Washroom (toilet) breaks
A couple is planning an 18-day hike along the Alpine Pass Route and needs advice on food and water options. They want to know about buying fuel for their stove, dehydrated meal packs, snacks, lunch supplies in villages, and how to get water along the way.
You can buy packed lunches for 10 to 15 CHF at huts, which also refill your water bottles for free. Villages usually have stores where you can buy bread, cheese, and snacks like granola bars. Drinking water can be found at streams, but make sure to take safety precautions.
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My wife and I are planning a 18 day trip on the Alpine Pass Route, hiking from village to village, sometimes staying in Village Inns and sometimes in huts. We are most concerned about water and lunch, and thus have a few questions.
1. Can you buy fuel (alcohol) for Trangia type stoves in the larger villages (such as Elm or Linthal)
2. Can you buy dehydrated meal packs that you just add boiling water to (such as Mountain House we can get here in Canada)
3. What about “Granola” type bars or other individually wrapped (and easily packed) snacks. Are those easily available too? I presume you can get trail mix?
4. Alternatively to the dehydrated meals, we were hoping to buy lunch supplies (bread, cheese, sandwiches, fruit etc) in the villages as we pass through. Is this feasible (i.e. do the villages all have stores to buy such supplies?)
5. How does one get water on route? Do you have to pay for it or can you fill up your bottles for free at the inn you stay at. Do villages have taps or springs to fill your bottles at?
7. What is the approx price of a lunch meal at a hut or other mountain inn that is listed as serving meals assuming you are not staying there? What would be the price for filling up a bottle of water.Thanks so much in advance.
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Huts will sell you packed lunch for between 10 and 15 CHF each day and refill your bottle. Water from streams is drinkable providing you observe basic precautions. Unless you’re camping there’s no need to carry a stove.
And there are many mountain restaurants along the way. We did the entire route a couple of years ago and I don’t think we ever encountered a stretch where there wasn’t a little place for lunch and, often, an hour or so later, a spot for coffee and cake! We did carry food bars, dried fruit, and nuts just to be on the safe side (which are available in pretty much all villages) but didn’t eat much of them. Many small dairy operations along the way also sell cheese.
Any place you stop to buy something to eat or drink will usually let you refill your water bottle for free.
As SwissMountainLeader mentioned, you can expect to pay 10 CHF for a bowl of soup, up to 30 CHF for a more substantial lunch.
I’d leave the stove at home.
“kim11 said:
As SwissMountainLeader mentioned, you can expect to pay 10 CHF for a bowl of soup, up to 30 CHF for a more substantial lunch.
”No I didn’t. I said huts sell a packed lunch for between 10 and 15 chf.
Got it, point is that this is pretty much the low end of the price range for lunch whether you eat in or carry it away with you.
CStanden, as you can see, food in Switzerland is rather expensive but it is oh so worth it!
Thank you all
“kim11 said: Got it, point is that this is pretty much the low end of the price range for lunch whether you eat in or carry it away with you.
CStanden, as you can see, food in Switzerland is rather expensive but it is oh so worth it!”
The point was the hut you stay the night at will sell you a packed lunch. You leave the hut with it, on the way to the next hut you’re staying at you stop and eat the packed lunch you bought that morning. No need to find a store & no need to find another hut around lunch time. Places charge pretty much the same everywhere for a packed lunch, there’s no low or high end.
Hut guardians make their income from selling you food, the overnight fees go to CAS/SAC in their huts. You’re allowed to carry your food in but it’s really much nicer if you don’t.
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