Summer on the alp
Young cowherd Magnus on the Bärgunt high alp in the Kleinwalsertal
Summer months on the alp
Magnus Huber
Wolfgang Ott, with young cowherd Magnus. The two of them look after the cattle on the Bärgunt high alp in the Kleinwalsertal during the summer months.
Magnus Huber is 12 years old. Like all kids, he loves the summer holidays. This is when he heads off up the mountains. Magnus then spends a few weeks in the role of a young cowherd on the Bärgunt high alp, at an altitude of almost 2,000 metres. In good company: another couple of lads, experienced cowherd Wolfgang Ott and 240 young cattle, 12 horses and two cows.
I have been coming up here for 27 years now and can never get enough of the beautiful countryside.
Life on the alp is very simple, without a television or the Internet, but Magnus doesn’t appear to be missing anything. He is already a good help, checking fences, doing the milking, clearing the perennial plants in order to make way for grazing areas, and looking after sick animals. All this is in a day’s work. So what does he want to do when he grows up? “Maybe I’ll be a cowherd,” he says. “We’ll see.”
Their tip:
“If you have already made it thisfar, you really should push on and conquer the rest of the trail as far as the top of the Widderstein. It is impossible to describe the view from up there.”
