Mountain hut

Mountain huts can provide a range of services, starting with shelter and simple sleeping berths.

While shelters have long existed in mountains, modern hut systems date back to the mid-19th century.

[2] The construction of refuges and shelters in the Alps date back to ancient times, when Roman roads led across the mountain passes.

In the United Kingdom the tradition is of unwardened "climbing huts" providing fairly rudimentary accommodation (but superior to that of a bothy) close to a climbing ground; the huts are usually conversions (e.g. of former quarrymen's cottages, or of disused mine buildings), and are not open to passers-by except in emergency.

[3] In the past, some shelters in Scotland were built in exposed locations at high elevation, often as part of military training exercises.

[6] In Poland most mountain shelters and huts are run by the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society, with some being privately owned.

Polish mountain huts are obliged by their own regulations to allow overnight anyone who is not able to find any other place before sunset, but conditions may be spartan (e.g. a mattress in a hall or warm basement).

The Alpine Club of Canada operates what it calls the "largest network of backcountry huts in North America.