Alpine club membership: what it costs and what it covers, CAF to SAC

At the desk of a mountain hut, a walker takes out a membership card and asks for the reduced rate. The warden glances, smiles and stamps. Further back, someone wonders whether the card is worth its annual fee. It is a fair question, and the answer is not always where you would think to look.

The French Alpine Club (CAF, part of the FFCAM), the German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein, DAV), the Austrian Alpine Club (Österreichischer Alpenverein, ÖAV) and the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC, known as the CAS in French) all sell the same promise: cheaper huts, guided outings, safety. Their fees, and above all what those fees include if you need rescuing, are quite different. The figures here are the rates each club publishes for 2026-2027. They change from one section to the next, so read the examples as orders of magnitude. Amounts stay in euros or Swiss francs; the pound exchange rate moves, so check it before budgeting.

What an adult membership costs

At the CAF, the fee is called a licence: it bundles the federal share, the regional and departmental shares, the club’s share, third-party liability and legal defence [1]. Personal accident and rescue assistance insurance, which contains the rescue costs, is optional and paid on top: €25 for an adult, €20 for anyone under 24 [2]. At the Besançon club, an adult over 25 pays €86.53 for the licence, or €111.53 with the insurance [7]; at Saint-Étienne, €102.90, or €127.90 [6].

At the DAV, each section sets its own rate. An adult pays €80 in Stuttgart (category A, from age 25) [11] and €121 at Munich & Oberland since 2026 [10]. At the ÖAV, the minimum is €75 in 2026 and €79 in 2027; sections offering a wider service may charge a little more [12]. At the SAC, the regulations set the central share at 75 Swiss francs for a section that owns huts and 78 otherwise, before the section’s own share is added, plus an entry fee of 20 francs for an adult [15]; the club quotes a range of 80 to 110 francs a year for an adult [18].

Rescue costs: who pays, and up to how much

This is where the clubs differ most. At the DAV, every member is covered by the Alpiner Sicherheitsservice (Alpine Safety Service): up to €50,000 for search, rescue and recovery, helicopter included, worldwide (in Europe only for an organised trip), plus assistance and accident insurance [8]. The ÖAV includes in every membership €25,000 of rescue costs in difficult terrain, helicopter included, repatriation cover with no ceiling during the first eight weeks of each trip abroad, and €10,000 of medical costs abroad [13].

At the FFCAM, you have to tick the box: the personal accident and rescue assistance insurance reimburses up to €30,000 of search and rescue costs per person and per event, helicopter included, on top of or after any other similar cover has run out [3]. For an adult, that is €25 more a year. At the SAC, membership does not cover adults: young people aged 6 to 22 automatically become donors to Rega, the Swiss air rescue service, while adults are not insured by default and can take advantage of special offers [18].

Mountain huts: discounts and reciprocity

The reduced rate is the part you can see. At the Valmasque hut (FFCAM, Mercantour), a night costs €21 for the public and €10.50 for a member of the FFCAM or of a reciprocal association [5]. The FFCAM also gives 50% off the night to affiliated members of partner clubs in its huts above 1,500 m, excluding chalets reachable by road [4].

This reciprocity rests on an agreement signed within the UIAA. The FFCAM’s list includes the DAV, ÖAV, SAC, the Alpine Club of Great Britain, the Club alpino italiano, the Alpenverein Südtirol and eight other associations [4]. The ÖAV advertises at least €12 off per night in its huts and agreements with the clubs of Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands [14]. The DAV mentions more than 2,000 huts run by alpine associations at reduced rates [9], the SAC a discount of up to 50% in its huts [17].

How many nights before the card pays for itself?

Let’s do a simple sum. Take a saving of €10.50 a night, the Valmasque figure, and divide the fee by it. At the FFCAM, with insurance, €111.53 takes 11 nights and €127.90 takes 13. At the DAV, from €80 to €121, it takes 8 to 12. At the ÖAV, €75 takes 8 nights, or 7 with the minimum €12 saving the club advertises. At the SAC, from 80 to 110 francs, counted at parity, 1 franc for 1 euro, it takes 8 to 11.

Keep the order of magnitude in mind: about ten nights. Someone who sleeps in a hut six times a year will not earn back the card on the discount alone, but the rescue cover changes the sum, especially at the DAV and ÖAV, where it is included.

When to join, and what to watch for

Autumn is a good time. At the ÖAV, a new member who joins from 1 September is insured until the following 1 January with no fee for that period [13]. At the SAC, joining after 1 October waives the current year’s fee, and only the entry fee is due [16]. In Stuttgart, joining on 1 September costs only half the fee [11]. At the FFCAM, the 2026-2027 licence runs from 1 September 2026 to 30 September 2027, and the insurance until 31 October [6].

Pay before you set off: at the ÖAV, cover starts the day after the annual fee is paid and runs until 31 January of the following year [13]; at the DAV, the fee due must have been paid at the time of the accident [8].

Which club for which profile

• You walk mostly in France and want a club close to home: the CAF, with the insurance box ticked.
• You want rescue cover without ticking anything: the DAV (€50,000) or the ÖAV (€25,000 and repatriation), both with reciprocity in French huts.
• You walk mostly in Switzerland: the SAC, but plan separate rescue insurance for an adult.
• You sleep in huts fewer than eight nights a year: compare the insurance before the discount.

Guillaume Hoarau

Camping, wild camping, bushcraft and hiking

Guillaume Hoarau writes for Outfarer about camping, wild camping, bushcraft and hiking. A survival-skills enthusiast and a collector of old field manuals, he likes clear explanations, lists that earn their place and other people’s stories, which he tells well.

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