Hut etiquette for hikers

The hut keeper loves house-clean guests. So, anyone who marches into the dining room, bedrooms or washrooms with dirty mountain boots commits a real blunder. Therefore, leave your shoes and hiking sticks in the entrance area of the hut. Or in a separate boots or drying room. Often there are also hut slippers for rent.

You will look in vain for single rooms at most huts. They are in the hotel down in the valley. At refuge huts in the high mountains, on the other hand, shared rooms or dormitories are still standard. There you will notice that a hut is not a climatic health resort as the good mountain air is mostly outside. Inside rather not. Because some things develop an odorous life of their own once they reach a certain operating temperature. That's why socks that stand on their own have no place in bedrooms or guest rooms. Their natural habitat is the boots storage room.

Water is often scarce in huts - and wastewater is problematic. That's why you sometimes have to reduce personal hygiene to the socially acceptable minimum. Even if everyone interprets it differently. And because electricity is just as precious far away from civilization, you may not be able to charge your cell phone. But it’s not the end of the world if you can't be reached for a day or two. That‘s a promise.

To all permanent posters and endless surfers: you have to be very strong now! Because there is no WiFi on most refuge huts. Often not even phone reception. How do you still survive being offline? You just talk to your neighbor. It may sound like 1990, but for a long time it has helped humanity progress quite well.

First of all: your own food should stay in your backpack at the hut. That is fairness. Because hut tenants mainly earn money from your consumption. The host also usually has something suitable for allergy sufferers and vegetarians. But because of limited resources he can't take care of all special wishes. Nevertheless, he will take care of your concerns in the best possible way. Just not always immediately. The difference between you and him: you are here for recreation, he is here for work. Stay calm when the place is busy. You are on vacation, not on the run. By the way: "please" and "thank you" are helpful magic words!

On classic refuge huts, you have to slip into a thin, unlined sleeping bag before you cover yourself with the blankets provided. Because of hygiene and environmental protection. If bed linen were constantly washed, a lot of waste water would be produced in the sensitive mountain habitat. For the forgetful, many huts also have sleeping bags for sale.

At the classic snoring concert, only one person sleeps: the soloist. All the others in the same room do not close their eyes, staring at the ceiling in annoyance - by the way, not a very fulfilling activity in the dark. So if you like sawing wood all night long: take a room that you share with as few others as possible. For everyone else, earplugs are strongly recommended. Just to be on the safe side.

At the refuge huts run by Alpine Clubs, there must be nighttime peace from 10.00 pm to 6.00 am. Because tired hikers need rest. And the hut tenant anyway. He is usually the first to get up and the last to go to bed - after a 16-hour workday. If you leave early in the morning, don't be a poltergeist! Take your backpack (ideally packed the evening before), don't rustle and palaver endlessly, but tiptoe out of the dormitory quickly. As a precaution, have a headlamp ready. After all, you won't earn any bonus points if you unabashedly turn the light on at 5.00 am.

"Which card do you accept?" Simple answer: usually none at all. In mountain huts, it is often still true that only cash is real! Credit cards are as useful there as diving goggles in the Sahara.