Cabane des Dix

The Dixhütte, officially Cabane des Dix, is a hut of the Swiss Alpine Club (Monte Rosa section) and is located at 2928 m in the Val des Dix above the Lac des Dix south of Hérémence, directly above the Cheilon glacier. It is an important base on the Haute Route Chamonix-Zermatt and the starting point for high-altitude tours on Mont Blanc de Cheilon, Pigne d'Arolla, La Luette and La Ruinette. The hut is usually open from the beginning of March to the beginning of May and from mid-June to the end of September; outside of these periods, there is a winter room with 16 places, which is currently closed for oven repairs. Overnight stays are in multi-bed dormitories with Nordic comforters, a personal sleeping bag is obligatory and the sanitary facilities are located in the building. A total of around 115 sleeping places are available, reservations are made via the SAC online system; spontaneous overnight stays are only possible to a limited extent. The hut offers half-board and simple, hearty meals, there is free WLAN and the option to pay by credit card; dogs are only allowed after prior consultation with the hut. The most popular access starts at the Grande Dixence dam: from Le Chargeur, you can reach the dam on foot or by cable car, follow the road and galleries along the western shore of Lac des Dix and ascend to the hut at the head of the valley via the Pas du Chat and the moraine of the Cheilon glacier; from the dam, plan around 11 km, around 4 hours of walking and around 700 meters of ascent. Alternatively, longer ascents lead from Arolla via the Col de Riedmatten or the Pas de Chèvres to the Dixhütte, which can be easily combined into multi-day round trips. The most popular time to visit is in summer between June and September for hut hikes and high-altitude tours; in spring, the hut also serves as a base for high-altitude ski tours. Before each tour, you should carefully check the latest weather and avalanche reports, possible road closures and the operating times of the bus and cable car to Grande Dixence. The first Dix hut was built in 1908 as a small wooden house on the Alpe Cheilon, moved to the Tête Noire rock spur at 2928 m in 1928 and replaced in 1936 by the current stone building, which was extended in 1978 and has since been renovated several times.