THE BEST KIND OF INVESTMENT

Banker MANFRED UNTERBERGER knew alpine huts mostly as idyllic places for a pleasant stop. Now he is an alpine herdsman himself, looking after his beloved cattle and thirsty hikers.

Manfred Unterberger spent virtually his entire professional life working in a bank. When it was time to retire, he went on a tour to say goodbye to long-standing customers. One farmer mentioned that he was looking for a shepherd for the young cattle on his mountain pasture. The banker told him he was sorry he couldn’t help and thought the matter was settled. The farmer, however, did not. A few days after the encounter, the farmer showed him an advertisement for alpine shepherd training. The wheels in Manfred Unterberger’s head began to turn from this point on. He could complete an apprenticeship and it would not oblige him to do anything. As it turned out, it was an investment in the future, because it wasn’t long before he had the opportunity to put what he had learned into practice. Someone was needed on an alpine pasture in the Rofan and Unterberger filled in for two or three days a week. The following year his workload increased to five days. In the third year he took over his first alpine pasture, the Weißenbach-Alm, and two years ago he finally leased the Gütenbergalm in the Karwendel with his mountain friend Eugen Laner. There he became not only a shepherd, but also a landlord: they serve wonderful snacks and drinks.

Manfred Unterberger was helped by his friend Eugen Laner in the first year on the Gütenbergalm. However, he was seriously injured last year before the start of the season while putting up the pasture fences and dropped out. Unterberger spent the summer alone, supported by his wife at the weekends. That was strenuous, but nevertheless beautiful. In autumn, when the cattle leave the mountain pasture, Unterberger is overcome by melancholy: “I might even get teary-eyed when the last cattle leave. On the other hand, it is always the biggest blessing when the summer on the mountain pastures has been accident-free and all the animals can be handed over to the farmers healthy and strong.”