By Allan Hartley

As part of our 75th Anniversary this year, this occasional series will look at some of our more popular huts comparing how they were then and as they are now. Appropriately, our first selected hut is the very popular Dresdner Hütte (2302m) in the Stubaier Alpen at the head of the Stubaital above the main resort town of Neustift, as the Dresdner Hütte will be our base for the forthcoming Bergfest in August 2023. Many members will know of the hut as being midway on the multiday Stubaier Höhenweg Runde. Of course, members’ recollections may vary but we hope this short article may bring back good memories and perhaps encourage members to consider attending the Bergfest in August.

The very first Schutzhütte (Shelter Hut) in the Stubai was established in 1875. The Dresdner Hütte opened nearby in 1887 and was enlarged subsequently in 1926 and 1968. In 2000 major expansion took place to make the hut the very modern substantial four-storey structure seen today. More recently the interior of the hut has been refurbished with all bedrooms and the Matratzenlager being modernized.

The first photo shows the hut as it was in 1968. During those days the only way to get to the hut was to walk either from the head of the valley and bus terminus at Mutterbergalm or via one of several hut-to-hut connections.

For activities, the hut was a good base, either for hut-to-hut tours, with links within the Stubaier Alpen and neighbouring Ötztaler Alpen, or for climbing the local peaks, with the Schaufelspitz (3333m) being an excellent promenade and the adjacent Stubaier Wildspitz (3340m) providing a very good mixed ground climb on pretty good rock. Further afield the more ambitious made the climb across the Aperer Pfaff rock peak and the vast (as it was then) Sulzenauferner to bag the Stubai’s highest peak, the Zuckerhütl (3505m).

The more recent photo shows the hut as it currently is; what a change!

This change was brought about during the mid-1970s when the Tirol Provincial Government gave permission for the Stubai Glacier Company to develop the area, mainly in those early days for skiing, then secondly as a summer tourist destination with tourists being brought in from Innsbruck and elsewhere to enjoy a mountain experience. The first major part of this development was to establish the car park and cable car station at Mutterbergalm with the cable terminating at what is now the first uplift just below the Dresdner Hütte. Later this development would include an intermediate station at the Eisgrat complete with restaurant for après ski. Further uplifts were added to the area around the Schaufelspitz and Schaufelferner as a summer ski area including, once again, the provision of a restaurant and aerial viewing platform on the Schaufeljoch that boasts of being the highest restaurant in Tirol. More recent expansion has progressed onto the Windacher Ferner and Gaißkarferner and across the once pristine Isidornieder plateau, though I don’t think St Isidor would have been amused seeing all those ski-tow pylons and other clutter interrupting the view to the Ötztal. You have to ask what will happen to all this mountain clutter when the glaciers have gone and the winter snow doesn’t come and the tourists go elsewhere.

During this heavy engineering project to tame the area, the Dresdner Hütte went through a similar expansive phase to cater for the ever-growing number of visitors, going from catering for 90 in 1968 to 150 in 2020 not to mention the hundred or so day visitors.

The hut is managed by the local Hofer family, who have been custodians of the hut since the turn of the 19th century. Photographs on the wall of the Alte Gaststube bear witness to the early developments of the hut, proudly displaying members of the owners of the hut, Sektion Dresden of the German Alpenverein (DAV). The Alte Gaststube retains much of its original timber panelling together with various plaques and other mementoes of a bygone age, all in very stark contrast to the newer parts of the hut.

Sadly, with the construction of the cable car and ski-tow facilities for the benefit of winter and summer skiing, much of the hut’s immediate vicinity has been spoilt and genuine mountain wanderers will have to mingle with the many day trippers. Fortunately, once the sun has gone down and the clatter of machinery has stopped with the last lift at 17.00, the hut reverts to its true role, providing mountaineers and other mountain lovers with simple accommodation. This the hut continues to do very well, but I think it can never recapture the charisma and charm it enjoyed many years ago. This is a popular hut with a brilliant view of the Schaufelspitz, made even more spectacular when seen from the Klettersteig rock climbing garden for those with excess energy and a good head for heights.

Details of the hut, including access, can be found in the English version of the website www.dresdnerhuette.at/en/

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