Trekking in the Zillertal Alps. Allan Hartley

      All huts have some sort of restaurant service to cover the three daily meals, breakfast (Fruehstuck), lunch (Mittagessen) and dinner (Abendessen).

      Breakfast is served from about 06.00 to about 07.30. Thereafter no meals are available until lunchtime as the hut staff are busy with general house-keeping. Breakfast is the meal generally regarded as the worst value for money – but unless you are carrying your own provisions you will have little choice other than to accept it.

      Lunchtime is usually from 12.00 to 14.00, but varies depending on the hut. However, it is possible to purchase simple meals like soup, Kase Brot and Apfelstrudl at most of the huts throughout the afternoon.

      Dinner is the main meal of the day and is generally served from 18.00 to 19.30. In addition to meals listed on the menu, Bergsteigeressen will be available. Literally translated it means ‘mountain climbers’ food’, and is a low-priced meal containing a minimum of 500 calories. The meal generally comprises spaghetti or pasta, potatoes, some meat or sausage, and sometimes a fried egg or a dumpling. There is no hard-and-fast rule to this meal – other than it is relatively inexpensive and that there is usually a lot of it!

      Breakfast usually comprises two or three slices of bread, a portion of butter, jam and cheese, with a choice of tea or coffee. If you do not finish it, take it with you – as you have paid for it all! Lunch and dinner are the main meals of the day and are served with a selection of vegetables or salad, and there will be vegetarian (Vegetarische) options. Drinks are served in quarter (Viertel) or half (Halbe) litres, or large (Gross) or small (Klein), and maybe hot (Heiss) or cold (Kalt). Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, lemonade, cola, beer, wine and schnapps are all available at the huts. See Appendix C, which lists many items found on a typical hut menu (Speisekarte), as well as some useful words and phrases for reading menus or ordering food and drink.

      Generally the procedure for ordering meals is that you first organise a table. There is no formality, but sometimes when mountaineering training courses are being run, groups of tables may be marked ‘private’ (Privat) or ‘reserved’ (Reservierung). Having sat down, one of the waitresses (Fraulein) will take your order. Alternatively, you may have to go to the counter or kitchen (Kuche) to order, or there may be a sign saying ‘Selbsbedienungs’ (‘self-service’).

      Because of the excellent service the huts provide very little of one’s own food needs to be carried. However, many people do take with them their own basic rations – tea, coffee, bread, cheese, and so on. This allows them to make their own snacks and, by borrowing cups and purchasing eine litre teewasser, allows them to brew up for a small cost.

      The only facility not provided at huts is for self-catering, and it does seem a little pointless when all the meals are reasonably priced.

      The general rule is to pay an accumulative bill for food and drink. Visitors are therefore advised to make notes of their consumption to aid checking at the time of payment. Take note, these bills/lists can be considerable when staying at a hut for more than a couple of nights.

      As a guideline for working out a budget, typical meal price lists can be obtained from the UK Section of the Austrian Alpine Club (www.aacuk.org.uk). At the time of writing, the cost of dinner in a hut was similar to prices in most British pubs for a decent bar meal plus drinks. Half board is currently €35–40, depending on the category of the hut.

Maps and guidebooks

      The following maps are required for both tours in this guide. The maps are published by the Austrian Alpine Club and available from the UK Section of the Austrian Alpine Club (www.aacuk.org.uk).

      Maps

      Also recommended, covering the complete region at a glance and available from major map retailers, are

      Books

      For guidebooks and other reading see Appendix D.

      Websites

      These are currently in German but they will inevitably at some stage be translated into English.

Alpine walking skills and equipment

      On the Schwarzensteinkees glacier at the Schwarzensteinsattel (ZSTT Stage 7), with Gross Moerchner to the right (note the knotted rope)

      How do the skills and equipment needed for walking in the Zillertal differ from those required for elsewhere?

      Boots

      A relatively stiff boot with good ankle support and a stout vibram-type rubber sole is essential. Many of the walks involve sustained hard walking over rocky slopes and glacial debris, and encounters with patches of old hard snow. It is important to think of your boots as tools that can be used to kick steps and jam into rocky cracks without causing damage to your feet. While bendy boots may be a bit lighter and more comfortable, they are no match for a good pair of four-season mountaineering boots when it comes to dealing with difficult ground.

      Alpine walking equipment

      Instep crampons or microspikes

      While crampons are normally associated with climbing, a pair of these little tools often comes in very handy when the weather decides to dump some unseasonable snow in July or August, and they may just help provide that little extra security when you get up close to some old hard-packed snow.

      Improvised harness

      Many of the routes are equipped with fixed wire ropes to provide some support over bits of difficult terrain. While these may be relatively easy to cross, the consequences of a fall should be borne in mind. In addition, not everyone is vertigo free, and the use of an improvised harness helps to provide confidence and security of passage. Constructed from a 2.4m long by 10mm wide Dyneema sling, three or four overhand knots, and a large jumbo-sized screw-gate karabiner, this harness (pictured) will allow you to clip into those fixed wires whenever the need arises and arrest a fall when you least expect it.

      Construction

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