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THE WEEKLY #167: SWISS MOUNTAIN HUTS

THE WEEKLY #167: SWISS MOUNTAIN HUTS

This week was all about mountain huts. After 50 days in Switzerland, I still hadn’t stayed overnight at one of the many incredibly situated mountain huts. After staying at three different ones this week, I’m now full of regret for how much I missed out on in those first 50 days.

I stayed overnight at Glecksteinhutte, Dossenhutte, and Baregghutte throughout the week. Each time I would hike back down and spend the following night in Interlaken, resetting, charging my gear, doing a quick file dump and then heading out to adventure the following day.

It’s now my favorite type of adventure and these are the reasons why:

  • Many of the mountain huts are quite high and take several hours to reach, which means many would require huge days to do a return trip. By staying overnight you can reach huts that are 10km or more of hiking, without having to do a massive day on the trails. It can be split up into two days.
  • Following on from the point above, often you want to be at the summit, peak or hut at the best moment. This moment is generally sunrise or sunset when you get the alien glow, pastel pinks and calm nature of the mountains. When you stay in a mountain hut you can enjoy all of the natural beauty that comes with a golden hour, right from the front door of the hut. 
  • The food at the mountain huts is usually quite good with homecooked soup, dinner and dessert part of the half-board price.
  • The bedding is usually dormitory-style, simplistic beds but if you go on a weekday or on the fringe of the season there won’t be many others staying overnight.
  • With most hotels ranging from $100+ in Switzerland just to stay in a regular town or city, you may as well get your money’s worth. A mountain hut can range from $40 to $100 but includes breakfast and dinner as part of your board.
  • If you join the SAC (Swiss Alpine Club) membership, you get pretty much half price off your nights stay and just pay a yearly fee of a couple hundred per year, which pays itself off after the fourth mountain hut stay.
  • There’s no need to hike down in the dark or leave in the early hours of the morning for the good lighting. You can hike up, shower and then enjoy the evening and the morning before hiking down.

So, now that you get the idea of why the mountain huts are such good value and a good option, I’ll show you some of my favorite photos from this week. I’ll start with the mountain huts themselves and then show you the photos of the hikes that took me to the mountain huts. I’ve created a few drone videos from these mountain hut hikes aswell.

  


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Me

Saturday 5th of October 2019

Great stuff! but $40-$100 is a little more than $12 per night

Jackson

Saturday 5th of October 2019

Yes, technically I didn't pay for 2/3 huts as the tourism board supported those but I did pay one. I've done Switzerland very cheap but yes I do need to update the bio where it says NEVER have I paid more than $12. Although in 3 months you will be surprised I can count on one hand stays over $20 ;)

John Howell

Wednesday 25th of September 2019

Hi Jackson. Enjoying reading your stuff and seeing great photos and drone footage. We met briefly at the top of the Dosenhutte before you did you sprint to the station. I was wondering if it is possible to share any drone footage you may have of us standing next to the hut that evening and be able to use it in video I'm putting together. Are you going to do any lake vlogs. Lakes are as much of Switzerland as are the mountains. As kids from the UK with a Swiss mum we often did a week in the mountains and a week on a lake. Couple of years ago we did a wonderful hike along the Walensee from Talegg to Quinten (only accessable by foot or boat) returning by boat. Keep up the great work and hope to hear from you soon.

Jackson

Thursday 26th of September 2019

Hey John, How's it going? All of the drone footage is in the youtube video. If you want that the easiest way is to use a youtube to mp4 converter and you can basically swipe the footage and use it for yourself. The link to the vlog is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62W_fLtvat4

Aditi Arora

Tuesday 24th of September 2019

Following your post from a long time. Loved how uniquely you travel. If in future try to upload a trip to Korean countries or China.

Jackson

Thursday 26th of September 2019

Thanks :) Yes some great hikes in both !