Welcome to the Anenhütte. The Anenhütte is run by the hut warden family Christian Josef, Melanie, Kaspar and Robine Tscherrig. The Peter Tscherrig Anenhütte has set itself the goal of providing its guests with a unique mountain experience.
The Peter Tscherrig Anenhütte at 2,358 m above sea level is the only private and self-sufficient high-alpine mountain hut in the middle of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Swiss Alps, located at the very back of the wild and romantic Lötschental valley. The Anenhütte is considered the most exclusive hut in the Alps. (Reportage: Schweizer Illustrierte: lifestyle magazine GRUEN, August 2009)
Builder: Peter Tscherrig, engineer and mountain guide
Owner: Peter & Prisca Tscherrig-Schäppi
The concept and detailed planning of the infrastructure of the Anenhütte were created by Peter Tscherrig (engineer), the builder of the Anenhütte. the anen hut is 100% self-sufficient! It's almost like being at home and yet completely different! Read more....
Our own mountain spring (800m above the Anenhütte) bubbles up all year round and provides the Anenhütte with clear mineral water. Thanks to an elaborate pipe system, the Anenhütte can offer its guests the freshest drinking water. Even if it comes from the tap - it is the freshest spring water and not tap water, because the motto is: only the best for our guests!
High up on the glacier, the water is collected and desanded. A 920 m long pressure pipe (PE 315/200mm) supplies a twin-jet Pelton turbine (15 bar) in the turbine house, 220 m east of the hut. This turbine generates the electricity for the Anenhütte from renewable energy, hydropower!
Below the Anenhütte is a multi-stage treatment system. The faeces-free treated water seeps away in a controlled manner and is "returned" to nature.
Waste is carefully separated at the Anenhütte. (garbage, glass, aluminum, pet, cardboard, kitchen waste). Once a week, the Anenhütte is supplied with fresh produce by helicopter. On the return flight, the waste is flown down to the valley and transported to the disposal point.
In 1984, the Lötschental Mountain Guide Association submitted an initial project to build a hut in the Ana. The canton of Valais rejected the building application. In 1988, the association submitted a second building project. In 1991, the canton of Valais granted the building permit. Between 1993 and 1995, the Anenhütte cooperative built the first hut with 50 beds.
For economic reasons, the hut had to be put up for public auction on October 28, 2005. The president of the Lötschental cooperative, Andre Henzen, was unable to manage the Anenhütte and save it from imminent bankruptcy. In 2006, the new owner, Peter Tscherrig (mountain guide and engineer), invested in extensive repair and renovation work, a new solar system, a water supply and equipped the hut with cooling systems and comforters.
The old Anenhütte was hit by a dust avalanche on March 3, 2007 and completely destroyed.
The destruction of the Anenhütte caused great consternation in the Lötschental. Radio, television and more than 40 newspapers throughout Switzerland reported on the destruction of the Anenhütte by a dust avalanche. Despite strong interventions by Pius Rieder, editor-in-chief of the Walliser Bote at the time, who did not support the reconstruction, the owner Peter Tscherrig decided the day after the tragic destruction that the Anenhütte should be rebuilt, subject to a permit. The reasons for this decision are manifold and will remain an eternal mystery.
Press
What kind of hut was the Anenhütte going to be? The client, son of a mountain guide and having grown up in an SAC hut, was well aware of the magic and attraction of a hut. The myth of the mountains, the enthusiasm for the uniquely beautiful mountain world had not changed for Peter Tscherrig in recent decades. Mountains and nature have remained attractive throughout the years and no modern achievement has been able to replace this fascination. The needs of people, including nature lovers, have changed over the years. The comfort of a clean and fresh bed, a soothing shower and delicious meals prepared with fresh regional produce are among the wishes of today's guests. The new Anenhütte was to meet these demands and become a hut with a visionary aura. Apart from that, our ancestors 80 - 100 years ago did not make do with outdated technologies when building their huts, but built a hut with the best materials available to them, thus reflecting the spirit of the times.
The Anenhütte is located outside the building zone in the BLN area and in the middle of the Unesco World Heritage Site. It was clear to the client that only a project that could meet the highly sensitive demands of nature would stand a chance. The support of the Natural Hazards Department of the Canton of Valais, headed by Mr. Charly Wuilloud, was immense and exemplary. Thanks to his profound expertise as an expert and mountain guide, as well as the support of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, the project to rebuild the Anenhütte could be tackled at all.
The requirements for the construction of the new Anenhütte were gigantic and very cost-intensive.
The debris from the hut that had been shattered by the dust avalanche was scattered over a radius of up to 2 km in the valley and on the long glacier. The remains of the hut had to be painstakingly collected, dismantled and sorted on site. Packed in sacks weighing up to 750 kg, they were transported down into the valley by helicopter and disposed of. To dismantle the destroyed hut, concrete cutters, pick hammers and chainsaws also had to be flown to the hut. The clearing work and structural preparations for the reconstruction (rock removal, excavation) lasted from April to August 2007.
Various projects were studied under the direction of Peter Tscherrig. Taking safety, functionality, comfort and construction costs into account, the project was continuously developed and finally implemented. Project planning and implementation took over 2 years and Peter Tscherrig gave his all to this task.
In parallel to the clearing work, the project planning and approval process was driven forward by the client. The municipality of Blatten, the Lötschental Tourism Association and the Lötschertal Valley Council actively supported the Anenhütte project. A provisional building permit was granted at the beginning of September 2007. Construction began on September 8, 2007, with the aim of completing the outer shell of the Anenhütte before the onset of winter.
The destroyed hut was dismantled down to its foundation walls. In order to meet the necessary space requirements, additional rock had to be extensively blasted. The outer shell was constructed from 685 m3 of solid reinforced concrete. Considering that 4 rotations with a helicopter are necessary for one cubic meter of concrete, which weighs 2400 kg, this is a remarkable achievement. In the fall of 2007, the shell construction work was made even more difficult by the cold and snowfall. The client's ambitious goal of getting the hut up and running before the onset of winter was only possible thanks to the extreme commitment of the contractors and construction experts and the dedication of the client, who had managed the entire project and was on site for the key work and actively lent a hand. On November 20, 2007, 4 Air Glacier helicopters spent 7 hours concreting the roof. 25 men (construction workers, pilots, flight assistants, coordinators and helpers etc.) were needed to concrete the ceiling. Some of the construction work had to be carried out at minus 27 degrees Celsius! At the beginning of December 2007, the subfloor was installed on the upper floor. Only with the use and support of construction heaters was it possible for the concrete to set at all. The structural work was completed on December 22, 2007 and the hut was now ready for the interior work to begin in January 2008. This meant that an important milestone had been reached on schedule.
Press
Before the interior work could begin in January 2008, the hut had to be prepared under the worst weather and temperature conditions. The builders gave their all and did not shy away from the cold or the ice. The ambitious goal of reopening the hut in the record time of just 1 ½ years after its destruction meant that the work could not be delayed. Work on the interior finally began in mid-February. Working closely with the owners, Peter and Prisca Tscherrig Schäppi, local contractors provided substantial support for the interior work. The owners gave their all to ensure the interior work was perfect and are proud of the result. Many details had to be discussed on site and it took a lot of ideas and intuition to give the hut the uncompromising simplicity of architecture that it has today.
The wife of the builder, Mrs. Prisca Schäppi Tscherrig, had a significant influence on the design of the interior and the functional processes. The Anenhütte owes its current aesthetic largely to her.
The extremely collegial and pleasant collaboration and the friendships that were formed over the months on the Anenhütte construction site will remain unforgotten. Everyone gave their all for this ambitious and unique project. A big thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone involved.
A hydroelectric power station was built especially for the new hut. A water intake and a sand trap were built high up on the Anengletscher. The pressure pipeline with a length of 850m, a height difference of 165m and a pipe diameter of 200 - 315mm (PE pipes) was installed in the prepared pipeline trench by helicopter with over 80m long pipe sections welded in the valley. The twin-jet Pelton turbine with generator is located in the turbine house, which is completely covered in the slope 200m next to the Anenhütte. The hydroelectric power covers the needs of the Anenhütte and thus lighting, heating, hot water, kitchen appliances, shoe and clothes dryers, sauna, etc. can be operated in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
The Peter Tscherrig Anenhütte is a hut and should remain a hut. Unique in its architecture, cozy in its style, mythical in its character. For the builder Peter Tscherrig, the "Anenhütte" project was a major challenge on the construction side. In human terms, it was the fulfillment of the need to bring the fascination of nature and the mountain world closer to today's society in an attractive form.
