Exploration
10 precariously perched mountain huts
Sleepwalkers look elsewhere: these are some of the world’s most spectacularly exposed mountain huts.
Staying in a mountain hut is one of the great experiences of heading into the hills. They range from hobbit-like hovels to futuristic eco-cabins, from basic shelters built to save lives to massive alpine hotels that offer three-course meals and hundreds of beds. But they all have one thing in common. They are all built on the side of a mountain. To reach them, you need to get out your climbing boots...
Chacaltaya Lodge, Bolivia
Not your average ski hut
© Ashvin Mistry
At 5,420m, the lodge is higher than Everest Basecamp. Chacaltaya (Aymara for "cold road") is a mountain in the Cordillera Real and the hut used to service Bolivia’s only ski resort. The glacier was as old as 18,000 years, but by 2009 it had gone, along with the skiing. All that remains is the lodge, teetering on the edge.
Grand Mulets Refuge, France
Great place to stay – if you can get there
© Alex Buisse
One of the most impressively situated huts in the Alps, the Grand Mulets sits in the Mont Blanc massif. It's mostly used in winter by skiers looking to ski off western Europe's highest mountain.
Sefton Bivvy, New Zealand
The oldest hut in New Zealand's Mt. Cook area
© Alex Buisse
The oldest hut in Mt. Cook National Park, Sefton Bivvy has provided a launching pad for generations of climbers. It’s located at 1,650m below Mt. Footstool and offers four bunks. Best of all, it’s free to stay.
Gervasutti Refuge, Italy
The futuristic Gervasutti Refuge
© Marco Destefanis
Nautical and aeronautical design inspired the toothpaste tube shape of this hut located at 2,835m beneath the massive walls of the Grandes Jorasses, Italy. The 12-bed hut is built to stand the test of time, but apparently not everyone approves of its futuristic design.
Koncheto Hut, Bulgaria
Would you stay here?
© Maya Karkalicheva / Getty
While some huts offer hot food, wine and books and magazines to read, there are others that are a little bit more basic. The Koncheto shelter is one such example in Bulgaria. You'd only want to stay here if you get caught out in a storm.
Solvay Hut, Switzerland
To get here you have to climb the Matterhorn
© Marco Milani
Unless you’re a seasoned mountaineer, we’re sorry but you’ll never reach this hut. It sits at 4,003m, only 475m below the summit of Matterhorn (4,478m) and requires alpine skills to reach. The 10-bed hut was built in 1915 over five days and rebuilt in 1966.
Bivouac Tita Ronconi, Italy
Care required if you need to get up in the night
© Marco Milani
There are some huts where obeying the call of nature in the middle of the night is a major ordeal. For obvious reasons this four-bed hut is not a place to stagger out of in the small hours of the night. It sits at 3,169m in the Val Masino Alps, a popular area with climbers.
Vignettes Hut, Switzerland
Careful when stumbling out in the dark
© PatitucciPhoto
Located on the famous Haute Route between Chamonix and Zermatt, this 120-bed hut is more like a hotel in peak season. It sits at 3,160m at the foot of Pigne d’Arolla, but it's not easy to reach – you have to cross a glacier to get there.
Maria e Alberto ai Brentei
This is Turnpoint 5 in Red Bull X-Alps
© Gerald Gold
This dramatic location is one of the 10 Turnpoints of the 2015 Red Bull X-Alps, an epic paragliding adventure race over 1,000km in distance across the Alps. Get here in mid-July and there's a chance you could spot one of the 33 athletes passing through before soaring into the sky. They of course won't have time to enjoy the comforts of this big, 97-bed hut.
Bertol Hut, Italy
The Bertol hut: just a mission to get there
© PatitucciPhoto
Nestled at 3,311m on the south of Pointe de Bertol, a mountain in the Swiss Pennie Alps, the 80-bed Bertol Hut is famous for its precarious position on a rocky pinnacle. Definitely not the place to fall out of bed.