Hut Fund Report

by Janet Britnell, AAC(UK) Hut Fund representative

If you’re a keen mountain hiker but have never tried an Austrian Alps hut to-hut tour, then your life is incomplete!

Many thanks for your contributions to the Hut Fund. The Board is planning to make at least two donations in 2024, provided the work goes ahead. One would be to Alpenverein Leoben to support the installation of a hydraulic ram to pump water from a good spring lower in the valley to supply drinking water for the Leobner Hütte. Currently, drinking water is carried to the hut in the newly restored Materialseilbahn. If the project hadn’t been delayed by Federal and local government bureaucracy the donation would have been made in 2023 or earlier. The other 2024 donation would be to Alpenverein Innsbruck to help finance replacement of the diesel generator that supplies supplementary heating for winter operation at the Franz-Senn-Hütte with a more environmentally friendly wood pellet generator. Meanwhile, here we provide an update on two projects that have benefited from Hut Fund Donations in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Our Hut Fund donations are very much appreciated, please keep them coming in.

The Fraganter Project – Autumn 2023 update
As reported in NL231, we made a trouble-shooting donation of €20K to Alpenverein Klagenfurt to help with costs over the original budget of €700K to restore the Materialseilbahn (MSB), vital for the winter operation of both the Fraganter Jugendherberge and the Fraganter Schutzhaus. The Jugendherberge itself was threatened with closure because it no longer met modern health and safety standards. Restoring the MSB was the first step in a very large project, costed at €2.3M in 2020 (now over €3M), to modernise the Jugendherberge. The next step was to prepare the ground for a multipurpose barrier-free extension in Autumn 2021 and complete the building and renovation in 2022, in time to celebrate the section’s 150th anniversary in September 2022. Unfortunately, the foundations of the original building were found to be inadequate, seriously delaying completion of the restoration and extension until 2023. The official opening of this superb self-catering facility for groups of young Alpenverein members in four hectares of idyllic Alpine terrain in the Hohe Tauern, took place on Saturday 30 September 2023 just as AAC(UK) members were setting out for the Autumn Gathering in Scotland, so although invited we were unable to send a representative (the Alpenverein Britannia appears on the “Wall of Honour”). However, younger members of AAC(UK) are invited to take part in Alpenverein Klagenfurt’s Alpine Language Exchange Camp based at the Jugendherberge in August 2024.

Badener Hütte – Autumn 2023 update
In December 2022 we donated €15K to Alpenverein Baden bei Wien to help fund their innovative waste-water project at the Badener Hütte (2608m) in the Hohe Tauern (see NL236). Environmental projects like this are usually awarded 30% of total cost from both the Federal and Provincial Governments. As explained in the earlier report the government funding for this project was withheld until at least Autumn 2023 and, even then, would be dependent on the results of an inspection of the cleanliness of the water outflow from the filtration system. The good news is that the system passed the inspection in Autumn 2023 and Land Tirol has paid their outstanding contribution. However, the Federal government is withholding their contribution subject to a second successful inspection in Autumn 2024! Fingers crossed, or ‘press thumbs’ as they say in German.

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