2024-08-14 13:59:21
Things are getting busy in the mountains today. It’s high time. Mountaineers report “top positions” in relevant groups on Facebook and brag about their climbing achievements. If you want to find a place to stay overnight in a hut, you have to be very lucky on the big mountains like Zugspitze, Wildspitze, Großglockner and Ortler in the Eastern Alps or Matterhorn and Montblanc in the Western Alps. Some of the huts there are fully booked months in advance.
This is what happened recently to 29-year-old Maximilian Mangold. He grew up within sight of the Zugspitze. He has not been to Germany’s highest mountain at 2,962 meters. Not even by train. For the first time, he wants to do it by his own efforts. You want to be on the safe side and not overdo it. So you get a place at the Reintalangerhütte. And three months before. Result: The next day, the climbing day, the weather was not good for climbing the Zugspitze, he said.
The space problem in the huts may get even worse in the next few years. Not only that more and more people are aiming for the mountains – a trend that has been additionally affected with the corona pandemic. “Many of the settlements are getting old. Most were built a century ago or more,” says Thomas Bucher from the German Alpine Club (DAV). Postpone investments as long as possible. Now Alpine teams are faced with an investment backlog. At the same time, construction costs are increasing. The final result: houses are closed.
It is difficult for Alpine Club to maintain old buildings
The Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV) has dedicated itself to 25 shelters since 2007 and now maintains 225 shelters, Georg Unterberger from ÖAV said. Keeping buildings on top is a difficult task. Buildings withstand avalanches, are exposed to storms, extreme weather and extreme weather events. The thawing of permafrost has also recently made significant investments. In addition, there are increasing requirements of business processes, for example in terms of worker safety and fire safety. When the houses were built, this did not exist yet.
Hofmannshütte, an important base on the way to the summit of Großglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, has been closed since 2005 due to dilapidation and was finally destroyed in 2016 and not replaced. Access to the Großglockner is not possible due to the retreat of the glacier, which is why the hut’s location is no longer Alpine.
The DAV Karlsruhe branch has closed a hut
What will happen next at Hochwildehaus is not yet clear. “Due to irreversible damage, the Hochwildehaus will be closed until further notice,” it said on the website of the DAV Karlsruhe section. The permafrost melted there and caused extensive damage to the building, which was built in 1896. The supporting structure is the building’s short-term security. The refuge near Obergurgl in Ötztal has been closed since 2016.
It is also true that not every hut that one of the alpine groups is isolated from is automatically lost as a place for refreshments and overnight stays. The Patscherkofelhaus high above Innsbruck became unusable for ÖAV after the new cable car was built, which is why it sold to a long-term tenant in 2020. Unterberger says: “We didn’t see it as our job to take care of mountain parking and snow poles.
ÖAV does not find itself in a position to maintain shelters and travel itineraries for all holidaymakers.
Due to limited financial resources, ÖAV focuses on households that are rapidly dependent on grants from the association. However, the existing network of buildings and roads in Austria – in total there are 272 Alpine refuges and 50,000 kilometers of roads and trails – cannot be maintained with membership fees and current state funding alone. Unterberger said: “It’s impossible. Only a state rescue package worth 95 million euros can create conditions in Austria to maintain shelters and travel routes for all holidaymakers, according to the petition launched by ÖAV , nature lovers and travel groups in time for the National Council elections in Austria at the end of September.
The gap that continues to open between supply and demand on the mountain should not be ignored. Thomas Bucher from the German Alpine Club tried to put the challenge into perspective. He remembers the trips with his parents that took him to Switzerland in the 1980s. The huts were hopelessly overcrowded at the time. So the father sleeps on the stairs, while the son sleeps on a hard chair somewhere. “Expectations are different today. What was once acceptable is no longer acceptable,” he said. Bucher points to an online platform where those interested can find with a few clicks of huts that still have free spaces available. This means you can still explore new mountains off the beaten track.
Maximilian Mangold had to take it as it was. “Then we climbed to the Zugspitze in the rain, cold and rainy. At the meeting we stood in the cloud. We didn’t see anything. We are only for that. “
When the weather is good, the summit of the Zugspitze is crowded with all climbers on foot, as well as many mountain train visitors. A few weeks ago, things did not end well for the 29 mountaineers. They still wanted to take advantage of the opportunity they had, but they lost in the snow. In the end they called the mountain rescue team.
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