Prof. John Schott of Cinema and Media Studies at Carleton College has organized an interdisciplinary celebration of walking and walking art called “WALK! A Festival of Walking, Art and Ideas”. This Walking Festival, features art and media projects, wide-ranging lectures, and many public walking events.
Poet, writer and walker James Lasdun has published a wonderful exploration of the delights and challenges of the famous Via Alpina, and the experience of walking hut-to-hut. Published in the April 11, 2016 issue of the New Yorker magazine, this is a delightful and serious essay on the Via Alpina, a trail that wends its way through 8 nations and has more than 300 huts spaced a days walk apart. He describes parts of the trail, gives glimpses of hut life, and relates his own challenges and observations in walking a portion of the trail in the Triglav National Park in Slovenia. Its not often that an American general interest magazine devotes space to describing the hut-to-hut experience, and this one — humorous, well-written, and informative — is an especially worthy contribution to America’s growing consciousness of the hut experience of long distance walking.
Congratulations! According to an article in the SkyHiDaily News, a major grant from private donors will help fund the second hut in The Grand Huts Association.
Their first hut (the Broome Hut pictured here), which took 15 years to get permitted and built, was completed in 2012 at a cost of $400,000. Located in a remote location with excellent back country skiing, materials were delivered to the site by helicopter. The hut is very popular and operates close to full capacity in winter and at about half-capacity in summer. Located on US Forest Service Land near Winter Park Colorado, the Grand Huts association hopes to eventually grow to 5-7 huts, creating a hut-to-hut system from Berthoud Pass to Grand Lake in Grand County.
Larig Leacach Bothy Courtesy Wikipedia
Is Scotland missing out on a key mountain tourism niche?
The Ramblers in Scotland think this may be true, and are proposing a pilot project to test this assumption.
While the Scots have “Bothies” — unimproved backpacker shelters — European-style huts are not part of the accommodations infrastructure for walkers in Scotland, Wales, England. They rely on a robust network of B&B’s and hostels. This leaves gaps in mountainous regions.
Mathias Eichler, outdoors advocate and editor of the Outdoor Society blog, grew up in the foothills of the Alps. He can’t understand why there are not more huts in USA, his beloved adopted land. He is a great fan of our National Parks and advocate for recreational use of public land. {Featured image courtesy Mathias Eichler}
In two posts (click on titles in excerpts below) he discusses his ideas. In an editorial “Whats next for America’s Public Lands?” he presents a case for more huts on public lands. A separate piece “Eight Huts we need in the Mountains of the American West” presents brief profiles, accompanied by great pictures, of some huts he admires.
Most hut systems aspire to document their economic impact in the area in which they operate. But its hard to do without professional help, which most systems can’t afford. Recently I ran across two very good economic analyses, about which there will be an article in the new year.
Meanwhile, check out the recent work of the Appalachian Mountain Club “Economic Impact of the Appalachian Club’s Huts and Lodges in New Hampshire“, and the latest in a series of serious analyses statements done over the years by the Methow Trails “Economic Impacts of Methow Trails“.
It seems there is a need for an economic impact template focused on huts and trails that can be adapted for use locally by hut system managers. But thats another topic!
Sam Demas
The E4 Team is collaborating with Google Trekker to produce a three dimensional map of the Greek portion of the European Long Distance E4 Trail. The project is centered around hiking in Greece, and is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Greek National Tourism Organization, UNESCO, the Hellenic Federation of Mountaineering & Climbing, and the European Ramblers Associations. There are some huts along the E4 in Greece. For more information: http://www.ekathimerini.com/202056/article/ekathimerini/community/mapping-greeces-trails-with-google-technology
Oregon Bike Trail and Hut System in Planning Stages
Travel Oregon is in the conceptual stage of planning a hut-to-hut single track biking system that they hope will eventually go from the Oregon/California border to the Oregon/Washington border. The initial planning involves coordination with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the International Mountain Biking Association, as well as a number of Oregon organizations and businesses. The proposed trail will not go through federally designated wilderness or tribal lands. I’ll report further on this project over time as the concept develops.
– Sam Demas
(Alaska Huts Logo, used with permission)
INCREASES IN HUT USE REPORTED
Informal reports from the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts, 10th Mountain Division Huts, and San Juan Hut Systems indicate that demand for their services is strong and usage continues to increase. AMC and 10MD report occupancy rates are up approximately 4%-5% over last year. AMC huts are experiencing their third year in a row of record occupancy. they are on track to beat last years record of 43,000 visitors by up to 3,000 more visitors. AMC and SJH are thinking about how to meet the growing demand, and expansion plans are under consideration.
The state of hut operations outlined by Ben Dodge, Executive Director of Tenth Mountain Division Huts, is reprinted from their Summer 2015 Newsletter with permission. Hut maintenance is featured. Retiring Hawk Greenaway’s contributions as hutmaster are acknowledged and Morgan Boyles is introduced as his successor.