Featured hut by Allan Hartley

Rauhekopfhütte 2731m Ötztal Alps

Owner: DAV Sektion Frankfurt am Main
Location: Located on a rock platform north of the Kleine Rauhekopf overlooking the Gepatschferner glacier.
Open: End of June to mid-September
Facilities: 21 Matratzenlager; 10 places in winter room (no key required). Modest restaurant and toilet facilities complete with external shower that has to be one of the most scenic showers in the world. Mobile telephone reception.
Valley and Hut Connections: Access only by the Gepatschferner glacier, the second largest in Austria. Train to Landeck, then bus to Gepatschhaus. Gepatschhaus 3h, Brandenburger Haus 3h, Vernagthütte 5h.
Excursions: Fluchtkogel (3497m) 3h, Weißspitze (3526m) 2.5h, Großer Rauher Kopf (2989m) 1h, Hochvernagtspitze (3535m) 3.5h
Address: Rauhekopfhütte A-6524 Kaunertal, Austria
Telephone: 0043 (0) 664 206 7006.

Named after the adjacent peak, the Rauhekopf 2980m, the hut occupies a strategic position between the Gepatschhaus at the head of the Gepatschtal valley and Brandenburger Haus at the head of the Gepatschferner glacier. Unusually, the hut is wardened by volunteers from Sektion Frankfurt who take turns in managing the hut for two week rotas. Not surprisingly the hut is supplied these days by helicopter, making 10 to 15 flights at the start of the season to provision the hut, and a lesser number at the end of the season to remove rubbish. And do the volunteer wardens make use of these flights to get to and from the hut? No, they walk from Gepatschhaus over the Gepatschferner glacier like everyone else.

The hut was built in 1888 with an extension in 1939 and renovation in 1978 with a new toilet block being added in 2012. The hut is in every sense of the word a mountain hut with a small dining room of just two tables and bench seats, the Matratzenlager is in the roof, comprising two small rooms for 12 and 7 people, and two cosy places on the stair landing. Situated where it is, there is no easy access to the hut and almost all the hut visitors will be mountain wanderers of some description, no doubt heading for loftier places that makes the Rauhekopf a fine intermediate refuge that is comfortable and friendly.

Source, Allan Hartley, Across the Tyrol (awaiting publication).

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