9 articles
Mountain huts, climbing, via ferrata and mountain culture: understanding, preparing and staying safe.
In the mountains, a good day is often decided long before you leave, when you choose your route. This section pulls together what you need to plan a hike at elevation. You’ll see how to read a route description and a topo map with tightly packed contour lines, make sense of trail markings and difficulty ratings, and estimate your time with elevation gain factored in. We also cover getting to the trailhead and where to find official mountain forecasts. The routes we describe stick to marked trails.
Mountain huts get their own chapter, because hut-to-hut hiking in Europe can work quite differently from hiking in the States. We explain how to book a bunk, what half board means and what to pack for a night in a shared dorm. The etiquette of communal living too, from leaving your boots at the door to sitting down at set mealtimes, so nothing catches you off guard when you arrive. The rules of parks and protected areas, at home and abroad, come from official sources and park websites, dated, with the agency to contact when something’s unclear.
Mountains are also a culture and a working landscape. Alpine pastures and grazing herds, livestock guardian dogs in Europe, wildlife and fragile plants: we explain how to share these places with the people and animals that live and work there, and what place names, landscapes and local history have to say. On the gear side, we help you read spec sheets for boots, trekking poles and rain jackets, based on manufacturers’ published data and industry standards, with sources cited.
This section speaks to hikers heading into the mountains for the first time as much as to those who go back every season and want to understand more of what they see. Our route guides draw on official guidebooks, park and agency sources and hiking federations, and when someone on our team has hiked the trail they’re describing, they tell that story under their own name. And yes, the soup served in European huts, a more serious subject than it sounds, gets its due.
MountainsHow-to guide
A winter refuge in the Pyrenees, a Winterraum in the Tyrol, a bothy in Scotland: in Europe, three kinds of hut where nobody greets you, and everyone becomes a bit of a caretaker. The groups that maintain them write the rules, and they differ: booking, payment, firewood, trash. Here’s what France’s FFCAM, the Alpine clubs, and Britain’s Mountain Bothies Association say, and what to pack.
Guillaume Hoarau··18 min
5.10a, 6a, VI+, E1 5a: a climbing grade conversion chart led by the YDS, based on the UIAA and Mountain Project, with its limits and what grades omit.
Guillaume Hoarau··10 min
Categories 0 to 4, UV400 marking, snow and altitude: what sunglasses really measure, and why category 4 isn’t made for driving.
Guillaume Hoarau··10 min
A night at the Aoulhet cabin in the French Pyrenees with two Danish hikers: space, the wood stove, water, noise, and leaving the cabin clean behind you.
Alex Aubert··12 min
CAF, DAV, ÖAV, and SAC compared: annual dues, rescue costs covered, and hut discounts, using the official 2026-2027 figures.
Guillaume Hoarau··9 min
Length, area, volume, mass balance: what Swiss, French, and Austrian glacier monitoring has recorded since 1880, and what it means for hiking in the Alps.
Guillaume Hoarau··17 min
National Weather Service, Met Office, Météo-France, MeteoSwiss, GeoSphere, DWD: where to find each country’s mountain forecast, and what its terms mean.
Guillaume Hoarau··15 min
How to book a mountain hut in France, what half board (bed, dinner and breakfast) costs, what to pack, when dinner is served, and tips for kids and dogs.
Guillaume Hoarau··9 min
The Swiss Alpine Club’s T1 to T6 scale, the blue, red, and black trails of Austria and Germany, and France’s three-part rating: how to read each one.
Guillaume Hoarau··8 min
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