Hut Trips and Alpine Climbing: A Minimal Wash Kit

A minimal wash kit for a hut trip is a flannel, a small towel, one solid bar or tiny bottle of wash, toothbrush and paste, sun cream, lip balm, hand sanitiser and a sheet liner. The alpine clubs agree that showers are rare up high and a quick "cat wash" at the basin is enough. You've walked four hours uphill with a rope on your back, so nobody at dinner expects you to smell like a hotel lobby. Here's what the alpine clubs say, as part of our climber's hand, hair and body care guide.

What goes in a minimal wash kit for a hut trip?

Less than you think. One alpine club's packing list for alpine trips keeps it to a towel, a flannel, toiletries, toilet paper in a plastic bag, earplugs and a sheet liner. In your pack:

• A flannel (this is your shower) and a small, quick-drying towel.
• One wash product: a piece of solid bar, or a tiny decanted bottle.
• Toothbrush and travel-size toothpaste.
• Sun cream, lip balm and a small hand sanitiser.
• Toilet paper in a zip bag, plus a spare bag for rubbish.
• Sheet liner and earplugs.

The classic mistake is packing for a hotel: shampoo, shower gel and face wash in three little bottles, squeezed into the lid pocket. Then a cap works loose, and your spare gloves smell of shampoo all week. One solid bar for hair, body and face skips that scene: nothing to leak, and one thing to find in the dark.

As the founder of a brand that sells bars, I'll be honest: for two nights in a hut, whatever small soap you already own will do too. What matters more is how little water the hut can spare.

What washing facilities can you expect in an alpine hut?

A cold tap, a basin and a simple toilet. A shower is a bonus. Alpine club advice on hut life is to count on cold water, usually a simple toilet and no showers. The reason: up there, water has to be stored or melted from snow. Picture a hut on a rock rib with only a snowfield above it.

That's also why the clubs ask you to skip the shower. A shower uses at least 25 litres for just 3 minutes, while a cat wash takes 1 to 3 litres. One short shower equals 8 to 25 cat washes: the whole queue at the basin, for the price of one.

What the alpine clubs say about washing in huts
Shower briefly if there even is a shower, and not every day. A "kattenwasje" is enough.
A hut guest uses 40 litres a day on average. Showers are getting rarer, and a "Katzenwäsche" is enough.
Guest showers only exist in huts with enough water, and they cost extra.
The renovated Refuge de la Lavey (Écrins) will have no showers, only a "toilette de chat" in washbasin cabins.

How do you do a cat wash at the basin?

Wet the flannel, not yourself. It takes two minutes, and you climb into your liner feeling human.

1. Run a little water into the basin, then turn the tap off.
2. Wet the flannel and rub it once or twice over your bar.
3. Face first, then armpits, then the rest. Feet go last.
4. Rinse the flannel, go over everything once more, and hang it up.

Do it in the evening, because nobody washes when breakfast is at four. And your hair? For two or three nights, our honest advice is a hat. If you'd rather not, here's how to wash your hair without a shower.

At that basin, with two people waiting and a headtorch between your teeth, you don't want to juggle bottles. That's where a single bar earns its place: it covers hair, body and face, then goes back in a ventilated tin or mesh pouch (more in how to store a soap bar).

Whatever you lather up with, the amount matters more than the product. So does where the suds end up, which is the one rule we'd ask you never to bend.

Where can you use soap in the mountains?

Lather only where the water goes into a drain. That means the hut washroom, or a campsite wash block in the valley. Never in streams, never in lakes, and never on open ground.

It's tempting, we know. You come off the glacier, there's a clear stream by the path, and a quick wash looks harmless. It isn't. Alpine club guidance on protecting mountain waters lists sun cream, toothpaste, shampoo and soap together, because they contain substances such as surfactants that it says are toxic to most animal and plant species. Its tip: do without cosmetics and cleaning products in the mountains as far as you can.

That's why "just a little" matters inside the hut too. Huts often have only mechanical or biological wastewater treatment, or a tank that's emptied in the valley. So a thumbnail of lather is plenty, and toothpaste goes in the basin, not off the terrace.

And where there's no drain at all? Then there's no soap. On a bivouac, a cloth dampened with plain water sees you through. If your trip ends on a campsite, climbing trips by van picks up from there.

What about hands, sun cream and rubbish?

Wash your hands before dinner, pack sun cream with the wash kit, and carry every wipe back down. Your hands have been on rock and rope all day, and now you're sharing a bread basket with eight strangers. Public health guidance is that soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations, with a sanitiser of at least 60% alcohol when there's none, and that sanitiser may not be as effective on visibly dirty or greasy hands. So: basin at the hut, sanitiser on the ridge. For chalk and skin, see climbing hands.

Sun cream belongs here because altitude changes the maths. UV levels rise by roughly 10% with every 1,000 m, and snow can reflect as much as 80% of UV radiation. On a glacier you get it from above and below, which is why the alpine club packing list asks for sun cream and lip cream with a high protection factor.

The hut rubbish rule: what you carry up, you carry down, and hygiene products never go in the toilet. Wipes and finger tape ride home in that spare zip bag.

Which leaves getting there. If you're flying with hand luggage and a rope bag, a solid bar is not a liquid at airport security (see taking soap on a plane). Every Rinsed bar contains Parfum (fragrance), worth knowing before you share a dormitory.

Bar or bottle, the rest of your kit lives in our climbing trip packing list. And if your shoes are the reason someone opened the dormitory window, read climbing shoe smell next.

Summary

Pack a flannel, a small towel, one wash product, sun cream, hand sanitiser and a sheet liner. The alpine clubs all agree: water is scarce up high, showers are rare, and a cat wash is enough.

Use as little soap as you can, and lather only where the water goes into a drain: never in streams, lakes or on open ground.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The facts in this article are based on the sources below, checked in October 2026.

1. Huttenetiquette in de Alpen: regels voor overnachten in een berghut. NKBV, 2026.
2. (Over)leven in een berghut? Zo doe je dat!. NKBV, undated.
3. Paklijst alpiene tochten. NKBV, 2025.
4. Gut vorbereitet auf die Hütten-Reality. DAV, 2026.
5. Gewässerschutz in den Bergen. DAV, 2024.
6. Wasserknappheit in SAC-Hütten. SAC, 2022.
7. "Toilette de chat": les refuges en montagne inquiets pour leur ressource en eau. AFP via ID L'Info Durable, 2026.
8. L'eau en refuge, un bien commun, mais rare ! . Parc national de la Vanoise, undated.
9. Hand Sanitizer Guidelines and Recommendations. CDC, 2024.
10. Radiation: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation. WHO, 2016.