Kärlingerhaus

At 1,638 m, Kärlingerhaus is a staffed DAV mountain hut on the Steinernes Meer plateau, immediately above Funtensee. Hikers use it as an overnight stop on long crossings and as a base for nearby summits. Plan a reserved night if you are building a route around it; this is a remote mountain destination reached only on foot.

DAV estimates roughly 3.5–4 hours from St. Bartholomä and 4–4.5 hours from Salet Alm. Other approaches, including Wimbachgries, take longer. These are mountain hikes rather than a lakeside stroll, so make the trailhead and route conditions part of the plan. The staffed season generally runs May through October; reserve ahead, especially in peak season. A separate winter room requires advance reservation and has no cooking or heating. Dogs cannot stay overnight.

Four dining rooms serve meals, making the hut a practical food stop as well as a place to sleep. The hut has 160 sleeping places: 120 dormitory beds and 40 beds in four-person rooms. No dependable signature dish was established, so plan around the remote overnight stop rather than a particular menu item.

A Funtensee hut was built in 1879. After more than 400 overnight stays in 1889, the DAV section rebuilt and enlarged it slightly lower down; the new hut was completed in 1890. In 1910, Funtenseehaus was renamed Kärlingerhaus for section chairman Kajetan Kärlinger.

Funtensee lies just below the hut in a basin that traps cold air during winter inversions. A German low-temperature record of −45.9 °C was measured at the lake in December 2001; the hut, a few metres higher, can be up to 20 °C warmer, so this is a winter phenomenon rather than a summer expectation. The lake covers about 2.5 hectares, reaches 5.3 m deep and has no visible surface outlet; its underground outflow can be heard at Teufelsloch.

Alpine grazing continued around Funtensee into the 1960s, and a surviving Kaser, or alpine hut, recalls that use. A nearby gentian distillery makes Funtensee schnapps from locally dug roots that are processed on site.

On the last weekend of August, Funtensee is a rest point on the Almer Wallfahrt, a high-alpine pilgrimage across the Steinernes Meer from Maria Alm toward Königssee and St. Bartholomä. The route can bring as many as 3,000 pilgrims across the plateau.