The thighs have been burning for hours, the shirt sticks to the sweaty skin and the thirst can no longer be ignored. Then, finally, after the hundredth bend of the bumpy climb, a roof peeks out from behind the next hill for the first time. Now it is not far to the hut, the place of longing for many hikers and mountaineers after many meters of altitude. A place of hospitality at high altitude, the refuge of the hut keepers.
The author Daniel Aschoff from Straßlach-Dingharting has now published a book about her life up there, her passion as a restaurateur, her existential fears and moments of happiness in nature, but also about the increased demands of the guests. “Wir Wirte vom Berg” is a collection of interviews with 17 hut keepers who keep the operations in huts like the Brünnsteinhaus, the Stuttgarter Hütte or the Furtschaglhaus running. Some are fairly new to the mountain, others have preferred up here to down in the valley for many years. It’s a life that “probably cannot be understood by many outsiders,” as Viktoria Maurer says of the Sillianer Hütte, located at 2,447 meters on the Carnic High Trail in East Tyrol.
Editor Daniel Aschoff is fascinated by the work of the hut keepers – precisely because he cannot imagine doing this job himself.
(Photo: private)
Aschoff enjoys hiking himself and has even spent the night in a hut on one occasion or another. But he is not someone who spends his holidays in Alpine Club huts. He can’t even imagine running a hut himself, but he was interested, almost fascinated, by how the men and women manage these catering establishments up there between the rugged rocks, mountain goats and long-distance hiking trails. Because he has found that they are all multi-talents. A hut host must be both “a business economist and cook, waiter, craftsman, cleaner, mountaineer, pastor, first aider, telephone operator and contact person for everything”, lists Caro Freisleben from the Heinrich-Schwaiger-Haus in her interview and says: “You need stamina, a thick skin, patience and you have to be damn resilient and fit.”
Ang Kami Lama, who runs the Stuttgarter Hütte in the Lechtal Alps, sums up the requirement profile for the hut host: “You should be an all-rounder.” You have to be able to patch up little things yourself and to solve minor problems quickly – sometimes creatively. Much cannot be planned. Because there are too many factors that cannot be influenced, from the weather to the guests. Karin Thöni Heinisch from the Oberetteshütte in the South Tyrolean part of the Ötztal Alps puts it this way in the book: “That you have to do without electricity for days, that you open the tap on Sunday morning and not a drop of water comes out, that lightning goes through the kitchen and disappears down the drain, that late in the evening you have to go looking for guests with a flashlight, that guests are close to tears when they leave the hut after a few days because they liked it so much.”
The Brixner Hütte adorns the cover of the book.
(Photo: private)
What the innkeepers high above the valley all have in common, regardless of whether they came to this job more by accident or are continuing a family tradition: “They have a long day that often starts at 4.30 or 5 a.m. in the morning and there is no break until late in the evening”, author Aschoff stated during the interviews. “My day starts at around 5.30 a.m. First of all, I grab a cup of coffee and go to the terrace. There I enjoy the quiet of the morning for a brief moment,” says Olivia Immler, who runs the Neue Heilbronner Hütte in Vorarlberg. Because she knows: “Because of the bikers and especially e-bikers, there are actually no more breaks between breakfast, lunch and evening business.”
You have to enjoy being around people and you have to be patient, everyone agrees. “Communication skills” is what Reinhold Hofmann from the St. Pöltener Hütte calls it. “You have to have an open ear for your guests,” says Bianca Furlan from Götzner Haus and Olivia Immler emphasizes: “I love direct contact with guests.” Sometimes celebrities are there, like Karin Thöni Heinisch, where Angela Merkel and a entourage of bodyguards and Frank Walter Steinmeier, then Foreign Minister, stopped by.
For all those who climb up from below, they fry fried eggs with bacon and roast potatoes, serve cheese dumplings, hut noodles or red lentil soup, prepare Kaiserschmarrn and strudel according to mum’s recipe. Everyone has their speciality. And yet not all guests are always satisfied with the offer far away from the valley road. “The demands of many guests are constantly increasing. Some of them now expect accommodation like in a five-star hotel,” says Ang Kami Lama in an interview.
Viktoria Maurer manages the Sillianer Hütte on the Carnic High Trail.
(Photo: private)
Author Aschoff has found that the hut keepers sometimes lack appreciation and guests do not realize that in some huts everything has to be transported by helicopter or even on foot. “The most annoying are those with a lack of manners,” says Reinhold Hofmann from the St. Pöltener Hütte. Tobias Müller has stated in the Nördlinger Hütte: “Wlan, hot water showers, roast pork, Wiener Schnitzel, soy milk and single rooms are already taken for granted.” They wish for a little more humility when you enter their houses and that they don’t immediately ask for WiFi, vegan dessert and Coke Zero with ice cubes, says Aschoff.
The biggest challenge for Magda Simon from Brixner Hütte, however, is having the mental strength to work through several months without a proper break. That certainly makes it so difficult to find staff. “We expect applicants not only to love the mountains and enjoy hiking, but much more the joy of working in gastronomy,” explains Patrick Zangerl from the Muttekopfhütte. Viktoria Maurer stated at the Sillianer Hütte: “You can find capable staff by being honest and not promising them a Heidi world.”
“Wir Wirte vom Berg – A book about hospitality and hut love at high altitude” (editor: Daniel Aschoff) has been published as a paperback and costs 9.99 euros, ISBN-13: 979-8842957286.