Featured Hut by Allan Hartley

Austrian Tribulaunhütte 2064m
Gschnitztal

Owner: Naturfreunde, Innsbruck

Location: Finely located at the foot of the Gschnitzer Tribulaun over looking the head of the Gschnitztal valley towards the Serleskamm ridge dominated by the peaks of Serles, the Kirchdach Spitze, the Habicht and for those with eagle eyes the lnnsbrucker Hut.

Open: June to the end of September/beginning October

Facilities: One 2-bed room / 30 Matratzenlager / 12 beds in winter room (comfortable). Excellent restaurant facilities that include a small bar. Hot water on tap all day. The hut specialises in Yoga wellness retreat weekends.

Valley and Hut Connections: Train to Steinach-am-Brenner and bus 4146 near Gasthof Feuerstein, then 2h on foot.
Italian Tribulaun Hut 2½h,
Bremer Hut via Jubiläumssteig 6-7h,
Magdeburger Hut 5h,
Truna Hut 6-7h.
Gschnitzer Tribulaun 2964m 3h,
Garggleri n 2470m 2h,
Obernberg 6-7hr

Address: Verena Salchner
Tribulaunhütte, A-6150 Gschnitz, Austria

Tel: (0043) 0664 4050 951

Website: www.tribulaunhuette.at

The two-storey shingle-clad modern hut that you see today enjoys a relaxed atmosphere and hides quite well some of the tragedies the hut has had to endure.

The Tribulaun Hut started life in 1922 as a typical two-storey mountain hut with a pitched roof and accommodation for around 20 people as a base for climbing on the peaks of the Tribulaun, when access to the south side of the mountains was barred because of the annexation of the Südtirol by Italy at the end of the First World War. Major extension of the hut took place in 1927 and again in 1934. Then, during the rise of National Socialism, hut ownership was transferred into state ownership. That didn't matter much, as the hut was totally destroyed by avalanche in 1935. A new hut was built more or less on the same site in 1936 with beds for 24 and matratzenlager for 64. In 1938 the hut was re-named the "Reichsverband füur Deutsche Jungendherbergen" then given to DAV Sektion Bamberg to administer between 1940-45.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the Naturfreunde group from Innsbruck regained control of the hut in May 1945 and gave the hut back its original name the Tribulaunhüutte.

Peace and quiet returned to the hut for the next few years until March 1975 when the hut was again totally destroyed by an avalanche that lifted the hut entirely off its base and dumped it unceremoniously down the mountainside. Not surprisingly the hut was shut for the next four years until a new hut was built which opened in 1979. This new hut was in complete contrast and a departure from traditional hut architecture. Here was a simple concept with a low-cost prefabricated two-storey shingle clad functional shoebox simply placed on the mountainside, with a large dining room, beds for 24 and matrazenlager for 36. This arrangement would serve well for the next few years until 2014 when the hut was completely refurbished with new kitchen, bathrooms, one bedroom and matrazenlager and the exterior re-clad in the larch shingles that you see today.

As you sit peacefully on the terrace, imagine the roar of the avalanche that swept down from the mountains off the Tribulaun!

The hut is delightful and worthy of any award should there be one for "best huts". Just watching Verena and her family team of four generations from Great Grandma to her daughter all pitching-in to help, make this a fabulous hut in every sense of the word.

Source; Trekking in the Stubai Alps by Allan Hartley, Cicerone Press.

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