United in “yota” and “ričet”

Some evening, I was sitting on the porch of a beautiful Austrian mountain hut on the altitude of 2200 meters. I was exhausted from the long tour and I searched in my cellphone for the last weather forecast for the day. I burped pleasantly (excuse me) form the just drunk draught beer, when my phone rang and updated me on the last received e-mail. The mail contained a plead to evaluate my comfort in mountain huts I was staying in. And I laughed at myself, because I was just in one of these mountain huts, which could be a scene from a professional learning excursion for every Slovenian caretaker of every Slovenian mountain hut now.


Mountain huts are there to provide cosy shelter to the mountaineers and skiers on multi day trips.
  First, I thought about the opened mountain huts in the start of the skiing season. What idiots we Slovenes are, that we don’t open those huts also in the summer times. I guarantee, that thought time, they would get masses on visitors in no time. A lot of people know about first-class ski touring in Slovenia, even of the Slovene Haute Route, the Triglav skiing highway. But what if foreign tourists are used to open huts and they are too lazy to drag filled backpacks around the humid winter rooms. Oh well, you will say, there’s nothing you can do! Yes, that is true, looking from the perspective of a broadminded romantic mountain hiker, but that is not an answer for somebody, who wants to earn money or survive in these harsh economic days. Ski touring is a great way for foreign countries to earn money. Many huts earn their fair share in those times, and a bit less in the summer time.


Hollandia hut (3200m) is placed above Siwss valley Lotschental. Location in the middle of nowhere doesn't affect excelent offering.
  In the popular touring trips, which is the Triglav “magistrala”, we could do this without any problems at all, because huts from the end of February till March and April are full to the brim. But it’s not just about those few huts, even the hotels in the valleys could get more clients that way, mountain guides, taxi drivers, who would drive the people back to the starting point, to sport stores… The hut “Vodnikov dom” in Velo polje, for instance, has an incredible location when it comes to ski touring, compared to the best ski touring huts in the whole Alps. But no, they won’t open them. Why? I have no idea, probably because it is not a private property, but in the hands of withered freely-socialistic mountaineering groups (I don’t even have time to google which these are, it doesn’t matter anyway), which do not have the slightest interest to start and go in the right direction.


The highest stairway in the Alps has 450 stairs and takes you from Aletsch glacier to Konkordia hut (2750 m)
  Opening these kinds of huts in the winter time would, of course, bring some needed adjustments and add-ons. First infrastructural, solutions for hating, ecological, and then in the point of what to offer. We have not moved in all these points since 1950. Same scenes, same food. That means yota and “ričet” (barley and bean stew with smoked ham) with or without the steel repertoire, which in some huts is also widened with “pečenice” (pork sausage) with cabbage and “žganci” and some with the avant-garde “štruklji” and/or “golaž”. To make myself clear, I really like these dishes, they are very good and you eat it right up, but not for every day. For 2 days, which is the average length (or when you visit Triglav “once in a lifetime”) we will survive without fresh vegetables, just with yota and ričet, you will say. It is very well true and I agree, I myself look from the perspective of a man, who has visited these for quite some time; at least 60 times a year I have dinner in these kind of huts. Even on touring trips in the Julijske Alpe you can also live like this for a week or so. If you only eat yota, even the look of it on the fourth day will want to make you puke, not to mention you still have to climb Kanjavec or Kradarica. We have to get closer to the other repertoire of mountain huts is Europe. There, you don’t have that much difference, but it is more pleasant and they make your stay in the mountains even better and friendlier. Their breakfast range from dry bread with butter and marmalade, till heftier cold cuts, pancakes, fresh yogurts and sweet fruit salads. I have to add quickly, that I am not speaking about the high-mountain range huts, with are higher altitude than Triglav, which can often only be supplied with helicopters.


Italian huts, such as Vittorio Emanuelle, are known for their delicious food.
  Throughout the day till 3-pm, you can get some dishes a-la-carte, which make the hunger till the dinner feats a bit less intense. These dishes are mostly drawn of the traditional foods of the specific country. That means that in Slovenia, we would get the mentioned yota, ričet, cabbage. After 3-pm, the orders are limited to drinks only, because the kitchen is busy preparing the main course, which is mostly from 6-7pm. This meal is big and broad, like a meal should be, when you hike in the mountains all day. They consist of 3 till 4 courses, soup (or Italian pasta), salad, main dish and desert. All of the 100 people get before themselves the same dinner as everybody else (except the vegetarians) and at the same time. They are never too exotic, but more conventional, which are mostly loved by all. Simple, they split dinner, then they clean the whole dining room, invite some of the quests to help them clean up and wipe the dishes and the thing is done. Maybe a beer or 2 and everybody is ready to go sleep, guests and the staff alike. Till 10-pm there is a complete silence in the whole hut, without exception! Simple, stable processes - less is more!


Aguille Rouge hut above Arole valley in Switzerland is small and friendly shelter in less known part of Swiss alps.
  In Slovenia, there is a whole other story. Some time ago, I was on a hike with my clients from Bohinj, through Triglav on Vršič, 6 days. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised when I called the hut and she asked me “half-board?”. But in other places I got delayed in long sign-in processes and paying, which nobody really understands why they even happen. One of the Triglav huts was the champion in making things hard and complicated (maybe even the leading one in all Europe). Every drink I had to order separately from a small counter and pay it, same was for dinner, deserts, again in the line for ordering beer, again to the line for paying the stay, and again in the next long line for ordering breakfast. Even if I didn’t know other standards of other European Alpine countries, I would still find it stupid. When I finally managed to get to the last phase of my paying and sign-out duties in this hut, I wanted to have a little chat with the caretaker there, just to make her clear it would be better to pay for everything at one time of my stay here, and to cook just 1 time after 3-pm and to just serve 1 time, and also to serve a bit more than just yota. And the lady just smiled at me and didn’t say anything. And there was nothing left for me to do than also smile with her. To even talk with her about the huts in Silvretta, where you get a room to sleep for a half-board price, big and excelent self-serving breakfasts, a possibility to make your own sandwiches for the climb (with a bag to go with it), an afternoon soup after the hike and a magnificent dinner, all at one time, for about 45€, it just wouldn’t matter to her. Not to mention warm showers and Wi-Fi.


The highest and newest hut in France - Refuge du Gouter (3835 m).
 


Grend Mlets hut in the Mont Blanc massive is protected from the avalanches.
  I hear comments from the background that a certain degree of modesty has to be uphold, which is a very treasured thing to lean on to for most of the Slovenes. But dammit, I didn’t cycle all the way to Bohinj with only a bike or hike all the way to the bus station in Mojstrana. I drove with a car and even talked with my daughter Tine before my long trip. In the meantime, where I had to concentrate on the road, I checked for the last weather forecast update… Even I get the hiccups after I read old magazines like “Politikin Zabavnik” or watch old movies like “Sreče na vrvici”, things that make me go back in times, where life was much slower and friendlier, where we were happy with more modest things. Even the huts were good in those days. But why don’t they keep up with the current standards? Tomaž Jakofčič