Does the Black Forest (Germany) have French style refuges (free, no-reservation)?

Does the Black Forest (Germany) have French style refuges (free, no-reservation)?

2/9/2017 11:33:54 AM

felias-fogg.de provides a list of Schutzhütten, which is just about any structure where a hiker might find shelter in case of rain storms.

A simple shelter in the Black Forest

They provide a map of shelters (grey) and inns (yellow), in addition to GPX and POI files. Coordinates might deviate by 100-200m. Shelters marked “UNSICHER” might no longer exist. Last updated in 2010.

2/9/2017 8:41:01 AM

What’s called a refuge in French is a Hütte in German. In both cases, it can be staffed (gardé, bewirtschaftet) and possibly offer some basic catering or be unstaffed (refuge non gardé, Selbstversorgerhütte) or a mere shelter (cabane or abri de secours, Notlager or Biwakschachtel).

The German and Austrian alpine clubs run many of them and also maintain search engines to locate them: DE and AT (not only their own but also those managed by other organisations). There aren’t many results for the Black Forest but I could find a few:

None of these are completely open like high-altitude shelters, you will need to obtain the keys in advance and in all but one be a member of one of the alpine clubs or pay a small fee (but that’s the case in most French refuge too).

2/8/2017 2:29:36 PM

Probably not

This is a rather vague half-answer, but it’s more than a comment.

Through the commercial tourism association http://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info/ I found the different organisations that take care of the national parks/reserves there. They are all listed in the footer of that page.

I called the one for the north and asked. They said their part of Schwarzwald does not have any of these shelters. The lady said I should contact the tourism association directly, though I believe that would only yield commercial things like areas where tents are allowed, if those exist.

There are a few more different organizations in other parts of the region, and you could email them to ask. I would go with shelter rather than refuge if you want to do it in English. In German it would probably be something like Hütte, Holzhütte or something where you can find shelter (the verbfor that is unterschlupf suchen).

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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