Ischlerhütte from the west
Photos Georg Unterberger

Ischlerhütte 1365m - Totes Gebirge

by Janet Britnell

The Ischlerhütte, belonging to Sektion Bad Ischl with about 1800 members, sits on a platform below the Schönberg or Wildenkogel, 2093m, on the western edge of the Totes Gebirge, just inside the border of Styria. The valley station of the Materialseilbahn (MSB) is in Upper Austria, as is the town of Bad Ischl.

It takes about 2.5 hours to walk to the hut from either the Rettenbach Alm, 636m, or the Blaa Alm, 900m. The first Ischlerhütte was built in 1925/26 and then extended bit by bit, but by the 1980s it was in poor condition and uneconomic to renovate, Between 1982 and 1984 the present hut was built next to the old hut which remained operational so the Ischlerhütte was always open in the summer months. If the weather is good it may open in May and stay open into October. Situated on the western edge of the Totes Gebirge the hut is the starting point for a 4 or 5 day hutting tour over several peaks to Hinterstoder, and for other routes within the Totes Gebirge. The hut is close to the largest cave network in the European Union, under the Schönberg. The cavers store gear in a hut on the Ischlerhütte land and use the Ischlerhütte as a base.

The hut is built of brick, faced with larch shingles and in good condition. The interior has been lovingly maintained for the last 10 years by the Hüttenwirtin, Renate Silbermayr. There are 40 overnight places in the hut, and another 10 in the Winter room They have a full biological wastewater system, cooking is done on a gas stove, using bottled gas, and a wood stove can be used both for cooking and to heat the hut if necessary. The electricity supply is from solar panels with back up from a diesel generator. The kitchen has remained virtually unchanged since 1983/4, when it was fitted out with second-hand domestic equipment, which would not pass today's health and safety inspections.

The section decided on a big project for 2018 to upgrade the kitchen and their supply of solar energy by increasing the number of photovoltaic panels (the original system had 8 silver panels, 4 of which no longer work), switching to modern lithium batteries to store up to 4 or 5 days of electricity in the basement and minimise the number of times the back-up generator had to be deployed. The original estimated cost submitted to the Alpenverein was €65.7K for the solar energy and €38K -for the kitchen. They should get 50% for the energy project and 40% for the kitchen, from the Alpenverein pot. With an additional grant of €8K from the Bad Ischl local council and €1 1K from the Styrian Landesverband, they needed to find €36.6K from their own resources, €13K more than they originally budgeted for due to a change in government policy on grant allocation. In May 2018, when the hut was still surrounded by deep snow, they installed 15 new black PV panels on the roof over the main entrance to the hut, and 15 on the roof of the MSB top station. Then the volunteers had to dig down through the snow before they could start to dig the trenches for the cables from the 3 sets of PV panels and for the back-up diesel generator to the hole in the wall of the cellar room containing the four new compact lithium batteries. To optimise the newly installed energy system, the hut needs a good broadband connection, so that the supplier can monitor and control the use of the stored power, and even service the batteries, from the valley. An LTE telephone and internet system developed for places with poor reception was installed 2 years ago, but reception is still poor. During my visit to the hut in June this year, two telephone engineers found that they could get vastly improved reception by making two changes: (1) by moving the aerial from the roof of the hut to the highest stanchion supporting the Materialseilbahn as it crosses from the valley over the ridge of the Rotes Wand; (2) changing to another phone network.

Using the MSB stanchion itself cannot be a permanent solution as it is vulnerable to lightning strikes. They need a free-standing aerial near the ridge, a bit away and a little lower than the highest MSB stanchion, with a radio transmitter connection to the hut, costing another €8K.

Once they had stripped out the old kitchen it became apparent that the piping for the liquid gas from the bottle store needed to be completely replaced, and much more extensive electrical wiring work was needed than originally anticipated, adding another €8.4K to the bill.

Main entrance with 15 black PV panels facing south

The final blow came when, despite the drinking water outlet situated 500m from the hut being completely encased, the 2018 inspection found contamination such that all water used for drinking and food preparation must now be boiled for a minimum of 3 minutes. This means that a €10K project to install a UV sterilization unit at the hut has had to be brought forward to 2018.

Financial help towards the additional un-budgeted work, estimated at €26.4K cannot be guaranteed from the 2018 Alpenverein funding allocation. The amount that Sektion Bad Ischl needs to find from their own or other sources has now risen to between €52 - 63K from an original €24k. The AAC(UK) Board agreed in July 2018 to make a €13K Hut Fund donation to Sektion Bad Ischl towards their unexpected additional costs for the infrastructural improvements at the Ischlerhütte.

The existence of our independent Hut Fund that can be used to provide trouble shooting financial support to the hut projects is very much appreciated both by the sections themselves and by the Hauptverein. Please keep the donations coming in!

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