Refuge du Goûter

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Refuge du Goûter
CAF hut
The new hut on the edge of the Aiguille du Goûter

The new hut on the edge of the Aiguille du Goûter

location Below the Aiguille du Goûter , northwest of Mont Blanc ; Haute-Savoie department , France
Mountain range Savoy Alps , Montblanc massif
Geographical location: 45 ° 51 '11 "  N , 6 ° 49' 47"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 51 '11 "  N , 6 ° 49' 47"  E
Altitude 3835  m
Refuge du Goûter (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Refuge du Goûter
owner Club Alpin Français
Construction type hut
Usual opening times Early June to late September
accommodation 0 beds, 100  camps
Winter room 20  bearings
Web link Refuge du Goûter
Hut directory DAV CAF (French)

The Refuge du Goûter (also Goûter Hut ) is a refuge of the Club Alpin Français (CAF) in the Savoy Alps at 3835  m above sea level on the edge of the Aiguille du Goûter . It is the highest French farmed shelter and the highest farmed base for climbing Mont Blanc . The much-visited hut is managed between June and the end of September. The winter camp is open during the rest of the time. The normal route to Mont Blanc leads from the hut in a south-easterly direction over the Dôme du Goûter and the Bossesgrat.

Approach

Access to the hut via the Grand Couloir

As a rule, the hut is approached from Nid d'Aigle , the mountain station of the Tramway du Mont Blanc . From there, the path leads close to the Refuge de Tête Rousse ( 3167  m ), which can also be used as a base for climbing Mont Blanc. The ascent is technically easy or not very difficult for mountaineers in good conditions. However, the Grand Couloir ( Couloir du Goûter ) to be crossed on the ascent is often at risk of falling rocks, especially in the early and high season, which often leads to accidents with injuries and deaths. From 1990 to 2011 there were 256 mountain rescue operations on the slope between Refuge de la Tête Rousse and Refuge du Goûter with 291 affected people, including 74 dead and 180 injured. Around half of the accidents occurred while crossing the couloir, a third on the normal route above the crossing, the remainder on the normal route below the crossing or on other routes such as the brittle Payot ridge that runs further north. Considerations to build a tunnel to avoid the couloir have not yet been implemented. A suspension bridge is out of the question because even at a height of 35 meters above ground it would probably not be safe from falling rocks.

Tour possibilities

Summit tours

Source:

Transitions

history

The first building on the Aiguille du Goûter, a very simple hut, was built in 1854 on the initiative of Charles Loiseau. It was replaced by a hut for 4 people in 1858. In 1906 the CAF built a shelter for 7 people. In 1936 a private shelter for 36 people was built. In 1960, at an altitude of 3817  m , the construction of the Refuge du Goûter, inaugurated in 1962, followed, with space for 65 people. In 1990 an additional building with space for another 40 people was opened just a short distance away at the 1906 hut.

The hut from 1962 was closed by the CAF due to the high number of visitors (the normal route to Mont Blanc is approached by around 30,000 people annually), poor insulation, lack of heating, increased sanitary requirements and the ecological problems with sewage and garbage disposal and water and energy generation no longer regarded as up-to-date, especially since the number of visitors from Asia was expected to continue to increase in the coming years.

On February 5, 2010, the contracts for a new building for the Refuge du Goûter were signed. The new building, which has been under construction since summer 2010, opened at the end of June 2013. It is located about 200 meters south of the old hut (also on the slightly inclined summit ridge of the 3863  m high Aiguille du Goûter) and offers space for 120 guests. The building in the shape of a four-storey elliptical cylinder has a cladding made of inox steel on the outside, the inside consists of a beam construction made of local fir and spruce wood. Including all preliminary investigations, the new building was expected to cost 6.5 million euros. The actual costs came to 7.5 million euros.

After the completion of the new building, the old hut was actually supposed to be demolished, but this did not happen until August 2014 and is now controversial. The additional building to the old hut will be retained as winter storage and refuge in the event of an emergency (such as a fire).

gallery

  • The Refuge du Goûter with 7 seats in 1925

  • The Goûter hut in 2009. Camping is now prohibited.

  • The old Goûter hut, in the foreground the winter room

  • View of the new hut from the north

  • Up the slope behind the hut there is a facility for obtaining water by melting snow.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Refuge du Gouter in the area leader Mont Blanc massif by Hartmut Eberlein. Bergverlag Rother GmbH, 2005
  2. ↑ L'accidentologie dans le couloir du Goûter . Investigation by the PGHM Chamonix and the Fondation Petzl on the frequency of accidents on the Couloir du Goûter.
  3. ↑ Comment limiter les accidents dans le couloir du Goûter? or Massif du Mont Blanc - Traversée du Grand Couloir. Etude de faisabilité et avant-projet de sécurisation (PDF; 4.47 MB). Study by Didier Marechal for the Fondation Petzl.
  4. ↑ Hartmut Eberlein & Ralf Gantzhorn: High alpine tours in the Western Alps . In: Alpine tours in the West Alps . 1st edition 2018. Volume 2 . Bergverlag Rother GmbH, Munich, ISBN 978-3-7633-3160-4 .
  5. ↑ Interview with the landlords from 2009 (French)
  6. ↑ Le nouveau refuge du Goûter, pas si écolo que ça . Antoine Chandellier and Julien Piccareta, Le Dauphiné libéré Haute-Savoie , October 2, 2013.
  7. ↑ Surfréquentation au refuge du Goûter: trop d'alpinistes arrivent sans réservation. Vers des contrôles en bas du Mont-Blanc? . Mickael Guilho, France 3 Alpes, 7th August 2014.