One of the bests huts in the region but it wasn’t always so!

Owner:
DAV Sektion Berlin

Location:
Located at the head of the Rofental valley above the Rofenache River.

Open:
Mid June to early October.
Of interest to ski-tourers is that the hut in normally open from mid-March to the end of April.

Facilities:
20 bunks in smaller rooms, 30 Matrazlager + unlocked winter-room (16 places).
Good restaurant service but nominal toilet facilities that can feel cramped when the hut is full.

Valley and Hut Connections:
From Vent 3hr.
Vernagthütte 2h; Breslauer Hütte 3h; Schutzhütte Schöne Aussicht/Rifugio Albergo Bella Vista 3h; Brandenburger Haus 4h; Weißkugelhütte 8h; Martin-Busch Hütte 6h (via Saykogel).

Excursions from the hut:
Saykogel (3355m) 4h; Guslarspitze (3147m) 2h; Finailspitze (3514m) 5h; Weißkugel (3739m) 7h.

Address:
Sophie Scheiber
Hochjoch Hospiz
Franz Senn weg 1
A-6458 Vent
Austria

Email: info@hochjoch-hospiz.at

Web Site
www.hochjoch-hospiz.at

Telephone Hut 0043 720 920 311
Mobile 0043 664 7980 757

The original hut of 1871 was one of the pioneering huts of the soon to be formed DuOeAV (German and Austrian Alpine Association), built on the suggestion of (the famous) Franz Senn. It was situated due south about a kilometre away on the far side of the valley from the present hut, with all that remains today being a ruin of this once important historical hut.

Those with sharp eyes will quickly find its location, no doubt asking why it was built at a spot so avalanche prone from the slopes of the Senn Kogel, so named after one of the DuOeAV founders Franz Senn who was at one time the village priest in Vent before he relocated to the parish of Neustift in the Stubai Tal.

In its day, the Hospiz was quite a sizeable two storey building with accommodation for around twenty people with a simple lean-to single pitched flat roof built into the hillside. The main problems were its location, access and exposure to the elements.

During the First World War with no trade, the hut was largely abandoned. This isolation led to the hut being plundered of everything that could be carried away. With no one to maintain the hut, it was just left to the weather to do its worst, several avalanches completing its destruction when the roof was lost. That decay has continued so that all that remains today are remnants of walls.

In the Spring of 1920, the Deutscher und Oesterreichischer Alpenverein, principally Sektion Mark Brandenburg of Berlin (it’s a place not a person), decided to build a new hut at the head of the Rofental valley above the Rofenache river. At the junction of what were once the Hintereisferner, Hochjochferner and Kesselmandferner glaciers, the location was better situated and less avalanche prone. At the time, both Germany and Austria were bankrupt because of the war. Nonetheless, bit by bit the new Hochjoch Hospiz was built and finally opened in 1927. The hut has remained virtually unchanged since then, apart from general renovation and modernization of electricity and sanitation in 2002- 2004.

Three storeys high with red and white painted shutters, the hut is more akin to a village guest house than a hut for aspirant alpinists.

This is a fine hut in every sense of word. The dining room is particularly warm and friendly in the Gemütlichkeit tradition of Tyrol. The walls are timber-paneled with interesting memorabilia that include a large wooden plaque for DAV Sektion Mark Brandenburg – a fitting gesture to its founders, for one of the best huts in the Öztal.

Source:
Across the Tyrol by Allan Hartley
The book remains un-published

Hochjoch Hospiz

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