Climate change threatens Swiss mountain huts

The mountain above the Mutthorn hut in the Bernese Oberland threatens to collapse. SRF

The climate crisis is taking its toll on the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) mountain huts dotted across the Alps. Many buildings are at risk, but a special fund for hut renovations will soon be empty.

An estimated 40% of the SAC huts could soon suffer a similar fate to the Mutthorn hut in the Bernese Oberland. The Mutthorn used to be a popular place to stay for mountaineers, offering spectacular views of the Kander Neve glacier. But since spring 2022 it has been closed to mountaineers because the hut is slowly sliding down the valley due to thawing permafrost.

About 100,000 cubic metres of rock loom over the stone hut and threaten to crash down. “We’re afraid that the entire mass could collapse soon and damage the hut,” geologist Hans Rudolf Keusen told Swiss public radio, SRF.

A photograph of the Mutthorn hut and the Kander Neve glacier, in the Bernese Oberland, taken in 1952. Keystone/Max Kraft

The Mutthorn hut is one of 65 facilities badly affected by climate change, as recently revealed in a study published by the Alpine club.

“Our huts are mostly in high Alpine areas, so the problems are correspondingly big,” explained Ulrich Delang, head of the SAC huts department.

Money running out

The huts affected by climate change are safe for now but require constant repairs and renovation work. In some cases, they must be rebuilt.

The SAC says CHF9 million ($10.1 million) is required for nine hut construction projects that would come from the so-called hut fund.

Seven of the projects would have to be adapted according to climate change, Delang said.

There is a lot to do, and the financial requirements are correspondingly high, he added.

Location of the Mutthorn hut

OpenStreetMap contributors

The problem is that if things continue like this, the hut fund will be exhausted in four or five years, he warns.

“If things continue like this, we’ll have money problems by then,” he told SRF.

Hunt for new funding sources

Because climate change is affecting a growing number of mountain huts, Swiss politicians have got involved and acted. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is currently putting together a report on behalf of the House of Representatives on how Swiss huts can be supported in the future if they are affected by climate change.

For now, money for renovations is still flowing. The Mutthorn hut has received CHF1.3 million from the fund and construction work is now underway. Another location on solid rock exists about 900 metres from the closed hut, and a new building will be built there from spring 2025 for around CHF4 million.

“I’m really looking forward to the new building, so that we can have a new hut again soon,” says Fabienne Notter, president of the Weissenstein section of the SAC.

However, in 30 to 60 years the nearby glacier – the main visitor attraction to the Mutthorn hut – will have completely melted away.