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30ALPINISMALPINISM 31TIME FLIESFor 120 years Breslauer Hütte has offered mountaineers a roof on their way to Wildspitze summit. Everything haschanged over the years: the accommodation, the climate and our mountaineering ambitions. Still there are ourmemories and a longing for the horizon full of mountain summits.Text: Birgit AntesGlacier snout at Rofenkar cirque high above VentBRESLAUER HÜTTE (2844 m)The hut, inaugurated in 1882, wasextended and modernized several times.The quaint and comfortable Alpine Clubaccommodation is a way-point alongthe classic route up Wildspitze Summitand along the Ötztal Trek.Ascent from Vent past Stablein in 3 hours.www.dav-sektion-breslau.deMid-October 2011. Despite the fantasticautumn weather we are theonly hikers to set off from the carpark in Vent. The huts around havebeen closed for two weeks. Winter is only afew days away. A lot of water has flown downto the valley from the glaciers around Wildspitzesummit since we first stood on its peak,impeccably white back then. An old picture ofBreslauer Hütte has brought back memories.And the wish to see for ourselves what it lookslike up there meanwhile.Almost 40 years ago we stayed overnight atBreslauer Hütte for the first time. Since thattime many things have changed between themountaineers’ village of Vent and Wildspitzesummit in the Ötztal Valley. The view fromthe basin below the hut to Rofenkar cirque isthought-provoking. Only a sorry tail of the oncewildly jagged ice tongue of Rofenkarferner glacierexpands across the edge of the rock. Mitterkarfernerglacier, one floor further up, toohas been thoroughly depleted. The route up toMitterkarjoch saddle leads no longer through awide snow trench, but across unpleasantly brittleterrain strewn with rocks.The Breslau Section of the German AlpineClub inaugurated Breslauer Hütte as an unser-viced accommodation for 15 people on 20 August1881. Already in 1896 a two-storied buildingwas added, a four-storied dormitory buildingin 1913 and in 1928 it was completely renovatedfor the first time.The second redevelopment took place in theyear before our first visit at the end of July1972. Back then we were just as young as curious,and of course we were daredevils. Wildspitzeseemed to be the perfect 3000m-highmountain for us. Heroes-of- the-mountains-tobewe didn’t care that Breslauer Hütte was fullybooked for the weekend. Our motto back then:If the weather report is fine, we will head forthe mountains.That’s the way of life: Mountaineersget older, huts are rejuvenated.The exterior and interior ofBreslauer Hütte have definitely improvedthanks to several face-liftings.The night was an unpleasant one for all thosewho had to sleep on the floor, the tables orbenches of the guesthouse parlor. So we wererather stiff-legged when we set off at the backof the tail of the caravan heading up Wildspitze.On the summit pride and euphoria were com-pleted by an appetite for more. A horizon fullof mountains – and we were among the luckyones that could get there from any direction!We couldn’t ’get it out of our minds. We returnedat the end of May 1974. This time thefour of us were the only guests at BreslauerHütte. Summer operation was to start in onemonth only, and we thought that the winterroom was the right choice for men of our caliberanyway. To prepare for higher aims we hadour eyes on the north face of Wildspitze. Wewouldn't consider anything easier in a time ofinflated egos.The winter room welcomed us with bleakness,dampness and uncomfortableness. Itwasn’t getting any better. The oven answeredall our attempts to get it going with the emissionof eye-stinging wads of smoke. We waitedirritably in dense snowfall with zero sight fortwo days. The most ambitious of our quartetfound it increasingly difficult to accept that wecouldn’t advance. When the atmosphere wastoo bad inside, we got outside of the hut andexercised skiing upright with our new snowblades. In the end we had no other choice butreturn to the valley and this probably saved ourlives.The experience of a fall down the north faceof Wildspitze was thus made a year later. Againwe stayed in the winter room – but only threeof us since Mr. Ambitious had better things todo. And only one of us wanted to climb the iceface. He set off at the first daylight; the rearguardwas to meet him at the northern summit.When the two stragglers eventually couldsee into the face from the north-west ridgethere was no one.Bad weather often causes cabin fever.Antidotes are safe outdoor exerciseslike skiing with snow blades.Yet down in the basin of the glacier a figurecould be seen moving towards the north-westridge. Minutes before the companion fell downalmost the entire ice slope. A few steps beforethe tail to the northern summit the tip of the– cheap and homemade – ice axe broke off. Itwas almost a miracle that the lad survived the200m fall almost unharmed.The happily survived lessons of the wild yearshave continuously improved our self-evaluationand made it a more realistic one. Yet the mountainsand nature are still as fascinating as theywere. This time the winter room was a positivesurprise. In 1997 the Breslau Section of the AlpineClub set up a separate self-catering winterhut: with two dormitories, a spacious kitchenwith a cooker – in good working order, crockery,solar light, composting toilet and a storageroom for fire wood.The view from our comfortable loge place issimply fantastic; the sunset is a gala performance.While in the south-east the last raysof light touch the summits around Ramolkogeland Schafkogel mountains, our thoughts wanderfrom the already experienced to new aims.Just as well that the horizon is still full of mountains.