Hut Fund Report 2015

by Janet Britnell

Landshuter-Europa Hut

The Neue Reichenberger Hütte is a category I hut at 2586m in the Lasörlinggruppe, south of the main Venedigergruppe, in the heart of the Hohe Tauern National Park. It belongs to ÖAV Sektion Reichenberg, with about 600 members dispersed around Austria and Germany after their families were expelled from Liberec (formerly Reichenberg) in the Czech Republic after World War II. The section was founded in 1893, and then re-launched in 1953. The first Reichenberger Hütte was opened in 1905 in the Dolomites, so was lost to Italy after 1918. The new hut was built on the present site in 1926 and enlarged in 1982. The section owns the hut and a small area of the surrounding land. Today the members see it as their last piece of home, and call St Jakob in Defereggen, in the valley below the hut, the section base. Each year about 100 members attend the Hauptversammlung in St Jakob for a week of long mountain trips and tours and socializing.

Most of the hut income comes from overnight visitors; there are 20 beds and 40 Matratzenlager spaces. The walk up from Defereggental takes 4½ hours, and it takes a similar time from Prägraten in Virgental to the north, so the number of day visitors is limited. The section allows the Hüttenwirt, who has been the hut tenant for 22 years and does most of the general hut maintenance himself, to keep 20% of the bednight fees in addition to all the profit on the food.

Between 2009 and 2013 improvements to the hydro-electric and photovoltaic energy supplies to make the hut self-sufficient in electricity, repairs to the cellar so that it meets food storage standards, and renovation and refurbishment of a Matratzenlager, were carried out at a total cost of about €75K. The next major project, in 2014, was the provision of hot water and showers in the wash rooms. The project included replacement of the kitchen stove with one that would also supply sufficient hot water for the showers. When the old stove was removed, it was realised that quite a bit of structural work was required before the new stove could be installed and in fact a customised made-to-measure stove had to be ordered. In the end, the 2014 improvements, that also included internet connection, installing a new locking system for the rooms, and a UV disinfection unit for the drinking water supply, rose by about €15K above the original budget of €45K. This coincided with a really bad summer in the Alps, leading to a 50% reduction in the number of overnight visitors to the hut and an operational loss for the 2014 season. Furthermore, looming ahead of them were other expensive projects, including upgrading their waste water treatment, maybe as soon as 2015.

The section appealed to Innsbruck asking if there was a chance of extra financial help from the hut department's reserve fund. Innsbruck thought maybe Sektion Britannia's trouble shooting Hut Fund could help. As reported last time, several of us met the Chairman and Treasurer of Sektion Reichenberg at the 2014 Hauptversammlung. The Executive Committee subsequently agreed to make a €10K donation from the Hut Fund to Sektion Reichenberg to help them with their 2014 overspend.

Since then we have also made a donation of €5K to Sektion Steinnelke for work on the Salzkofel Hütte, and several other pro- jects are under review. In his introduction to the 2015 allocation of funds at the March 2015 Huts and Paths Committee meeting, the head of the ÖAV Huts, Ways and Cartography division, Peter Kapelari, made a point of thanking Sektion Britannia for the part it is playing in helping sections with their hut projects. There is no doubt that our contributions are very much appreciated, so please keep the donations coming in.

Janet Britnell

The Neue Reichenberger Hütte with the Venediger

Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.