Featured hut by Allan Hartley

Geraer Hütte 2,324m Zillertal Alps

Owner: DAV Sektion Landshut.

Location: Situated on a level platform at the upper edge of the alpine meadows of the Valsertal overlooking the Stubai Alps, forciby hemmed to the rear with the sheer rock walls of the Schrammacher and Fusstein.

Open: mid-June to early October.

Facilities: 21 beds, 75 Matratzenlager, 14 Notlager. Good restaurant and toilet facilities with hot water and showers. Drying room; Internet facility. Seilbahn rucksack delivery service.

Valley and Hut Connections: From Innsbruck by regional train service to Steinach am Brenner. Thereafter by Post Bus to Touristenrast guest house in the Alpeinertal valley, a journey of around one hour. Note that there is no bus service on Sundays. Taxi service available from Steinach railway station; 20 mins taxi ride.

From the Touristenrast guest house continue up the Alpeinertal valley to the end of the service track where the Seilbahn goods lift is located. Then follow the forest trail to farm buildings and an alpine meadow landscape; the trail crosses two foot bridges and a small gorge not too far from the hut. Good path all the way on long, looping zigzags. 3-4h.

Olperer Hütte 5h. Tuxerjoch Haus 4h. Pfitscherjoch Haus 5h. Landshutter-Europa Hütte 8h. Note that the path to the Pfitscherjoch Haus has collapsed moraines approximately half way to the Hut. The subsequent diversion adds almost two hours to the journey.

Address: Herr Arthur Lanthaler, Vals 24b/1, A-6154 St Jodok am Brenner, Austria.

Tel: Hut (0043) 676 9610 303; Mobile:0043 664 5106 830

Email: info@geraerhuette.at

Website: www.geraerhuette.at

The hut is managed by the husband and wife team of Arthur and Karin Lanthaler. Arthur is a professional mountain guide and is very helpful should you need advice about the mountains and the area in general.

The hut is named after the northeast German town of Gera and occupies a position high above the Valsertal valley with commanding views across the Valsertal and Wipptal valleys toward the Stubai Alps, whilst to the rear the hut is hemmed in by the huge rock walls from the dominating peaks of Schrammacher 3,364m and Fusstein 3,381m.

Built in 1895 and extended 1934, 1956, and recently about 2002, this is architecturally a charming, old, traditional, two storey hut with walls clad with larch shingles, topped off with a bright copper roof. Internally everything is made of wood including timber panelled walls, boarded floors, decorative ceiling, tables, chairs and even the water stand, all collectively providing a warm rustic charm. The creaking of timbers and gentle soft furnishings all add to a very charming cosy atmosphere making the Geraer a brilliant hut.

During World War Two the hut was occupied by German military engineers as the area above the hut was mined for chrome molybdenum, an important mineral for the production of chrome-moly steel that went into the all-important battle tank production. A similar mine existed on the other side of the Wipptal valley. The only reason for the mine is that the German Wehrmacht's main source of the mineral had previously come from Norway but that had largely been destroyed by bombing by the British RAF. Safe in the Valsertal valley, protected by the mountains, the mineral was mined by a workforce of 143 that comprised 34 Germans, 9 French, 27 Italian and 75 Ostarbeiter slave workers from German occupied Ukraine and Poland. As the Allies and the American air force advanced in 1944 across the Brenner into Austria, there were several attempts to bomb the difficult to get to mine with little success. The mountain, though, had other ideas and, in the winter of 1944 on 11 November, a huge avalanche swept the barracks and all the staging off the mountain killing 17 Ostarbeiter and seriously injuring 23 others. A second avalanche thundered down off the Schrammacher two days later completing the mine's destruction, this time without loss of life but effectively ending the mine's production. Today all that remains of these sad times are a number of steel pylons, general relics of a barracks and a padlocked gate to the mine entrance.

After the war, Gera became part of the DDR of East Germany and Sektion Gera lost ownership of the hut. The hut was then abandoned for several years until 1956 when ownership passed to Sektion Landshut who have been fine custodians of the hut ever since.

The Geraer Hut is a particularly fine hut currently enjoying a new lease of life by having a steady number of visitors undertaking the Olperer Runde Tour and Peter Habelers Runde Tour.

Source: Trekking in the Zillertal Alps by Allan Hartley published by Cicerone press.

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