Lack of staff, global warming… In Austria, high-altitude refuges are under threat

Austrian Alpine clubs are appealing to the authorities for help. Their mountain huts are having to cope with the effects of climate change, among other things.

Austria has 272 high-altitude huts. These establishments are now in difficulty due to a lack of staff and, above all, global warming. The Austrian Alpine Clubs, which manage these huts, are calling on the authorities for help. One hut alone symbolises the difficulties faced by the “hütte”: the Seethaler hut, located at an altitude of 2,740 metres and less than 100 km from Salzburg.

While the summer season is in full swing, the doors of this refuge remain closed, for want of a manager, explains Friedrich Macher, the president of the Alpenverein, which owns this refuge: “50 years ago, when I started volunteering with the Alpenverein, there were more candidates for missions related to shelters. These are very specific constraints and today, fewer and fewer young people want to confront them”.

The Seethaler refuge is a prime example of the difficulties facing refuges in the face of global warming. It had to be completely rebuilt five years ago. “Under the refuge there was a gigantic sinkhole, describes Friedrich Macher. It was frozen when it was built, this is called permafrost. But climate change led to an increase in temperatures and the permafrost began to thaw. The shelter suddenly subsided by several meters, so something had to be done immediately.”.

Faced with the challenge of global warming, the Alpine clubs are asking the Austrian authorities for exceptional aid of 95 million euros over the next five years. This money should allow them to adapt these refuges and also to maintain the 50,000 km of hiking trails in the country.

However, Anna Burton of the Wifo Institute (Austrian Institute of Economic Research) believes that we need to think further. “Finding long-term solutions is also important from a tourism point of view because there are of course the locals but also many people who come to Austria to hike. We expect there to be even more people in the future because temperatures will rise in other parts of the world and people will take refuge in the mountains.”she said. The Alpine clubs have also launched an online petition that has already collected more than 62,000 signatures.