Thawing permafrost threatens half of Swiss mountain huts

The old Mutthorn mountain hut in the Bernese Oberland threatened to collapse due to thawing permafrost. RTS

Global warming is wreaking havoc in the Swiss Alps. Permafrost is thawing, glaciers are retreating and mountain footpaths are becoming increasingly unstable. The Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) is being forced to relocate certain huts and spend millions of francs on new facilities and protection efforts. Nearly half of its 152 mountain huts are affected.

Cracks had been steadily spreading and widening in the Mutthorn mountain hut in the Bernese Oberland. Closed since 2021, the building was in danger of collapsing due to thawing permafrost.

“We knew this hut probably wouldn’t last another hundred years. But the fact that it collapsed so quickly really scared us,” Fabienne Notter, president of the Weissenstein section of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), told the Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

A mountain falling apart

Permafrost acts as a natural glue, holding rock together. When it thaws, water penetrates the cracks, weakening the rock. Above the Mutthorn hut, a fissure that measured just 70 centimetres across in 2007 had widened to nearly 1.5 metres.

“We cannot predict what will fall or when. But one thing is certain it will collapse,” says Nils Hählen, head of natural hazards for canton Bern.

Of the 152 SAC huts dotted across the Swiss Alps, 65 are in areas potentially threatened by permafrost thawing. Access routes are also becoming more hazardous due to rockfalls, mudslides and ground movement.

>>Find out out more about this issue in the Temps Présent documentary “Là-haut sur la montagne, nos cabanes disparaissent” [“Up in the mountains our huts are disappearing”] (46min) broadcast by RTS on October 22, 2026.

Rebuilding at a price

A replacement Mutthorn hut has been built less than a kilometre from the original site, on more stable ground and in a location less exposed to avalanches. The old hut was completely dismantled in summer 2025 at a cost of CHF400,000 ($484,400).

The project required almost 700 helicopter flights. The new hut, inaugurated in June 2026 at a cost of CHF4 million, has drawn criticism within the SAC. But the project was approved by two-thirds of the members of the local section.

Disappearing glaciers

Visitors to the Konkordia hut in the Aletsch region of canton Valais must now climb more than 500 steps to reach it. The hut used to stand 50 metres above the glacier. Today, it rises roughly 300 metres above the ice.

Visitors climb the hundreds of steps from the Aletsch Glacier to the Konkordia mountain hut. RTS

The Aletsch Glacier is losing between four and six metres in thickness each year, forcing the staircase to be extended every two or three years. The latest renovation work cost around CHF50,000.

Water supplies are also becoming a scarce resource in mountain huts. The Konkordia hut collects meltwater in a 70,000-litre reservoir, enough for almost 6,000 overnight stays.

“When there is no more meltwater left, the available water has to last until the following May,” explains Christoph Sager, the hut manager.

A financial challenge

The Trift hut was destroyed by an avalanche in 2021. The melting of the nearby glacier had altered the surrounding terrain and expanded potential avalanche release zones. The new building, which has been moved one kilometre away, cost CHF5 million.

According to the SAC, adapting its network of huts to a rapidly changing mountain environment will require CHF6-7 million annually. The organisation is looking for new sources of funding.

In the years ahead, some huts may have to be relocated, simplified, or even made mobile.

“The speed of the changes is taking us by surprise and catching up with us,” says Hanspeter Bürgi, chair of the SAC’s Hut Commission.

The SAC operates 152 huts but, as global warming transforms the Alps, that number may not remain unchanged for long.

Translated from French, sub-edited by Simon Bradley/ac      

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