Reductions of up to 50% on overnight fees at SAC huts are given to members of other affiliated European alpine clubs, and to BMC members (www.thebmc.co.uk) who have pre-purchased a reciprocal rights card. Anyone planning to spend six nights or more in SAC huts will find membership of an alpine club to be financially beneficial. Note that membership of the UK branch of the Austrian Alpine Club (www.aacuk.org.uk) is one of the cheapest to join, with benefits including free mountain rescue insurance. (See also www.swiss-sport.ch/sac-cas for details of the Swiss Alpine Club.)
As a matter of courtesy reservations should be made in advance at all manned huts in order to help the staff plan their catering arrangements. A telephone call is usually all that’s expected, and most tourist office staff and hut wardens are happy to phone ahead for you. A frosty welcome may greet climbers who arrive unannounced, other than in an emergency. Should you be forced to abandon your plans, you are expected to call the warden to cancel your reservation.
Outside the staffed period a ‘winter room’ is usually left unlocked. Bunks with blankets are all that should then be expected, although some winter rooms also have a wood-burning stove, a supply of firewood and an axe. Parties must take their own food and stove to bivouac huts, but crockery and cookware are provided.
Hut conventions
To book a place in a mountain hut, telephone in advance. Phone numbers are normally listed in area guidebooks, otherwise check at the nearest tourist office. Hut wardens will usually phone ahead on your behalf. In the high season, it may be necessary to book several weeks ahead for huts serving the most popular routes.
On arrival leave boots, ice axe, crampons, trekking poles or skis in the boot room/ski room or porch, and select a pair of hut shoes or clogs usually provided for indoor wear. Sometimes rucksacks are not allowed beyond the boot room, in such cases a basket will be provided. Leave your sack in the porch, place essentials in the basket and take this inside with you. As John Barry advises: ‘Keep tabs on your gear, in the early morning scramble it is all too easy for someone to mistakenly take your axe – especially if it is a better model than their own – and it is not unknown for boots to walk away on the wrong feet’ (Alpine Climbing).
Locate the warden to announce your arrival and to book whatever meals are required.
Once a room has been allocated (some wardens specify a particular bunk to use), make your bed using the sleeping bag liner carried for the purpose, and keep a torch handy as the room may not be lit when you need to go there in the dark.
It is customary to pay for services (overnight fee and meals) before going to bed. Cash payments are normal, although at a number of huts it is possible to pay with a credit card (check first).
Lights out and silence in dormitories is usually expected from 10.00pm.
Maps and Guidebooks
Maps
Swiss cartography is world class, with national survey maps published by the Federal Office of Topography (www.swisstopo.ch) covering the whole country with sheets of several different scales: 1:25,000, 1:50,000, 1:100,000 and 1:200,000.
The Monte Moro Pass (2868m) at the head of the Saas valley with its gilded Madonna (Chapter 2:11)
The 1:50,000 series, which is perfectly adequate for the majority of walkers, mountaineers and ski tourers, includes a set of maps with major walking routes marked. These Wanderkarten are distinguished by the letter T given after the individual sheet number, while sheets marked with ski touring routes (Skitourenkarten) are distinguished by the letter S. National survey maps detailed at the end of each chapter in this book are listed with the prefix LS (Landeskarten der Schweiz).
The complete 1:25,000 series (more than 230 separate sheets) is also available on eight CD-ROM discs under the heading Swiss Map 25.
Independent publisher Kümmerly & Frey (www.swisstravelcenter.ch) also produces a series of maps for walkers at a scale of 1:60,000. As with LS maps, these Wanderkarten have major walking routes and mountain huts prominently marked, and the clearly defined contours and artistic use of shading produce an instant representation of ridge, spur and valley. Again, details of relevant sheets are given at the end of each chapter.
MAP AVAILABILITY
Recommended maps are available in the UK from the following outlets:
Cordee, 11 Jacknell Road, Dodwells Bridge Industrial Estate, Hinckley LE10 3BS (tel 01455 611185 www.cordee.co.uk)
Edward Stanford Ltd, 12–14 Long Acre, London WC2W 9LP (tel 020 7836 1321 www.stanfords.co.uk)
The Map Shop, 15 High Street, Upton-upon-Severn, WR8 0HJ (www.themapshop.co.uk)
Kümmerly & Frey also has a limited series of 1:120,000 sheets which provide a useful overview of regions such as Graubünden, Valais (Wallis) and the Bernese Oberland, and a separate sheet (Wanderland) at 1:301,000 showing all the main long-distance walking routes in Switzerland, with a comprehensive index on the reverse.
Guidebooks for walkers and trekkers
The majority of English-language guides to the Alps for walkers and trekkers are published by Cicerone (www.cicerone.co.uk), with the following list covering the Swiss Alps. Those produced by the Swiss Alpine Club are in either French or German.
Cicerone guides
100 Hut Walks in the Alps by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2nd edition 2005)
Alpine Pass Route by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2nd edition 2008)
Central Switzerland: a Walker’s Guide by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 1993)
Chamonix to Zermatt: the Walker’s Haute Route by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 4th edition 2007)
The Bernese Alps by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 3rd edition 2008)
Tour of the Jungfrau Region by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2nd edition 2009)
Tour of the Matterhorn by Hilary Sharp (Cicerone, 2009)
Tour of Monte Rosa by Hilary Sharp (Cicerone, 2007)
Trekking in the Alps by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2011)
Walks in the Engadine by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2nd edition 2005)
Walking in the Alps by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 2nd edition 2005)
Walking in Ticino by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 1992)
Walking in the Valais by Kev Reynolds (Cicerone, 3rd edition 2003)
Other guides
Alpinwandern Graubünden (SAC)
Alpinwandern Rund um die Berner Alpen (SAC)
Alpinwandern Schweiz, Von Hütte zu Hütte (SAC)
Alpinwandern Tessin (SAC)
Alpinwandern Wallis (SAC)
Alpinwandern Zentralschweiz –Glarus –Alpstein (SAC)
Randonnées alpines, D’une cabane du CAS à l’autre (SAC)
Randonnées en montagne, Chablais–Valais francophone (SAC)
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