September 19, 2024, 6:34 am | Read time: 5 minutes
For many hikers, mountain huts are a place to take a break during a day hike. Others use them as overnight camps before a summit assault. However, huts are also becoming increasingly popular as stopovers on multi-day hikes. Proper preparation is essential for such tours.
Coffee steams on the heavy wooden table; the sun sends its first rays over the peaks. Some fellow hikers are already getting ready to set off from the mountain hut.
The fact that a snorer has spent the night in the same dormitory for the third time in a row – no problem! Another beautiful day in the mountains awaits, which will end in a hut again today – high above everything, far away from road noise, vacation hotels, and hustle and bustle.
Multi-day hikes from hut to hut have become increasingly popular. The German Alpine Association (DAV), which runs 321 huts, has also noticed this.
The motivation is often not mountaineering, says DAV spokesman Thomas Bucher: “Many people don’t do it for mountaineering reasons. They don’t want to reach a summit.” Instead, they want to relax, slow down, experience nature, and have experiences that everyday life doesn’t offer – for example, only being able to wash with cold water.
Starting a hut hike should not be a spontaneous idea. It needs some preparation. Here are five essential steps:
1. Choose a suitable tour
He recommends being creative and not hiking on well-trodden paths, said Bucher in a dpa-Themendienst interview. Some hut-to-hut trails, such as the Alpine crossing from Oberstdorf to Merano on the European long-distance hiking trail E5, are now completely overcrowded. Hikers are often “in a crowd of many hundreds of people.” It is not uncommon for them to spend the night on or under the table because there are no free places to sleep. From June to September, the huts along this seven to eight-day hiking route are “massively booked out.”
The DAV recommends considering other Alpine crossings or crossing individual parts of the mountains as alternatives. For example, the long-distance hiking trails from Walchensee in Upper Bavaria to Lake Iseo in Italy and the Munich-Venice route are less crowded. Both take 28 days and can be spread over several vacation trips in stages.
For the area crossings, for example, walking for four or five days through the Karwendel mountains on the German-Austrian border is possible. Whether in Chiemgau or Stubaital: “There are hut-to-hut hikes in almost every area.”
2. Clarify the reservation question
For many huts, the earlier you reserve a place to sleep, the better. Along the E5, Bucher estimates it is probably too late two months before the planned arrival.
Tourist offices can also help with planning: On the Berliner Höhenweg in the Zillertal in Tyrol, for example, nights can be booked through the local tourist office. Hikers only have to say on which day they want to start and whether they want to walk clockwise or anticlockwise.
There are also tours where, even in the height of summer, it is enough to book the next hut by telephone – for example, on the Carnic High Trail on the border between Austria and Italy.
3. Build your fitness
If you have no previous experience, you should “first visit a hut and spend a night there to get a better idea of the experience,” recommends Bucher. Wanting to hike for a whole week in one go is certainly too much for beginners.
Afterward, it is important to keep physically fit and prepare for the longer tour step by step. This can look like this: do a first short day hike in May, then more in June and July – and the serious tour follows in August.
4. Keep your luggage light
“All inexperienced hikers take too much with them,” is Bucher’s observation. Some even hikers pack a hairdryer, but this is just ballast and often doesn’t work because there are no power sockets in many huts. The Alpine Association advises choosing a rucksack with a volume of no more than 35 liters and a maximum weight of around ten kilograms, even for multi-day tours.
Weather protection, a bivouac sack, and first aid equipment are also essential for lightweight luggage. You should also take a hut sleeping bag and a towel. “Most huts offer half board. I would recommend this to everyone, as it takes a lot of weight off your rucksack because you don’t have to pack food for several days,” explains Bucher.
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5. Cell phone, electricity, and the necessary small change
Taking a cell phone with you is sensible for accessing the weather forecast. Having a small power bank to recharge the device at least once in huts that lack power sockets is also important. “I walk a lot with my cell phone in flight mode and only turn it on when I need it,” says Bucher, giving an energy-saving tip.
Since the huts generally only accept cash, ensuring you have enough money on hand is essential. In the Eastern Alps, it’s best to calculate 45 to 50 euros (44 – 50 dollars) per person per night – plus expenses for drinks.
The original version of this article was published in 2019.