Kalser Tauernhaus -> Lucknerhütte – Fodderenjoying Brain

3. July 2025

 

 

15 km

1.310 m up

810 m down

7:50 hrs.

 

7,5 km + 2,5 km

15 m up + 330 m up

315 m down

2:15 hrs. + 1,5 hrs.

 

The first block shows the original Glocknerkrone route according to Mapy. From my experience in the Mercantour, I knew it would take me a very, very long time to complete it. So when we got the bus info the evening before, it was such a relief for me — we decided to cover two stages with the bus in between. I was so happy about that!

This day turned out completely different from the previous two. Those had been all about nature and hardly any people; today there was lots of culture and lots of people. First about Kalser Tauernhaus. It’s located in a valley called the Dorfertal. There are a few alpine houses there, including one large building:

 

 

This is the communal barn. Here, livestock farming was done collectively — several families joined forces and pooled their animals, which then only needed one or two herders. This way, they could save costs and run things more efficiently.

There’s also a small chapel here with a rather bloody depiction of Jesus. And there’s a text explaining how the biblical phrase about “having dominion over the earth” is meant to be properly understood.

 

 

 

The Dorfertal valley is also quite well known for its resistance movement. In the last century, there were plans to flood the valley, create a reservoir, and generate a lot of energy. What’s especially remarkable: it was mainly the women who stopped this from happening. Luckily, they won — otherwise, with the dam in place, there would be no national park here today, and a lot of valuable ecology would have been destroyed.

 

 

 

As you can see, the end of the valley already looked a bit gloomy. Would the forecast for rain turn out to be true?

Something that has always occupied my mind a little is the presence of religiosity and faith in God — especially in regions where people’s survival is so strongly influenced by nature. And so, even here in this valley, you could see traces of that. Since I’ve been taking more photos of Jesus crosses (for my series ‘Jesus Everywhere’), I’m noticing more and more interesting variations in how he’s depicted. Jesus in the arms of a man (which is how I see it here) was something I’d never come across before.

 

 

Every house and usually many rooms in it have crosses hanged somewhere.

 

 

After that, we left the Dorfertal valley — which, back in the day, you could only reach on foot. There’s this gorge, the Dabaklamm, that just didn’t allow for a wider path. But then they started blasting and tunneling right through the rock, and now there’s a tunnel for cars. Hikers, though, still walk right above the gorge on the old path.

 

 

 

Since all of this was impressive but easy to walk, there were quite a lot of people around. The vibe of the tour really changed that day — it wasn’t as peaceful anymore, but it was definitely interesting. We reached the end of the valley and hit a road — and were too early for the bus. But there were some alternative trails we could take to walk a few more stops. First, Bubu the owl led us onto a little educational trail for kids. Apparently, there are a few lammergeier here too — the biggest birds around, which were almost extinct (there are a couple of them in Berchtesgaden National Park too). Then we passed by an ugly campsite and got a bit lost because the path wasn’t easy to spot. But in the end, we made it!

 

 

So there we were at the bus stop, and a few little raindrops started falling. We waited in a shelter, chowing down on lunch, and then the bus showed up—right when the big rainstorm kicked in! Talk about lucky timing!

 

 

On the bus, it was nice and comfy and dry as we rode up to Lucknerhaus—a big restaurant with rooms at the end of the road. It kept raining, so we just stayed inside.

 

 

Later, Lydia spotted a sign with a sexist joke on it and emailed the owners about it. They replied right away, saying they’d of course take the sign down immediately. Can someone maybe check if they actually did?

The rain stopped, but we first headed over to the info center next door. You could learn a lot there about the Hohe Tauern National Park. If you’re interested, take a look at german Wikipedia. Here we’re standing outside, but inside it was really nice too — there was a bench and an awesome panoramic view.

 

 

Outside was this view:

 

 

And then we set off on a wide trail up to the Lucknerhütte — basically just a stone’s throw away, like the guy at the info center told us. Along the way, there was also some stuff to learn about how humans interact with nature and the differences between natural and cultural landscapes.

 

 

This part here was meant to get you thinking about different ways of looking at the landscape — whether you see it as natural or shaped by humans. We also talked a bit about the not-so-nice word subjugation (Unterwerfung) and the unpleasant vibe it brings. Who decided that word should be used on the info board, and why, I wonder?

But there was also some extra info about the people who live(d) up here.

 

 

 

 

We hiked then higher to the Lucknerhütte. The landscape was beautiful – also in cloudy.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lucknerhütte is privately owned, fancy, pricey, new, comfy — you name it. And they even had hot showers without having to pay extra!

 

 

Here we had half board with two soups, loads of salads (which honestly would’ve been enough), a main course that didn’t taste great (neither hers nor mine), and tiramisu. We had a dorm up in the attic all to ourselves.

 

 

While we’d felt totally up in the mountains for the first two days, that day “civilization” really caught up with us — and it got me thinking a lot about comfort, benchmarks, “nature experiences for everyone,” helpful tools, and human interventions. I still prefer a simple, more spartan mountain hut life — but of course with warm, genuine hospitality.

Would I get more of that the next day? Well, what I can already say: there was a tricky situation. A really tricky one!

No regrets about this stage, though — it just gave me a different perspective on the area and plenty of food for thought.