Winter rooms in Alpine huts: what they are, how to get in and what you pay

According to the German club, a winter room is a small self-catering hut: bunks with mattresses, blankets, somewhere to cook, dishes, and often a way to heat it. It exists mainly at category I huts. At the Franz-Senn-Hütte in the Stubai, for example, the winter room is unlocked and sleeps 12.

At French Alpine Club refuges, outside the staffed season every refuge keeps part of the building open as a shelter. The Refuge de Nice, for example, has 20 places, a wood stove, solar lighting, mattresses and dishes, but no gas.

In German and Austrian huts some winter rooms are unlocked and some open with the Alpine Club key (AV-Schlüssel), borrowed from the section. You pay per person per night into the hut's cash box or by bank transfer, and the fee funds firewood and upkeep. For members the price is capped at 15 euros, the same as a dormitory bunk in season, and non-members pay at least 12 euros more. Usually there is no need to register in advance, but check with the section that the winter room is open.

In French refuges you sign the book on arrival, and paying is compulsory in winter too: on the refuge's site, by cheque, in cash or into an honesty box. Some refuges require booking even off-season. In the Belluno Dolomites, the bivacchi (fixed unstaffed shelters) are always open, free and unbookable.

A warm sleeping bag, a stove and fuel, food for every night and water or a way to melt snow, a head torch and some change. Bivacchi often have no water and sometimes no mattress.

Leave it cleaner than you found it: fold the blankets, sweep, take your rubbish and close doors and shutters. A winter room is a refuge for people in the mountains, and it only works as long as everyone looks after it.

Out of season the mountains are snow, avalanches and short days, a different world from a summer trek between staffed huts. A winter room suits people who can already judge snow and avalanche conditions, or serves as an emergency shelter. For a first trek, go in the staffed season.