Looking for a weekend trip to the mountains, but without the crowds that you meet around Munich’s “Hausberge“? The Salzburger Lungau is a little further away, but worth the drive – especially if, like me, you love a good mountain hut, beautiful trails and really good plant-based food.
If you live in or around Munich and use the city as your base for mountain trips, you’ll know the Sunday crowds. Rotwand, Brecherspitze, Wallberg: on a sunny weekend, you’re rarely alone on the trail. Unless you hike the Jochberg during a windy and ice-cold early morning in February (which was a rare occasion when we had the summit just for us), it’s you and 387 other hikers on the paths.
I’m not complaining. I love that so many people enjoy being outdoors, and I certainly appreciate the luxury of jumping on a train and being on a hiking trail within an hour. But every now and then, I need to get away from the crowds.
Which is how my friend Kathi and I ended up booking a spontaneous night at the Franz-Fischer-Hütte in the Salzburger Lungau.
The hut had been on my bucket list ever since another friend had raved about it. And while spontaneous hut bookings have become almost impossible in the summer months, cancellations do happen. So when I saw that two spots at the Franz-Fischer-Hütte had suddenly become available, I pressed “book” before thinking twice.
Only afterwards did I realise that the Salzburger Lungau isn’t exactly easy to reach by train and that it’s a 2.5-hour drive from Munich. Quite a journey for a one-night stay – and not something I would normally do.
We went through a brief phase of serious doubt, almost cancelled, and then eventually said to ourselves: come on, we’ll go.
And I’m very glad we did.
One of the fancier hut experiences
In fact, our little weekend getaway was worth every minute spent in the car. The hike up there is beautiful, with a vegetation that’s different from what we know around Munich, and the hut experience was top-notch. If you fancy being treated to a culinary experience above 2000 metres, and don’t need your daily dose of meat, the Franz-Fischer-Hütte is for you. It’s modern, chic and clean, and just feels like a special place. If you like your overnight stay in the hut basic and low-budget, you might want to look elsewhere (you have to book half-board and there’s no option for the typically cheaper “Bergsteigeressen“).
Getting there and getting up
Coming from Southern Germany or west of Salzburg, you can start your hike at the Schliereralm. There are several car parks, but note that you have to pay a toll and a parking fee for the Naturpark Riedingtal – we paid €12 per day.
You can also reach the hut by public transport, for example by train to Salzburg and then by bus. We opted for the car because we only had two days.
The hike from the Schliereralm takes around 2.5 to 3 hours, depending on your pace. It passes the Jakoberalm, which used to be a working alp and is now the summer residence of the alpine farmers, as well as the beautiful Esserseen lakes. We skipped the lakes. We knew there was another one waiting for us near the hut.
What striked us most on the way up is how quiet it is. The landscape is incredibly beautiful, and so different from what we’re used to around Munich. It reminded me a little of the Lechtal Alps – only with hardly anyone around.
Instead, we found bushes of wild blueberries – my personal heaven! These little ones are much more nutritious than the ones you can buy at the supermarket, and full of antioxidants (which are good for your health and make them a natural anti-ageing superfood).
Plant-based love on the plates
The Franz-Fischer-Hütte is nestled between grey mountain peaks and amid green and lush meadows, and once you step onto its terrace, you feel immediately welcome.
There’s a real attention to detail here – from the decoration to the words of wisdom you can read while using the restroom. Tom and Evelyn, who run the hut, have created a place that feels warm and personal, and that care extends to the food. I’ve heard great things about Evelyn’s cooking, and have already flipped through one of her cookbooks, but what we’re served this evening makes you forget that you’re in a mountain hut on 2020 meters.
For our lunch snack, we sip a delicious Kaspressknödelsuppe (although, I have to admit, not quite as delicious as the one at the Anhalter Hütte), and the evening menu is a four-course meal that’s not only a feast for the palate, but also for the eye. There are vegan options for every course, and this is one of the things I love most about places like this: plant-based food isn’t treated as an afterthought or a sad alternative. It’s simply part of the menu – and really good at that. You can literally see, taste and feel the love for plants in the dishes. After a long day of hiking, this is exactly the kind of food you want: comforting, creative and deeply satisfying. And when our tummies are happy, we are happy.
A little more hiking
If you arrive at the hut in the early afternoon, like we did, there’s plenty of time to slow down. You can grab a book and relax in one of the deckchairs, soak up the gorgeous view or simply sit there and get lost in your thought.
Or, if sitting still isn’t really your thing, you can hike up the two nearby summits, Widlkarhöhe and its neighbour, Stierkarkopf. We did both: first the 5.5 km hike, which has some metres of altitude (around 660), but is an absolutely stunning walk through flowery meadows, and offers an amazing view. And, once again, almost no one around – we met one girl at the top!
Back at the hut an hour before dinner, we still had enough time to put our feet up and squeeze in a quick power nap.
The mountains connect differently
One of the many things I love about being in the mountains is that you get to talk to so many interesting people – people you wouldn’t possibly talk to unless you happen to be seated next to each other at dinner. There might be some small talk at first, but somehow, conversations in the mountains seem to get personal more quickly. Maybe it’s because you already have one obvious thing in common: you’re all there because you love being outdoors. And maybe it’s also because the usual social rules feel slightly different up there. In the mountains, everyone says “Du”. There’s no polite “Sie”. I feel that this makes you start conversations at a different level.
Maybe it’s also the fact that nobody really cares what you’re wearing. We’re all kind of equal on 2020 metres. There’s no need to show off the latest hiking gear or look like you’ve just stepped out of an outdoor catalogue. You’ve all spent the day walking uphill, you’re probably a little sweaty, and you’re hungry. And all everyone wants is to enjoy what we all love, to get our tummy full, have a good talk, and a good time: Sometimes it’s this simple.
My favourite kind of Sunday morning
But what I love most about little mountain trips like these: You’re already right in the middle of the most beautiful nature when you wake up, and to me, there’s almost nothing better in this world than getting up super early, catching the sunrise outside, and taking a wake-up dip in an ice-cold lake. That brief moment of hesitation before you get in, the internal negotiation. Then, you decide to go all in and take a plunge. You take a few quick strokes. A gasp. And suddenly you’re completely awake. There’s hardly anything else that makes me feel more alive.
And standing there afterwards, wrapped in a towel and watching the mountains slowly light up, I realise that the 2.5-hour drive was a very small price to pay for a weekend like this.
