My Debt to the Österreichischer Alpenverein

by Mel Owen

In the summers of 1962 and 1963 the Österreichischer Alpenverein turned me from a complete alpine novice into a competent alpinist, and for this I will forever be in their debt.

In 1962 I was a student on an ab initio training course in alpinism in Austria’s Ötztal Alps. In the course of a fortnight’s hut tour, bagging all of the highest peaks in the area, Austrian Guides taught us all that was known at that time about the use of ice axe and crampons, about glacier craft, about belaying on rock, ice and snow, and we each took it in turns to prusik unaided out of an actual crevasse. It was a perfect grounding, one that has stood me in very good stead throughout my many subsequent mountaineering trips over many decades, some of which have taken me in unguided peer groups to over 21,000 feet. Our highest summit was the Wildspitze, and our final one was Similaun.

Helmets and harnesses had yet to be invented. We each wrapped a longish rope several times around our waists and tied it off. Our climbing ropes were then secured directly to this waist loop.

I still have the Stubai Aschenbrenner Fuhrerpickel ice axe and the hand forged Stubai crampons that I bought for this first trip, the crampons having their place of manufacture, Fulpmes, stamped onto them.

Studl Hütte 1937

In 1963 it was followed by another two-week course, this time a continuation training course in the Sonnblick/Glochner area of the Austrian Alps, which consolidated what we had learnt the previous summer. I well remember our last day; after a night at the Stüdlhütte we climbed the Stüdlgrat to the summit of the Großglochner, before making a long glacial descent to Heiligenblut, from where we caught a bus to the railhead.

Glockner with a summer sprinkling
Photo by Graham Willoughby

As was usual in those early years, flights were never part of such package holidays. Instead we used trains, travelling very comfortably overnight in couchettes. Interestingly, on all 4 crossings of Europe between the Channel and Austria, the train stopped twice to change engines, since only on the first and final legs were we pulled by diesel locomotives, the middle sector using steam locomotives on each occasion, but whether this was due to relative fuel costs or political pressure we never knew. How many readers of this have ever been on a package holiday to the Alps by steam train?

Each of these two-week all-inclusive package holidays cost just under £30, but that amounted to slightly more than four weeks’ take-home pay for me at that time, so it was quite an investment, but very well worth it.

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