Sulzenauhütte 2191m

Featured Hut by Allan Hartley

Owner DAV Sektion Leipzig.
Location Situated on a level platform below the Sulzenauferner, above Grawa Alm in the Stubaital.
Open From mid-June to the end of September.
Facilities 52B/70M/12N. Excellent restaurant facilities and toilet facilities with hot water on tap throughout the day. Token-operated showers. Drying room.
Valley and Hut Connections To Grawa Alm then Neustift in the main Stubaital 2+ hrs. Thereafter Postbus to and from Innsbruck. Nürnberger Hütte 3-4 hrs; Dresdner Hütte via the Beiljoch 3-4 hrs or via the Grosser Trögler 4 hrs.

Address Fam. Gleirscher
Schmeiden 10, A-6167 – Neustift , Austria
Telephone 0043 (0)5226 24320
Email info@sulzenauhuette.at
Website www.sulzenauhuette.at

An entirely new hut was built in 1976-78 to replace the old hut (pictured above) that was completely demolished by an avalanche off the Sulzenaukogl in 1975. Splendid pictures in the dining room are testimony to the awesome powers of nature that were unleashed on that fateful day. While the hut shows off its new hut sign, the old Gothic style sign is still proudly displayed on the wall in the hallway. The hut was further modernized in 2014-15.

The hut is currently managed by the Gleischer Family, relatives of the Schöpf family from Neustift, who have provided sterling service in the Gemütlichkeit tradition for many generations, spanning over 85 years. At the time of the avalanche the hut was wardened by Bergführer Leo Schöpf who was one of the first guides in the Stubai to establish a mountaineering school. Evidence of this still exists on the local crag and Klettergärten where Leo painted the rock- climbing routes on the crag. He probably would not get away with that these days! Leo also knew the Wilder Freiger very well, pioneering the tough alpine route through the Freiger icefall and across the Wilder Freiger Ferner to the summit, sadly all gone today due to the retreat of the glacier.

Leo was also a great entertainer, a player of the squeeze- box and guitar, not to mention his home-made schnapps; hut entertainment that often led to a headache in the morning. Leo died a few years back, just before Covid, of skin cancer; he is buried at St George’s Church in Neustift not far from the grave of one of the Alpenverein’s founders, Franz Senn.

The Sulzenauhütte is popular, being roughly midway on the long-distance walking trail of the Stubaier Höhenweg Runde Tour.

Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.