Turn up, have a drink, have a laugh. And after me, the flood. You haven't got a sleeping-bag liner, so you crawl straight under the hut blanket. In the morning you wake half the dorm rummaging through your pack because it didn't occur to you to pack the night before. And your rubbish – where do you leave that? When staying at a mountain hut, in a winter room or a bivouac shelter, certain customs are respected.
A hut does have a restaurant with staff and, besides the shared dormitory, even a few small rooms. But surely you're not expecting an all-inclusive spa. Mountain huts were built primarily as bases to make summit climbs easier. Not for week-long holidays.
Keeping them running is neither easy nor cheap. Getting, treating and disposing of a litre of drinking water up there costs 30 times more than in the valley. And that's how you should approach huts. Be content with little, behave considerately and with understanding.
A classic mountain hut has staff who run it during the season. But what if only the winter room is left open? Then everything is down to you. You have to light the stove, cook, clean up after yourself and chop as much wood as you burned. And you still have to pay for your night. Then there are bivouac shelters, which are free – but the demands on your sense of responsibility are even higher.
Mountain hut, winter room or bivouac. Wherever you are, respect is the basis. Respect others and be as quiet as a mouse after lights-out. Maybe you sleep like a log and can have a lie-in, but someone else may be planning an early start and a tough route the next day.
Leave your boots and soaked things at the entrance – don't take them into the dorm, where they'll stink everyone out. Tidy your things away so nobody trips over your pack with an ice axe sticking out of it. And if you're the one getting up early, get everything ready the night before – so you don't wake the others in the morning.
… even up there, this doesn't fly: "I've paid, so I'll do what I like." Water and electricity are precious resources – and it's not quite cricket to charge your power bank and hog one of two showers for fifty people for a quarter of an hour. The wood for the winter room probably had to be flown in by helicopter, and rubbish has to be flown out too. That's why it's right to go easy on resources and follow the rule: "What you carry in, you carry out."
Sure, the mountains mean freedom. But only up to a point. A mountain hut has its rules and it's only fair to follow them. Besides, it's still first and foremost a refuge in the middle of the mountains, and running it is no joke. So when you get pea soup and meatloaf for dinner, don't start saying you'd rather have pasta carbonara and a radish salad.
No "We'll turn up at eight in the evening and see how it goes." It'll go, all right. But instead of a mattress in a room, you'll probably be bedding down on a bench in the dining room. Once everyone else has left it.
It's the least you can do. The season up there is short, running the hut is expensive and your booking takes a bed from people who'd gladly pay for it.
If you get into trouble, your entry with your name, date and next destination will be valuable information for any rescue.
Leave your boots at the entrance, where they belong. There's a boot rack and a drying room. And change into slippers – either your own or the hut ones. But don't count on the latter.
Leave your ice axe, crampons, rope and trekking poles in the designated area by the entrance too (boot rack, drying room). None of them belongs in the dorm.
The dining room holds fewer people than there are overnight guests. So eat and make room for others. It's not a pub for endless lingering.
Don't fancy what the hut cooks? You don't have to eat it. But don't light your stove in the dining room or the dorm. It could be your last act of arson.
They usually run from 22:00 to 6:00. So save the singing and loudly trading tales of heroic deeds for the valley.
A sleeping-bag liner, the Hüttenschlafsack. Don't sleep under the hut blanket alone. It's unhygienic and unfair to whoever comes after you the next night.
Especially if you plan to set off early – before the others. And keep your head torch where you can reach it at night.
Someone in the dorm always snores. Always. And you probably won't get them to stop by smacking your lips either. Earplugs guarantee a peaceful night.
Imagine everything that's happened within these four walls. The climbs that were planned here. Who felt a shiver down their spine here before a climb. Might Walter Bonatti once have sat on the very chair you're sitting on now? Or Riccardo Cassin? And you're really going to blast YouTube and Justin Bieber? Nah, right? Try to take in what's around you. A mountain hut is a piece of history.
The part of a mountain hut that stays open (only) outside the season. It usually has up to ten or twenty beds, a stove, chairs, a table, firewood and a cash box where you leave money for your night. But you have to look after yourself. And that's the beauty of it.
Does the hut even have a winter room? Which part of the hut is it in? How big is it, what equipment does it have, is it open to all or locked with a key you need to collect?
A sleeping bag is a must, especially in winter. Pots, plates and cutlery aren't a given, and sometimes neither is a stove. You'll of course have to cook your own food – from whatever you bring.
If you don't have the exact amount, you can pay later by bank transfer. The Alpine club section that owns the hut will give you the payment details. Just don't be a freeloader.
Somebody had to get it up here, and that's no cheap joke. And before you leave, chop and stack at least as much wood as you burned in the stove.
Some winter rooms have a small solar panel system for power and light. But that's more the exception. So you'll be lighting your way with candles or a head torch.
By a winter room you'll always find a latrine or a composting toilet. Use it, and don't go looking for a spot around the hut. Nobody wants your spring surprise.
Before you leave the winter room, sweep the floor, wash the dishes, empty the ashes, straighten the mattresses and blankets, and shut the windows and doors properly so snow doesn't blow in.
Packaging and food waste alike – there's no mountain tip up there, and nobody wants to run around the hut in spring with a bin bag picking up leftovers. Rubbish also attracts mice.
A winter room is not a place for parties. All the more so as you may be sharing it overnight with other people. Nor is it a long-term home for living like a hermit.
No, that's not how it works in a winter room. You can't even book a place. But do check in advance whether your winter room is actually open. Some are locked, and you need to pick up the universal key before heading into the mountains – from any section of the Alpenverein. And of course, the winter room is accessible only while the hut is closed.
A metal or wooden hut with just a few beds. A bivouac is always open and you pay nothing. But no stove, no toilet. Just a few beds, scratchy blankets and a fifty-fifty chance that you'll either have a romantic night for two or it'll be packed and you'll be sleeping on the floor.
In some places it's written right into the rules – a bivouac is a temporary shelter on a multi-day tour or in an emergency. Not a way to camp for free high up in the mountains.
So even if it's empty, don't spread your things over the free beds. Bear in mind that someone else may turn up at any moment – even in the middle of the night.
A bivouac has only a few beds. Sometimes four, sometimes ten. So you may have to make do with a bench or the floor. A sleeping mat comes in handy.
Everything happens in one space. So keep the noise down, don't shine your head torch in other people's eyes and try going without Spotify and a speaker for once.
Bivouacs don't usually have a latrine. Walk away from the shelter and the path, dig a hole and then fill it in again. Carry used tissues out in a bag.
Why is there no fire pit by the bivouac? Because lighting fires there is most likely banned. For good reasons. Badly doused fire – wind – disaster.
Whatever you carry up, take back down with you – including food scraps and organic waste, which you shouldn't toss around the place. It attracts mice.
Shake out and fold the blankets, straighten the mattresses. Wipe the table, sweep the floor, put things back where they were. Ideally, leave the bivouac in better shape than you found it.
Mugs, candles, pots, first-aid kits, gas canisters – all of these should stay in the bivouac for the next guests. On the contrary – you can leave something yourself for the good of others.
In a winter room or bivouac you'll always find some food and gas canisters left by those before you. But none of it is meant for you. It's a lifeline for people who reach the bivouac in an emergency. And if you really can't resist the freeze-dried chilli con carne grinning at you from the shelf, leave something from your own supplies in exchange. Or leave even more. As "payment" for the shelter you were given.
By now it's probably clear that up in the mountains it's mainly about a safe night's sleep. You get the essentials, and how you cope with them is up to you. So for a mountain hut, pack:
In a winter room or bivouac, even more is in your hands – cooking, keeping warm, or even digging your way through the snowdrifts to the door. Also bring:
We share one space. A tiny room where we can barely get past each other. And everyone has their quirks. One has smelly feet, another snores and a third puts their pot on the stove just as you're about to do the same. We have to sort it out somehow. And it always goes better with a smile than with an aggressive tone. Smile – you're in the mountains. Where else would you have a better reason? The rest will go smoothly.
What else would you call being able to spend the night up there, in the middle of the mountains, dry, warm and safe? Mountain huts, winter rooms and bivouac shelters stand and run thanks to the hard work and dedication of other people. Keep that in mind when you cross their threshold.
And also – enjoy your stay with humility and try to give something back. Think: what state would you want to find the bivouac or winter room in? And leave it in exactly that state for those who come next.
See you in the mountains!
