Arthur-von-Schmid-Haus, Mountain refuge in Mallnitz, Austria.
The Arthur-von-Schmid-Haus sits at 2,281 meters (7,484 feet) elevation beside Dösener See and accommodates roughly 68 people in shared and dormitory rooms. The hut is modestly furnished and designed for mountain visitors seeking basic comfort at this alpine height.
Arthur von Schmid, former director of the Graz Commercial Academy, left a generous bequest to the Graz section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1902. The section bought land at Dösener See in 1905 and built a shelter there in 1910/11, naming it after the donor. Major renovations and extensions followed in 1927, 1930, 1978/79 and 2008.
Arthur von Schmid was the director of the Graz Commercial Academy, not a merchant; he left the Graz section a large bequest in 1902, and the hut built on the land bought in 1905 was named in his memory. The house stands on the shore of the Dösener See and serves as a stop on the Ruperti-Weitwanderweg long-distance trail.
The shortest approach starts at the Dösner Alm car park at 1,448 m and follows the Dösental valley to the hut in about three hours. From Mallnitz, the route via the Dösener Kirchweg, Konrad-Hütte and Konrad-Lacke takes roughly 4½ hours, with the steepest section past the unmanned Dösner Hütte. The hut is open from June to mid-October.
The hut stands directly beside the Dösener Blockgletscher, a frozen jumble of rock debris that displays how permafrost shapes alpine landscapes. Visitors can observe this geological formation from the hut and see firsthand how extreme cold affects the mountain environment.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,926 contributors worldwide.