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The Mountain Hut Book - Front Cover
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The Mountain Hut Book

An introduction to mountain huts and refuges for walkers and trekkers. Informative and entertaining, this book explores the mountain hut experience, from how huts have developed to modern-day hut etiquette. With profiles of the author's top picks, and the best hut-to-hut routes in the Alps and Pyrenees.

The eBook is also sold by Amazon Kindle, Rakuten Kobo, Google Play Books and Apple Books.

Detailed overview

Mountain huts are unlike any other place to spend a night. Perched on ridges, tucked into glacier cirques and hidden in remote valleys, they make accessible the kind of terrain most walkers and trekkers could never reach in a single day, and they are places where the sociable spirit of the mountains is felt most strongly.

This book is a celebration of the mountain hut experience, from the history and evolution of alpine refuges to the practicalities of using them, the people who run them and the routes that connect them. Entertaining, informative and richly illustrated, it is a book for anyone who wants to understand the mountain hut better, or for those yet to experience them for the first time.

  • The book opens with an exploration of hut life in all its variety, covering huts for walkers, trekkers, climbers and wildlife watchers, alongside the practicalities of sleeping, eating, hut etiquette and what to expect from a hut guardian
  • Ten of the author's favourite alpine huts are profiled in detail, among them the Cabane d'Arpitettaz, Refuge de Bellachat, Rifugio Bolzano, Cabane des Dix, Grutten Hut and Totalp Hut, with descriptions that bring them vividly to life
  • Ten hut-to-hut routes of 3 to 13 days are described, including the Tour du Mont Blanc, Tour of the Vanoise, Rätikon Höhenweg, Stubai High Level Route, Alta Via 2, Tour of the Jungfrau Region and Tour of the Wilder Kaiser
  • A history of mountain huts traces their development from the most primitive of shelters to the purpose-built, eco-friendly buildings of today, covering the role of alpine clubs and the challenges of managing huts in a changing climate
  • A final chapter looks beyond the Alps to huts, bothies and lodges in the Pyrenees, Himalaya, Andes, Corsica, Picos de Europa, Canadian Rockies, Atlas Mountains, Appalachians, Caucasus, and Tatras

For anyone drawn to the mountains and the remarkable buildings that make them more accessible, this is an essential and thoroughly enjoyable read from one of the world's greatest authorities on mountain and Alpine trekking, Kev Reynolds.

Table of contents


Contents


Introduction


1 Rooms with a view


Huts for all


Huts for trekkers


Huts for climbers


Huts for watching wildlife


Huts for walkers


2 Hut life


House rules


Sleeping and eating


The hut guardian


Paying for the privilege


Not huts – Berghotels and gîtes d’étape


3 Top ten huts


Cabane d’Arpitettaz


Refuge des Bans


Refuge de Bellachat


Rifugio Bolzano/Schlernhaus


Burg Hut


Cabane des Dix


Refuge Entre Deux Eaux


Grutten Hut


Rifugio Longoni


Totalp Hut


4 Hut to hut


Tour of the Vanoise


Rätikon Höhenweg


Tour of the Jungfrau Region


Stubai High Level Route


Tour of the Bernina


Tour of Mont Blanc


Tour of Val de Bagnes


Tour of the Oisans: GR54


Alta Via 2


Tour of the Wilder Kaiser


5 Hovels to hotels


Bivouacs, boulders and caves


Loathsome dens


The age of the mountain hut


The overcrowded Alps


Between the wars


The future has arrived


Alpine Clubs and their huts


6 Beyond the Alps – bothies, huts and lodges


Andes


Appalachians


Atlas Mountains


Canadian Rockies


Caucasus


Corsica


Himalaya


Picos de Europa


Pyrenees


Southern Alps


Tatras


Appendix A Useful contacts


Appendix B Directory of alpine huts


Appendix C Glossary for alpine trekkers


Appendix D Further reading


Index

Which format is best for me?

Printed book

A guidebook with detailed route descriptions, stage breakdowns, accommodation listings, profiles and maps — everything you need on the trail.

ISBN9781852849283
AvailabilityPublished
Published13 April 2018
Reprinted31 December 2031
Weight 460g

eBook

The complete digital edition of the guidebook, with full route descriptions, accommodation listings, profiles and maps, ready to use on any device.

Updates

  1. Updated

    Update

    May 2019

    Please note that the Totalp Hut in Austria’s Rätikon Alps, described on pp117-120 and on p134 as part of the Rätikon Höhenweg, has been destroyed by avalanche and will therefore be out of use until it can be rebuilt.

Meet the author

A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drove Kev's desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, guiding, photography and lecturing. Spending several months every year in various high-mountain regions researching guidebooks made him The Man with the World's Best Job.

Kev enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone from the 1970s, producing 50 books, including guides to five major trekking regions of Nepal and to numerous routes in the European Alps and Pyrenees, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds. 'A Walk in the Clouds' is a collection of autobiographical short stories recording 50 years of mountain travel and adventures. He was also the contributing editor of the collaborative guide 'Trekking in the Himalaya' and Cicerone's celebratory anniversary compilation 'Fifty Years of Adventure'.

A frequent contributor to outdoor magazines, Kev also wrote and illustrated brochures for national tourist authorities and travel companies. When not away in the mountains, Kev lived with his wife in a small cottage among what he called 'the Kentish Alps', with unrestricted walking country on the doorstep. But he also travelled throughout Britain during the winter months to share his love of the places he wrote about through a series of lectures.

Sadly, Kev passed away in 2021. He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him and by many more he inspired through his writing and talks.