Author's note: I did not and have not used AI tools to write parts of this post. Though I do use AI (mainly Gemini) to write in other capacities, I still feel a bit conflicted about it here. The act of adventure writing brings me joy, and I feel like I learn more about the experience and myself through it. That being said, there’s many benefits to using AI in the creative writing process. I would love to discuss this with anyone who reads this post. How would you feel if a part of these pieces were written or edited by AI? Anyways, enjoy!

The Alps are chock full of backcountry huts high in the mountains. These plush accommodations simplify the decision between slogging a heavy pack with a tent and mediocre freeze dried meals versus a day pack and a credit card all the more straightforward. All you have to do is show up by 6:30 pm and pay ~70 CHF. Then you’re served a four course meal for dinner and assigned a spot in a 20 person dorm room after a long day outside. These huts are primarily open during the summer, mid-June to mid-September, while some are also open in March and April for ski touring season.

But in the back of my mind, while I’m sipping on a lovely glass of red wine on an Alpine refuge’s patio, the small voice of my (problematic) American wilderness ethos whispers “You’re getting soft.” And it’s true!

So this ski touring season, Freddy and I pioneered a middle ground between the wilderness camping of the American West and the backcountry luxury I’ve grown accustomed to: The Winterraum.

Most huts have a winter room (Winterraum in German). The normal setup is a small kitchen with a wood stove, utensils, a place to sit, a toilet, and sleeping quarters. The primary difference between the winter room and a normal hut experience is that you have to cook your own food, make your own water, and lower your expectations on toilet facilities. Normally, these rooms accommodate 10-20 people versus the 70-100 person capacity during summer.

The conditions/amenities of the huts vary (as do the prices) so I want to share with my small audience my experience and rating of the winterrooms I visited this winter. This also gives me an opportunity to write about some of the amazing adventures I’ve had this season, so that's an added bonus 🙂

Jamtalhütte:

We came to the Jamtal from Scuol’s ski resort (Motta Naluns), while doing the Silvretta traverse with George. That day, we rode the lifts up, skied a few mechanized laps then donned skins and packs for the climb up to Piz Mischun. It’s always a funny feeling going from the mid-mountain Après scene to complete and utter solitude in less than an hour. After dropping north off top, we toured up Pass Futschöl and crossed into Austria. Not long after, the Jamtalhütte was in view. It’s a huge Austrian hut, and when it’s staffed, they have private rooms, a shower, and an ice wall, but in off season it is very quiet.

The Jamtal had by far the worst winter room we stayed in this winter, so I’m glad it was our first!

Pros: 

• It had running water (most huts you need to melt snow)
• It only cost 12 Euro

Cons:

• Dysfunctional toilet with water all over the floor. Their solution was elevated plywood planks to escape getting your feet wet. 
• No privacy 
• No natural light
• We needed to saw wet pieces of wood to fit in the wood stove
• (not the hut’s fault I admit) we were accompanied by an incredible snorer that night!
• Steep entrance into the basement winterrom, lots of shoveling to get in there.

Wiesbadenerhütte

The Wiesbadenerhütte was our next destination on the Silvretta Traverse. From the Jamtalhütte, George, Freddy and I toured up to Tiroler Scharte, the boundary between the Tirol and Arlberg regions of Austria. The day was terrible; we ascended glacial terrain in thick fog and high winds. When you can’t see 2 feet in front of you, it makes descending a short but steep moraine terrifying. I opted to sit at the pass while Freddy and George ascended Ochsenkopf. We got to the hut early and played cards with our two Austrian friends Jo and Yury.

The Wiesbadenerhütte is also huge when open, but it’s winterroom was quite modest. 

Pros:

• Cheap! 10 Euro a night
• 3 separate small rooms for sleepers so you can spread out
• Cozy kitchen that made for good times meeting new friends
• Has a Chapel

Cons:

• Smelly toilet that had tandem thrones. Who is peeing with their friends? Is this because they think most clients are men?
• Bad stove and cooking equipment, pots couldn’t keep their heat so it took forever to boil water
• No hut shoes provided
• The fire alarm went off all night, annoying, but I wouldn’t expect every visit to be like this!

Silvrettahütte

We stayed at the Silvrettahütte twice, once with George and once with Audrey and Pete. Unfortunately, Freddy and I had a..mild disagreement.. in front of George, so instead I will tell you about the great day we had getting to the Silvretta hut with Pete and Audrey. 

From the Wiesbadenerhutte, we ascended the Ochsentaler Gletscher with quite a Föhn wind. We headed towards Piz Buin, getting absolutely blasted. We ascended the improbable-looking Northwest ridge. It’s snow on the bottom, a bit of mixed climbing in the middle that had enough bolts to calm your nerves over the exposure, and scree to the top. We descended back the way we had a quick glacial traverse and booted up the Silvrettahorn. Once at the summit, we were back in Switzerland! We descended the west face, which was covered in old avalanche debris and booked it to the hut. During our slog through the end of the glacier, we found a glacial cave - I’ve never seen anything like it! 

Pros:

• Instead of the standard issue crocs that SAC huts have, they provided clogs that were hilarious, old and a bit treacherous to walk in
• Beer, coffee, oats for sale
• Shapely stone building
• Electricity for charging phones (not common)

Cons:

• The hut is in lumpy moraine terrain, making it easy to get lost
• I remember being cold both times I was there. The stove does not heat up the place.
• Dark bathroom, George dropped the toilet brush into the depths. 

Chamanna Jenatsch

Larissa, Gilles, and Freddy ascending from Julier Pass.

Hanging out at the Gipfelkreuz on top of Piz Calderas.

Nele and Freddy at the top of the couloir.

We went to the Chamonna in early January on a very cold weekend with a crew: Larissa, Gilles, George, and Nele. We called it the Piz party because in Romansh, mountains are called Piz’s.

It took quite some logistical maneuvering to get all six of us to the top of Julier pass in winter using public, private and personal transit modes. We used a private ski tour bus from Bivio over the pass, which is good information to know about! After the multimodal journey, we climbed 2 Piz’s, Piz Trounter Ovas and Piz Surgonda, which involved a short but exciting downclimb onto the Vadret (glacier in Romansh). We skied down to the hut to start cooking dinner. While we skinned up that day, Freddy realized Larissa (who was on dinner logistics) had a different definition of what is a sufficient quantity of pasta for 6 people (we brought 1 kg). Though no one went to bed hungry, some felt like they could have had a bit more to eat. What can I say? I married an American with a large stomach and a love of butter noodles. We now ask most of our friends how much dried pasta (by weight) they could eat in 24 hours to gauge what kind of eater they are. After dinner, we stood outside gazing at the milky way move in the dark night sky while Gilles took pictures with his cameras. I take partial credit for the night photography because I carried the tripod both days!

The next day, we split into two groups: me, Larissa, and Nele climbed up the Vadret Calderas while Gilles, Freddy and George went around to climb Tschima da Flix. It was a bitterly cold climb, I was wearing all my layers going up, and when we finally met the deep winter sun, it felt like such a miracle that I had to sit down and soak. We met up with the others and climbed Piz Calderas together. After that we descended a fun chalky couloir (it was Larissa’s first couloir and she did great!), while George flew over us with his paraglider.

This was a really cool area and I hope we get back there.

Pros:

• Beautiful location, it felt very remote for being so close to a Julier pass
• Good stove to warm kitchen easily dry boots
• Ski room available, so you don’t need to leave your skis outside
• Nice mud room spacious to get ready with glacier gear
• Water on hand and good pantry (extra supplies like salt and sugar)
• Toilet in building and not smelly

Cons

• Cramped when at max capacity
• Expensive - 40 CHF

Keschhütte

We went to the Keschhütte with Peter and Audrey, starting from Madulain then going towards Davos. While on the train there, I had a funny feeling in my stomach as I remembered that this is where the Swiss military does missile tests; were we about to enter target practice? Luckily for us, we just grazed the perimeter of the danger zone. In shoes we walked up from the train station, with a quick stop at the local Hofladen for lamb meat and Nusslitort. The snow came quickly; we passed an Alpage and Chamonna Es-Cha as Pete and Audrey kept chatting. The final push to the saddle was a steep, icy gully, making the ascent just a little spicy! We skied cold powder on the Vadret da Porchabella down to the Keschhütte.

The next day, we continued our march towards Davos; first towards Sertig pass, rappelling into an untouched face after we misjudged the summit of Passhöreli. Then another exciting boot pack to ski the Northwest couloir near the Mittaghorn. The cherry on top was that we made it to the bus four minutes before it left!

Pros:

• Nice stove good for cooking and warm
• Beer for sale, good pantry
• Two rooms so you and spread out from other parties
• Running water
• Spacious mudroom with Foosball table

Cons:

• Check when the military is bombing (they do missile tests in the area)
• Two toilet holes in the one stall, I don’t get it

Cabane Grand Mountet:

Freddy and I enjoyed a long love weekend doing a shortened version of Haute Route Imperiale. We started in Zinal after the long and exciting bus ride to the end of Val d’Anniviers. We walked right onto the glacier while witnessing some minor serac and rockfall - a reminder that you usually want to start earlier than noon in the springtime! The ascent was gentle but it felt arduous and never-ending - I did not feel like my best athletic self! But we finally made it to the Cabane, with its incredible panoramic patio. Freddy cooked an odd but excellent asian dirty rice the key ingredient being a jar of stinky gochujang and fish sauce he'd stuffed into his bag (always double wrap!).

Pros:

• 3 huge pasta pots for what I call “the water factory” which basically melting a ton of snow while boiling smaller amounts for specific purposes. This is critical to have good vessels for this since there’s no running water. The water factory is key to survival, so much so that I made a jingle about it! 
• Deck with a view. This is true all year, but these mountains are beautiful with new snow
• In both French huts we stayed at they have emergency rations, ash trays, and hand sanitizer in the bathrooms and this is good when someone forgot the pasta

Cons: 

• Bad approach from Zinal, the nose of the glacier felt treacherous this time of year
• Stove overheats the kitchen
• Cramped mud room
• Outdoor toilet, not good at night

Cabane Arpitettaz:

The next day on our Haute Route Imperiale trip, we left Grand Mountet at 6 am and headed towards Blanc de Moming. Freddy and I were familiar with this ascent, after doing Zinalrothorn a couple years ago. It was even easier in this high snow year. We walked along the Arête du Blanc, which felt like a narrow sidewalk with 100 meter cliffs on either side. Any one step didn't seem difficult, but it required strong focus and a cool head. We then descended the convoluted glacier to Cabane Arpitettaz where we spent the afternoon lounging in the sun, reading and getting ready for dinner. Dinner was a big ole pasta boil with veggies and mushroom broth. The next day, we ascended the Bishorn (our first 4000er on skis together!), then had the longest corn descent ever down to Zinal. All in all, a great long weekend!

Pros: 

• The first hut we stayed at where you just used the regular kitchen (instead of a winter room dedicated one)
• Well stocked with supplies
• Milk pail to hold extra water that has been boiled
• Had tons of games - we played French scrabble (why are there so many vowels?!)
• All that was said about the Cabane Grand Mountet

Cons:

• Long walk to the toilet through snow, needed to change from crocs to provided wader boots to do so