shelter during their months in alpine pastures.


Attachment 37004

Attachment 37005

Attachment 37006

The appeal of these places isn’t just cozy lodging and a home-cooked meal, but the wholly different spirit behind them. Like a comprehensive rail system or functional health care, the mountain hut is one of those institutions we don’t really have in the States. Various structural explanations exist, but ultimately it bespeaks a basic difference in how we relate to our wildlands. In the United States, we sing about our mountains, carve faces on them, send postcards of them, and, once in a while, after much preparation and buying of gear, we actually climb them. Mountains for the average American are Special Occasion geography. In Austria, where the Alpine Club boasts more than 600,000 members (nearly 7 percent of the population) and an afternoon Wanderung is as accessible and likely as a coffee, mountains are just a regular part of life.


https://www.afar.com/magazine/an-adv...=pocket-newtab

A little like the AT set up but much steeper. and more dangerous. I read agreat book on hiking the AT and actually did a portion of it in NH. Approximatey 100-200 yartds. LOL
I can't imagine the shape one would have to be in to hike the Alps/

[nathanbforrest45]

A little like the AT set up but much steeper. and more dangerous. I read agreat book on hiking the AT and actually did a portion of it in NH. Approximatey 100-200 yartds. LOL
I can't imagine the shape one would have to be in to hike the Alps/

I once walked from one side of the Appalachian Trail to the other! It runs down the middle of the street in Hot Springs NC and I crossed from one side of the street to the other, covering the entire portion of the Trail at that position. It was invigorating!!