Swiss mountain huts risk summer closure due to water shortages

The Britannia mountain hut is located at 3,030 metres above the resort of Saas-Fee in southern Switzerland and normally welcomes up to 9,000 visitors a year. Saas-Fee Tourism Office

Numerous mountain huts in the Swiss Alps are threatened with early closure due to a lack of water after little snow and a warm spring, a Sunday newspaper reports. 

The lack of snow at high altitudes this year has become a cause for concern for the managers of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC)’s 153 mountain huts that normally host thousands of tourists in summer: some of them are running out of water and may have to close early.

In summer, SAC huts use meltwater from the previous winter as well as fresh rainwater for cooking, washing and toilet facilities. However, both are rare at the moment. 

In some locations where there is usually a pile of snow five metres high, today there is nothing. This is the case at the Britannia hutExternal link above the resort of Saas-Fee in southern Switzerland, which normally welcomes up to 9,000 visitors a year. The facility has enough water for 10-12 days, after that it gets tight, hut warden Dario Andenmatten toldExternal link the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. 

“In the worst case, we have to close,” said Andematten, who has worked at the hut, located at 3,030 metres, since the early 1980s.

A webcam image from the Britannia mountain hut on July 10. Britannia-Hütte

The SAC told the paper that today’s water shortages are comparable with what it’s normally like at the end of August. 

“Many huts have already used up their water supplies,” said Peter Spillmann, a member of the SAC’s hut commission.

“For ecological reasons, we don’t want to transport water to the huts by helicopter,” said Spillmann. “But without water, no hut can operate.”

According to the SonntagsZeitung report, one in five SAC huts is likely to experience a water supply problem in the medium term as snow melts earlier each year and glaciers slowly disappear.