Swiss Alpine Club weighs climate fixes against comfort in mountain huts

The Swiss Alpine Club is facing costly measures to protect its mountain huts from climate change as visitors demand more comfort, SRF reports. The club runs 151 huts, more than a third of them in danger zones, while about as many face water shortages.

Melting glaciers and thawing permafrost are making the mountains unstable, putting huts at risk. At the Claridenhütte, a mountain hut in the Glarus Alps, new route markers lead hikers across the remaining ice of the Claridenfirn glacier. The hut stands amid rubble and scree.

Responses to the changing conditions include avalanche protection, steel staircases, water reservoirs and, in some cases, complete rebuilds. At the same time, more people are visiting the mountains for sport, leisure and social media, prompting huts to become larger, more comfortable and more ambitious in their food offerings.

Architect Hanspeter Bürgi, head of the SAC’s hut commission, says hut design must balance comfort with simplicity and preserve each building’s alpine character. “We do not want an inn that could also stand in a mountain village,” he says. In his view, huts in the mountains do not need twin rooms or hot showers.

The commission reviews new building projects, weighing factors including appearance, comfort, energy, water, avalanche safety and species protection. Bürgi says architects must ask how much people really need. He has won two competitions to renovate SAC huts and now helps decide who will design future projects.

Debate over the huts’ future reflects broader disagreements about growth and how to adapt to climate change. Climate researcher Reto Knutti has said the challenge is no longer mainly a lack of knowledge, but putting solutions into practice, including through communication, politics and weighing costs and benefits.

Architecture competitions have a long tradition in Switzerland, and the country’s huts reflect a varied architectural history. The first SAC hut, the Grünhornhütte, was built in 1863 with eight places as an emergency shelter. It is now visited as a high-alpine architectural monument.