amount of discretion is needed when sharing a dormitory full of strangers, but anything more decorous than a long T-shirt as nightwear will be out of place.
If you’ll be sleeping in a dormitory, the hut keeper may specify which bed space you should occupy, but if you’re free to choose, try to get a place near the window and away from the door. If you have a bunk by the window you can control the air flow at night, but should you find yourself near the door, be prepared for disturbance by early risers. And keep a head torch under your pillow, for it’ll be handy if you need to get up in the middle of the night for a call of nature. Most hut generators are turned off after lights-out, the bathroom may be located outside, and getting lost on the way is not to be recommended.
Bathroom facilities vary greatly. The best – and for practical reasons these will usually be found in huts located either in or within easy access of a valley – will have hot showers (mostly coin- or token-operated) and plentiful running water. Although seldom sufficient to serve the number of visitors, toilets in these ‘valley huts’ will be as good as those found in modest hotels, but the higher the hut, the more basic or primitive the toilets are likely to be, and more limited the opportunities for washing. There are exceptions, of course, and standards are improving year by year.
Some of the more modern huts have Wi-Fi access, but don’t automatically assume that this is the case. It is also worth noting that not all huts have power sockets in which to charge mobile phones or other portable electronic devices, so you should plan your needs accordingly.
Alpenglow on Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau seen from the Suls-Lobhorn Hut
Advance booking is essential if you wish to stay in a popular region during the high season, and it is becoming increasingly common for some huts to be fully booked several weeks or even months ahead – those in national parks and the Mont Blanc range, for example. Reservations can be made either through a central booking system such as that used by trekkers on the Tour of Mont Blanc (www.autourdumontblanc.com), or directly with individual huts by telephone. If, like me, you’re no linguist, valley-based tourist offices will usually make a booking for you, but if you’ve left it until the last minute, some hut wardens will often phone ahead to the next refuge on your behalf. However, should you decide to make a call from your mobile phone while in the mountains, be aware that it’s not always possible to get a signal.
This happened to my publisher, Jonathan Williams, and me when trekking the Tour of the Oisans one summer. Our initial plan had been to find somewhere to stay overnight in a village on the far side of a high pass, but we were checking an alternative to the standard route and misjudged the time it would take to get there. We decided to call a hut we’d be passing en route to book a couple of beds for the night. Unable to get a signal for either of our mobile phones, we arrived unannounced in the late afternoon and were met with a very frosty reception from the refuge gardienne (warden), who made us wait outside for half an hour like badly behaved schoolboys until she ‘discovered’ she had enough room and let us in. It was an unnecessary display of ‘gardienne power’ as the refuge was only half full, but she made her point and we learned our lesson.
In the end it turned out to be a memorable experience, for the woman in charge soon dropped her fearsome facade, produced an excellent meal and entertained us with tales of her adventures in the Himalaya. Outside, the alpenglow was truly magical, as neighbouring
‘the alpenglow was truly magical, as neighbouring mountains turned to bronze’
mountains turned to bronze and were reflected in a nearby lake. We wouldn’t have had any of that if we’d made it to the village as planned.
While few huts outside the honeypot districts will be fully booked in advance, it is a matter of courtesy to call a day or two before your planned arrival as it gives the staff an idea of how many to cater for. Make sure you arrive in good time wherever possible, and it goes without saying that, if your plans change, you should phone the hut at the earliest opportunity to cancel a prior booking, otherwise walkers or climbers may be turned away unnecessarily – and the hut keeper loses income. In extreme cases, it may lead to the mountain rescue being called out to search for you.
The busiest times, of course, are in the high season and at weekends during fine weather, when pressure on bed space is to be expected. Some wardens deal with the prospect of overcrowding by providing overflow accommodation in an annexe which may, or may not, consist of a conventional building with four walls and a roof. So I was not surprised when the guardian at the Refuge de la Leisse (www.refugedelaleissevanoise.com) in the Vanoise Alps told me on the phone that he was fully booked, but would find space for me and my two friends in his tented annexe. At least, that’s what I thought he said – but my French is notoriously poor, so when we arrived and saw only the same three buildings that I remembered from my previous visit, and no marquee-like tent nearby, I began to wonder.
‘Don’t worry,’ said the guardian, ‘I will show you to your sleeping places in a little while.’
Half an hour later he was seen pushing a wheelbarrow up a steep slope and over a bluff, where I discovered him unloading a two-man tent and a couple of mattresses onto a patch of grass.
‘Voilà!’ he said. ‘It’s all yours. Three men, two mattresses. You will be good friends, I think.’
Advance booking should make overcrowding a rare occurrence – in theory, at least. But practice is sometimes different from theory. When an Austrian hut is completely full, the warden (Hüttenwirt) may allocate emergency sleeping places (Notlager) if, say, there’s no time for a new arrival to reach alternative shelter. In such cases, a dormitory floor, a passageway or even the space beneath a table in the dining room (Gaststube) may be used as a bed. If such a prospect appals you, and it’s privacy you’re after, you’d better turn tail and head for a valley hotel, or grab a bivvy bag and find an overhanging rock to sleep under.
House rules
Having selected a hut for the night, made your booking and arrived in good time, the first thing to do before you enter the main building is remove your outdoor boots and place them along with your trekking poles on one of the racks you’ll find in the boot room or entrance porch. There will often be a supply of ‘hut shoes’ to change into. They could be plastic Croc-style shoes, floppy old mules or even old-fashioned clogs, all of which will be available in various sizes. If you don’t fancy these, pack your own lightweight slippers to wear inside the building. But don’t risk upsetting the warden by clomping through the hut in your walking boots, and if outer clothing is wet, hang waterproofs from racks in the boot room or, if there’s a drying room, leave them there.
Auberge de Bionnassay on the Tour of Mont Blanc is a typical gîte d’étape with facilities similar to those found in mountain huts
No room at the inn
In the 1960s I worked for a while in the Engadine Valley, with the Bernina and Bregaglia Alps as near neighbours: snow and ice mountains in one direction, soaring rock peaks in another. Two years after I’d finished working there, I returned to introduce my 3½-month-old daughter to the Alps. Years later she remembers nothing of that visit…
Leaving my wife and daughter with friends down in the valley, I set off alone for Piz Languard, that modest 3200m walkers’ mountain that rises above Pontresina with its classic view of the Bernina range, where I hoped to capture the magic of sunset and sunrise from the top.
