The Austrian Mountain Hut With a Story Worth the Climb
Nestled within the breathtaking landscapes of Tyrol, Austria, the Olpererhütte mountain hut is an easy escape for alpine lovers. Perched at an altitude of 2,389 meters, it is accessible by an enchanting and moderately challenging hike from Schlegeisspeicher Reservoir. The hut offers traditional Tyrolean food and a place to rest after the climb, with alpine views that make the effort worth it.
The hike to Olpererhütte from Schlegeisspeicher Reservoir is worth it on its own. You'll pass through green meadows with views of the turquoise reservoir below. Once you reach the hut, keep going. Just behind it is the suspension bridge, and that's the real draw. It looks like it spans the reservoir, but that's an optical illusion. In photos, you appear to be dangling over a dramatic gorge with alpine peaks rising behind you.
Katharina Daum runs the Olpererhütte hut. When she was 27, a single mother with a seven-year-old son, she took over her first mountain hut. Neighboring farmers bet on how long she'd last. Women didn't run mountain huts. But Katharina and her son Manuel have been there for 25 years.
It wasn't easy. They lived off the grid. Manuel did his homework by headlamp and woke at 5:00am to get to school. When bad weather grounded the helicopters that usually delivered supplies, Katharina hauled everything up on foot.
Manuel discovered a love for cooking when he was eleven. He kept at it, eventually graduating from the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Now he's the chef at Olpererhütte, feeding hikers who've just made the climb. The dining room has wooden tables, a fireplace, and windows that look out onto the surrounding peaks—the perfect backdrop for savoring Manuel's famous Kaiserschmarren. The fluffy shredded pancake, named after Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, is what people come back for. The menu leans on local ingredients: hearty stews, Tiroler Gröstl, dishes that taste like the region they come from.
Some people hike up for the day, grab a beer, and head back down. Others stay the night in the bunks. If you stay, you get the mountains after dark and a sky full of stars. No light pollution, just the Milky Way stretched overhead. You start to see why Katharina fought so hard to stay.
