Featured Hut: New Monte Rosa Hut, Swiss Alpine Club

by Sam Demas

This glittering, crystalline structure changes the aesthetic paradigm and technical concept of Alpine lodging.  A technologically sophisticated building, the New Monte Rosa Hut sets a new standard for hut design and is an exemplar of design for self-sufficiency in remote places.   It is located at an altitude of 2,883 meters, above the Gorner glacier and near the the Matterhorn and Dufourspitze, Switzerland’s highest peak.  It is at least 90% self-sufficient in meeting its energy needs and is said to be 65% self-sufficient overall (alas, it cannot  grow its own food!).

Continue reading →

Book Review: New Monte Rosa Hut Swiss Alpine Club

Review by Sam Demas; for pictures of Monte Rosa Hut, see photo gallery

Hut design is a prized architectural specialty in Switzerland, and this book is a prism through which to view this specialty — as well as to learn about the remarkable New Monte Rosa Hut.  This beautifully produced book comprises 6 thoughtful introductory essays providing historical and architectural context for the project, 15 informative technical notes on key aspects of the project, many architectural drawings, and dozens of beautiful photographs.  Published shortly after construction, it is a both a form of public documentation and a celebration of this remarkable design and construction project of ETH-Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.  It was published in conjunction with a 2010 exhibition on the hut.

Continue reading →

What is a hut? Towards a hut definition

 What is a hut? A pictorial romp and an initial typology

What is a hut?  Is it a hovel, a shelter, a hostel, or a hotel?  Quick answer: all of the above, and much more. In everyday useage it is a catchall term for forms of shelter and specific definitions are elusive.  These are notes towards a workable hut definition.

We’ll touch on the most common definitions and perceptions of the term “hut”, then focus specifically on the use of the term in the context of long distance walking. My purposes are to briefly illustrate the wide range of huts for walkers (and skiiers & bikers, which are lumped into the terms hikers and walkers here) and to attempt an initial typology clarifying the uses of the term.

Continue reading →

Where are the huts? Creating maps and lists

How many huts exist and where are they?

We are experimenting with a modest project: Hut Systems Map of North and South America.  Our map initiative is just one of many.  We hope to coordinate our work with that of some of the growing number of hut mapping and listing projects worldwide.  Some are focused on a particular state, region or nation, while others global in scope.  Following are some initial examples to provide a sense of the range.  We will add others as we learn about them.

Continue reading →

How do huts operate? Lets find out: help us write “operational profiles”

A few people around the nation know a great deal about how hut systems operate.  But in the U.S. there is very little written about how hut systems are designed, built, and operated.  Almost nothing is known about the economics and demographics of hut systems.  And, other than the Colorado Hut and Yurt Alliance, there are no formal mechanisms for information exchange among those who do know.  This will need to change if we are to learn from each other, develop “best practices” and ensure that hut systems are operating optimally for their clients, for their owners, and for environmental protection.

h2h aims to stimulate activity in filling this gap in the nation’s knowledge base by publishing “operational profiles”.  We are at the beginning of this process and have three so far:

Continue reading →

Featured Hut: Centennial of AMC’s Carter Notch Hut

In response to several tragic deaths from exposure and subsequent concern for hiker safety, the the AMC started building huts and shelters in 1888 and celebrated the 125th anniversary it’s hut system in 2013.  Carter Notch Hut, built in 1914, celebrated its Centennial last year.

After the first AMC hut, Madison Springs, proved popular with hikers, AMC member Harvey Newton Shepard, who had studied European hut systems, recommended:

….a few additional huts be constructed, with good paths thereto, so that uninteresting walk of three to seven days may be made without the encumbrance of the carrying of blankets or provisions…… this is the kind of public work in which the Club should engage.

Continue reading →

Welcome to hut2hut.info!

h2h is a work in progress, but we’ve finally launched!  The website is a call to community,  information exchange, research, debate, and discussion.  It will be successful to the extent readers join the conversation!

With 21 posts, articles and news items, this first “issue” of HutMag provides a sense of what we are about.  We’ll continue to publish new content monthly for the next few years and see where it leads.  Our other primary section is Operational Profiles.

Continue reading →

Founder profile: Joe Dodge, hutmaster extraordinairre

Following are three informative tributes to Joe Dodge from the AMC Archives, Dartmouth College, and the Boston Globe (see editors note below).  While Joe was not technically the founder, he was the dynamo that expanded, organized, and shaped the huts into a system, and who took the huts to a whole new levels of operational effectiveness and hospitality.  For more on Joe, see William Lowell Putnam’s affectionate, informal biography Joe Dodge: “One New Hampshire Institution”

Continue reading →

Founder Profile: Fritz Benedict 10th Mountain Division

Frederick “Fritz” Allen Benedict, 1914 – 1995, founded the 10th Mountain Division Hut in the early 1980’s.  It has grown into the largest hut system in the USA.  His vision, energy and experience were key ingredients in this remarkable story.  It is in part a tale of a young man’s formative dreams coming after a lifetime of preparation.

[Louis Dawson has lived and studied the history of 10th Mountain Division and their website includes a history of the hut system and a separate history of the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division (about which many books have been written). The following notes are intended to supplement Mr. Dawson’s history.]

Continue reading →