UKC

So we've booked a couple of nights in the hut, ever hopeful that winter climbing conditions will be aligned with our diaries. But what should we know before we go?

Is it warm? Don't want to carry a winter sleeping bag up there if it's kept toastie nice.

Cookers? Do I need my jetboil in case.

Can you buy wine and Bourguignon like in the alps?

Any tips gratefully received. 

This isn't the thread to debate whether it should be there or not.

http://www.smc.org.uk/huts/cic

Took about 2 seconds……,

prepare to be disappointed

I've seen that page, but here's the place for gathering real-use opinions.

So yes, I didn't need to ask about cookers as I can see they've gas ones. But still the question stands, anything I need to know that the SMC page doesn't mention?

Yes, absolutely. Also it's considered good practice to bring a six pack of Irn Bru and a freshly caught haggis to tip the hut guardian.

There’s no satellite TV? Or nightly disco?

If people (like you) carry fuel up, it can be warm.  Often they don't and it's not

Take your stove

Ha ha ha ha ha ha

It can be great.  It can be a bit wretched.  Be kind,  Be friendly. Be generous.  Take earplugs.  Tell people what route/s you're doing or leave a note.  If you take fuel instead of a heavier sleeping bag more people will benefit and love you!

Huh? There are huge gas cylinders out the back which are flown in by helicopter for both heating and cooking.

I don't know what fuel you're suggesting taking but I doubt Robin would be best pleased if you started an open fire in the middle of the room

Kick the f*cking door in and tell those toff cnuts you're the proud owner of a West Coast key. After that your stay should be most comfortable.

You don't need to take fuel or a stove  Cooking and heating come from the gas cylinders. 

It's usually pretty toasty for sleeping so a huge winter bag shouldn't be required. Might be a bit cooler at the moment though as I don't think they are allowing the full capacity to be booked as yet. If it's full you'll cook in a winter bag. 

Nothing useful to add but just out of interest really. I've only been in it once, about 30 years ago when the occupants took pity on me and my mate who'd been holed up in a tiny tent outside for days while the weather wasn't playing ball. Actually I think they'd probably just got bored of each other's company and wanted someone else to talk to!

I remember it being pretty basic and as far removed from a swanky Alpine hut as it's possible to be, apart perhaps from a grim bothy, although it was positive luxury after the tent.

So my question is, is it largely the same as was back then or has it been modernised and swankyfied like lots of other once grim climber's hangouts have been?

Much bigger. Inside toilet and a drying room. Sheer luxury.

Inside toilet! Luxury indeed. But even 40 years ago it had a drying room.

I stand corrected.  I last went loooong ago, and it was baltic.

A deck chair for lounging outside the hut,  watch the conga line heading for number 2 gully, been pretty warm of late.

To save pack weight, I once stayed there without any sleeping bag, knowing that they had woollen blankets. Wasn't the best decision I ever made, but I got by. No idea whether it still has blankets.

You don't need gas. There are 2 gas hob burners in the kitchen and a gas oven.

The hut is not supplied with food and there is no on premises custodian. Have a think about what food you'll need, how much weight and bulk it will take up. Everything needs to be carried in and then all rubbish carried out by yourself.

There are 3 gas fires, one in the kitchen / dining, one in the drying room and one in the bunks room. When they're on it can get toasty and it's very comfortable. Overnight temperature can drop and it can be chilly in the morning. You don't need a winter bag, but something you'd take out camping 3 easons is probably a good idea. There are no blankets like another poster has mentioned.

Aside from what I've mentioned the hut is well equipped. Water is from a "tap" outside. 

Sleeping bag, food and something like a book are what you want to take.

I remember the sign that warned of the appealing practices of chamber pots and capping near the hut that finished

"if you can't have a sh*t on an open hillside in a blizzard, you don't need one"

Also also remember two lads showing up in the early hours asking for shelter after losing their tent, they were told to FO down to Fort William

Grim indeed 

Inside toilet indeed! it really has gone upmarket. So does that mean there's no minefield of turds behind that big boulder?

They'll be putting a cappuccino maker in there next

Don’t think so. Just a flow of slurry further down the allt 🤮

Here’s hoping 

I don't think that's how composting toilets work.

It was a joke! 

One thing no-one has warned the OP about yet is the smell of that toilet. Need to keep all the doors shut otherwise it can be very unpleasant indeed

That sounds bad to me. What season was it? Not winter I hope. Bad anyway, regardless of the season 

Had exactly this happen to me and two friends - one of them made the mistake of telling us he'd bring his new tent which turned out to be total rubbish and it blew down while we were out. We arrived back in the early evening to find it knackered and asked for help and were told to walk back down. Luckily one of the guys came out after the others had gone back in and told us about a potting shed in the woods down by top carpark where we went to stay for the night... our reception put me off ever wanting to book the place...

My understanding is that the SMC are very strict about not letting unbooked parties into the CIC otherwise it would quickly end up bursting with people who 'needed' shelter or people just letting their mates in. Presumably a genuine medical emergency would be tolerated.

When we were invited in it was only for the evening and we had to go back to our tiny damp tent to sleep even though there were only two people in the hut.

The occupants didn't want to risk getting caught letting non booked people stop there as they would be banned from future bookings IIRC.

I understand that, and that's all good, but when you turn up to a collapsed tent and no shelter after having been on the been in wild conditions all day, a 5 minute chat inside with some ideas on how to get yourself out of the shit wouldn't go amiss and would most likely engender a feeling of mutual respect rather than what we have now which is one where people want to tear the place to the ground... the unwillingness to help under any circumstance shocked me as it was a rapidly deteriorating situation. I was under the impression that most climbers looked out for each other...

Was once refused entry to Lagangarbh, despite having booked and holding a key. My mate wasn’t up for any aggro so we headed home to Glasgow. Arrogant beyond belief. Put me off ever joining a climbing club. 

In the days before women were admitted to the SMC (which from memory happened in the early 1990s), I know a story of a member arriving at a near-empty Lagangarbh on Hogmanay in poor conditions and being denied entry (by a senior SMC member, now deceased) because he was with a woman. I think the arriving member would have been allowed in himself, but unsurprisingly he chose to stick with his friend and tried to find accommodation elsewhere.

It beggars belief that it took till then. I've also heard a few pretty horrible stories about the discussions around admitting women.

Maybe I looked more feminine in my younger days. Hence the refusal of entry!!

I always just assumed they were arrogant tw*ts. Who knew they could just have been misogynists. Sad.

I think things are much better these days - I know several SMC folk (including a couple who post on here) and they're perfectly decent and sensible people.

I’ve stayed in the CIC as a guest of an SMC member. So would def agree.

There's at least one SMC member posting on this very thread, me. I have to say that in the past I'd got the same bad impression as others have mentioned but most of the SMC members I know personally are keen climbers and good folks.

Oh goody, we are getting very close to the annual "tear down the cic" thread. Who had early Jan in the sweepstake? 

Admission to the cic in extremis depends on individual users and their personal interpretation of the rules. I suspect the good tales outweigh the bad but they don't get spoken about. 

We spent a night in the porch before it got done up after our tent got flattened. Can't remember who the residents were but a club down south I think. Quite a while ago but not so long ago that I could claim to be young and dumb.

I've only been in twice, once when a party got avalanched and I was first aiding/organising rescue and the other was getting invited in by Robin for tea and a chat after a very grim walk up (and an hour or two later back down!). All seemed pretty friendly.

Take a big sack to carry your stuff up there.  Mine was about 55 litres and weighed 25 kg.  That was a nice wee walk from the bottom car park.

Take a wee dram for the evenings.

Take easy to cook stuff.  You won't be the only hungry person wanting to cook.   Share meals with your mates.

Take packets of paper tissues - there might be a bog roll crisis.  And take hand sanitiser - there's no washbasin except in the kitchen.  Be hygene concious.

A two season bag and your spare clothes will be fine (unless the gas bottle change-over valve fails!).

I was with a group staying there when a large party of large men turned up and began to make themselves at home.  Eventually one of our group summoned the courage to enquire whether they had booked, only to receive the reply "I'm the Custodian, it's my f***ing hut!".  She pointed out we had been  given very strict instructions about not letting anyone in who hadn't booked. 

On another trip there was a knock on the door, and there was a member of the MRT who was walking down with someone who's mate had been helicoptered off Tower Ridge and who had been left to get himself down.  They were seeking a cup of tea.  The SMC members raised no objection, so we let them in and brewed up. Before they want on their way the casualty told an entertaining tale of how he'd had to get himself off the ridge unaided before the MRT arrived, abandoning copious amounts of gear in the process.  We could see eyes gleaming at this news, and some of the occupants made an early start the next morning in the direction of the Ridge. 

To add insult to injury, while still high on Tower Ridge the casualty had received a phone call from his mate, who had been released from hospital and was demanding to be picked up.

I think the best way to handle this is to ensure the door is locked.  If they have a key, most likely they are authorised.

Most times I have stayed there we have had it to ourselves but I recall one case where I was coming up late after the group and someone who answered the door when I knocked was reluctant to even go and confirm with my group that I was with them before letting me in, so clearly some have an attitude.

Wow.  I get that if you find gear and have no idea whose it is it is probably fair game, but if someone tells you they abandoned a load of gear for safety reasons (so you know whose it is) I would put keeping it up there as theft.  Quite an attitude.  In this sort of case if I could get the gear I would do so and return it in the hope others would do the same if it were me.

Any time I've had any hassle/awkwardness round any hut access (especially the CIC, and even as an SMC member...) were from non-SMC paying guests.

I've even been treated like I was a janitor once when some idiots blocked the sink with fat "here, SMC guy, fix this...". Erm, no - you blocked it, you fix it....

If anyone was looking majorly dishevelled with a flattened tent in a storm, I'd certainly make them a cuppa and give them 10 mins to make decisions. Of course, staying in would only be if it were potentially dangerous for them to go down (i.e. they were hypothermic or something).

To be fair, I could only guess at their intentions. But they were keen to get going.

I should note that I have no idea if the "less than welcoming" person I note above was a member of the SMC or not, quite probably they were not.

I thought it quite bizarre, really.  If someone knocks on the door and says "I'm Neil Williams, I'm with [name]'s party", why on earth would you not close the door, pop back into the hut and ask if that was anyone already there before making a snarky comment about not being allowed in?

Other than that one instance, all my experiences of staying there have been overwhelmingly positive - I really do love the place.

Sounds fair.  While it is a private property and thus there's no entitlement for people to stay, it'd be irresponsible to shut someone out if to do so was likely to endanger their life or result in a mountain rescue callout that would have been avoided by letting them sit in for a bit and warm up before heading down to Fort Bill, say.  And you can see pretty quickly if someone is hypothermic or just annoyed that they have mucked up their trip by forgetting a piece of their tent, say.

It's no different to anywhere similar at ground level in a sense - if someone hypothermic walked into a hotel or hostel in bad weather and asked for help, I'd expect them to be allowed to sit there for a bit and warm up before sorting out what next, but not to be given a free room for the night.  Similarly if someone knocked on my door in a bad way I'd not close it in their face, but they'd only be in as long as it'd take to sort them out what would happen next, I'd not be putting them up for the night unless doing otherwise would put them at serious risk.

The hut isn't an insurance policy, but then there's also being human about such things when people are genuinely caught out.

thanks for all the responses. The question was always inviting a bit of mickey taking banter, but many people have helped with a few tips and expectations.

ta

Has the numbers allowed to stay in the Hut been reduced in these times or is it as normal?

It's not just covid you have to worry about in that hut! Personally, being a soft southerner, I'd rather walk in every day than sleep there again. I hope the OP has a infection free visit 

pack light the walks hard work. 

the drying room is excellent

plenty of loo roll a few weeks back 

even a coffee press for fresh coffee

the sleeping room takes a while to warm up 

its an amazing place to stay. 

just because you cant invite people in doesn't mean you cant take them a brew out   

According to the hut web page it's 50% capacity at present, see http://www.smc.org.uk/huts/cic

All the Scottish rules change from Monday so possibly more folks will be allowed soon.