Melting permafrost forces Swiss Alpine Club to relocate mountain huts

The permafrost that for centuries kept the rock of the Alps compact is melting because of climate warming. Water seeping into cracks weakens the mountain and threatens the stability of high-altitude huts. This is shown by a report from RTS's "Temps présent" on the Swiss Alpine Club (CAS), which must relocate some huts and invest millions of francs to preserve this heritage. Almost half of the association's 152 huts stand in zones where permafrost is potentially at risk.

The most striking case is the Mutthornhütte, in the Bernese Oberland, closed since 2021 because it threatened to collapse: a crack that measured 70 centimetres in 2007 had widened to almost a metre and a half. "Sapevamo che questo rifugio probabilmente non avrebbe retto ancora cent'anni. Ma che crollasse così in fretta ci ha fatto paura" ("We knew this hut probably wouldn't last another hundred years. But the fact that it collapsed so quickly frightened us"), says Fabienne Notter, president of the CAS's Weissenstein section. The old hut was dismantled in 2025, at a cost of 400,000 francs. The new building, inaugurated in June 2026 a short distance away on more stable rock, cost four million francs and divided the CAS: two thirds of the section's members voted in favour.

Retreating glaciers cause problems too. To reach the Konkordiahütte, in the Aletsch region, hikers now climb more than 500 steps: the hut once stood 50 metres above the glacier, but today it towers 300 metres above it. The glacier loses four to six metres of thickness a year, so the staircase must be extended every two or three years, with current works costing around 50,000 francs. Water is also becoming scarce: the 70,000-litre tank that collects meltwater must last until the following May, so guests are asked to use it sparingly.

The Trifthütte, in the eastern Bernese Oberland, was destroyed by an avalanche in 2021 after glacier melt had widened the detachment zone; rebuilt in 2025 a kilometre away, it cost five million francs. The CAS estimates that adapting to climate change will require six to seven million francs a year, and is looking for new sources of funding. In future, some huts could be relocated, simplified or made mobile. "La rapidità dei cambiamenti ci sorprende e ci raggiunge" ("The speed of the changes surprises us and catches up with us"), notes Hanspeter Bürgi, president of the CAS's huts commission.

Ticino less exposed for now

"Problemi come quelli della Mutthornhütte da noi non ci sono, perché le nostre capanne si trovano a quote inferiori" ("Problems like those of the Mutthornhütte don't happen here, because our huts are at lower altitudes"), explains Matteo Giottonini, spokesman for the Ticino Alpine Federation (FAT), which brings together 16 societies and 32 huts. The highest hut in Ticino is the Cristallina, a CAS refuge at 2,575 metres; the FAT's highest is the Adula hut, at almost 2,400 metres, but it stands on rock rather than permafrost-compacted ground.

Richard Knupfer, vice-president of the CAS's Ticino section, confirms this: there is no risk of collapse as at the Mutthorn, but melting ice and lack of snow could in future cause a water deficit affecting the supply of the huts. Giottonini notes that this year some lower-lying huts already had difficulties. High-altitude trails are also a concern: on the normal route to the Adula, the canton's highest peak, rockfalls are prompting consideration of a new route with fixed ropes, and the trail to the summit of Campo Tencia is described by Knupfer as "un caso emblematico" ("an emblematic case"). CAS Ticino is responsible for maintaining and reporting problems on certain high routes, such as the Via alta della Carassina, part of the Via Crio and the Via alta dei Tre Corni; ridge routes tend to remain more stable because they are exposed to all weather.