Fun question over at sustainable living: environmental impact of staffed mountain huts (due to getting supplied by helicopter): sustainability.stackexchange.com/q/8422/106 currently only one poor answer.
@gerrit in the white mountains of NH in the US the AMC huts fly stuff in at the beginning of the season and then the hut care takers haul stuff up on their backs.
@StrongBad It's been a long time since hut guards in the alps carried stuff up by themselves! Some decades ago there were also mountain huts where visitors had to bring firewood (provided at the trailhead) up to the hut. But today they're all very much commercialised and run like mountain hotel restaurants (no more picknick on the terrace outside the hut, probably no more cooking own food in hut kitchen).
Reportedly in the past the hut guard at the Domhütte climbed up and down the Dom with lots of firewood numerous times leading up to the Swiss national holiday 1 August, and then they'd set fire to it so people in the valley could enjoy it.
@StrongBad I don't understand why at the AMC they don't wait for winter and then carry out the trash on skis... should be much easier (same for carrying in non-perishable foodstuffs).
@StrongBad Are there any staffed mountain huts (not accessible by motor vehicle) in the desert regions of the US, or is this only common in the Appalachians?
Respect to the AMC that they don't fly in all their supplies by helicopter like the Alpine huts do nowadays
@gerrit lol, these huts are not ski accessible. Some of the hut trails would require full on ice climbing and a slip could easily result in a massive fall off the side.
@gerrit I cannot think of any place in the US that is known for its huts outside the north east. That is not to say there is not a random hut here or there, but I cannot think of any. There are some ranger huts in the sierras, but they don't have guests.
@@StrongBad There is a hut off the narrow road leading to the trailhead for May Lake in Yosemite, which is used by winter hikers and skiers. I don't think there are any amenities in or neat the hut. There is (or was ??) a yurt on the way to Mosquito Flats in Inyo National Forest, with a wood-burning stove, a multi-burner campstove, a picnic table outside, and, if I remember correctly, a couple of plastic chairs inside.
@ab2 you are right there now that I think more lots of trails have "shelters" that are maintained by the trail maintainers beyond just ranger shelters. I still cannot think of anything like an AMC/Alps hut.
@StrongBad Then there must not be enough Norwegians in the area ;-)
There's some huts in Jasper National Park, I haven't been there but my impression was that it was quite commercialised. And there is of course a ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which is not a hut in the style of AMC/Alps either.
I know plenty of places in Norway that I would personally consider as not ski accessible but that is just me underestimating the Norwegians :)
