What a night in a mountain hut is really like and what you should expect
When I was a kid and my parents took me to the Alps for our summer holidays, there was one moment that I would wait for with way more trepidation than any other: the mountain hut night. Every year they would take us to spend the night in a hut right in the middle of the mountains, no roads, no cars, no TV (now I would also have to say no phones and no WiFi, but that wasn’t yet a problem back then). To me it was the greatest adventure of all: staying up late to go see the stars outside, in the pitch black and with a headtorch, and sleeping all together in the same room with my friends. The good thing about that experience, for the young ten-year-old me, was the simplicity. It was different. There and then, less was more.
Now that I’ve grown up and I don’t dislike comfort, same as the great majority of the people I guide every year in the Alps, I understand that sleeping in a mountain hut requires some sort of adjustment. Mental, more than anything else, and maybe practical. The spaces are small, you might have to sleep side by side with a stranger or climb up a ladder to an uncomfortable top bunk. Sometimes there are no showers and when there are they might be cold and you will just have to embrace it. Everything needs to be planned carefully for it to run smoothly, nothing can be left to chance unless you want to find yourself without lunch, or without a bed for the night or, even worse, without the right gear. In other words, if you want a comfortable holiday book a hotel, this may not be for you. I somehow I managed to keep that same mindset throughout the years and even now, more than twenty years later, I still appreciate when sometimes less is more. And that’s the mentality people should have when they decide to go and sleep in a mountain hut. So if you decide to go for it, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
It quite often works like this: the rooms are shared and so are the bathrooms, the showers and the common spaces. Sometimes there are showers and sometimes there aren’t but there’s never soap nor towels, you need to carry those yourself. Food will be served early and you won’t be able to choose as there is no menu but just one dish for everybody. It will be simple but good and it will fill you up. At 10pm lights are out but don’t worry, you’ll be in bed way before then. There will be snorers, that’s for sure, and there will be people getting up in the middle of the night making lots of noise. You will lie awake way earlier that you wanted to but it doesn’t matter because breakfast starts at dawn.
Some may think that all this sounds horrible but I swear it isn’t because it’s all part of the game. Because you’re right in the middle of the mountains and you’re lucky enough to have a roof above your head, let alone a warm meal. Because in the hut you will meet so many people that are sharing the exact same experience as you and you’ll know they’re friends from the very first moment you meet. Because the hut guardians will welcome you with a warm fire or a cold beer, depending on the day, and you will feel at home from the very start. It will be different but that’s where the beauty lies. What’s the point in trying to recreate exactly what we have every other day of the year?
In a world where it seems that if you don’t do the same things as everybody else then you’re not doing it right, I say that hiking for multiple days in a row and sleeping in mountain huts is not for everybody and it shouldn’t be. Luxury, in this context, should not exist, so don’t look for it. Your reward won’t be a comfy bed nor an afternoon at the spa, but it will be that spectacular sunset view, or that warm cup of hot chocolate that you never thought could taste so good. It’s the difference that matters. If you want to hike in the mountains then this is what you get, and if you ask me it’s pretty damn good.