Alpine Club Hut

The Freiburg hut as an example of an Alpine Club hut

Alpine club or club huts represent the majority of the more than 1,300 shelters and bivouac boxes in the Alps and are maintained by the sections of the Alpine clubs. They offer hikers and climbers accommodation and protection mainly in the Alpine region. Most of these huts are managed, some are only suitable for self-catering. Maintained huts are supplied, depending on the location and conditions, by car, snowmobile , material cable car or helicopter , and in the past also by hut porters or pack animals . In principle, all mountaineers have access to the huts, but the members of the Alpine clubs are offered special conditions; these include: discounted accommodation, mountaineering meals, water for tea, the right to self-sufficiency against an infrastructure fee (consumption of food and non-alcoholic beverages). For unmanaged huts, members of the Alpine Club section receive a universal key , the Alpine Club key (usually short AV key ), against a deposit .

The larger alpine associations have committed themselves in a multilateral agreement to treat the members of the other associations in their own huts like their own members ( reciprocal right ); these include: the German and Austrian Alpine Club , the Club Alpin Français , the Club Alpino Italiano , the Swiss Alpine Club and the Federación Española de Montanismo .

The German and Austrian Alpine Club as well as some other mountain clubs divide their refuges into different hut categories according to location and equipment .

In addition to the Alpine Club huts, there are also a large number of Alpine accommodation huts that are run by private individuals. The private huts are marked accordingly in the list of mountain huts in the Alps .

There are also Alpine Club contract houses (e.g. Douglasshütte or Madlenerhaus , both formerly owned by Alpine clubs). These are not operated by an Alpine Club, but AV members receive slightly reduced overnight rates.