Our first ever ski trip 20 years ago was to Avoriaz, France in the Porte de Soleil where you took a gondola up to the snow-bound, car-less town where pistes crisscrossed the “downtown” and local transport was a horse-drawn sleigh. We cherished the experience of spending our entire stay “on the mountain”.

In 2020, we stopped at Rifugio Cherz in the Dolomites for hot chocolate and our approach to skiing was changed forever.  The chocolate and food was great, but most importantly, the location was just stunning.  Perched on a precipice of Monte Cherz, the vista of the Alta Badia spread before it.  Then we noticed photos on the walls of bedrooms.  We enquired and found out you could stay there.  When we visited the following season, we had the most spectacular stay never leaving the mountain for the entire week.  Some people might relish the buzz of the apres-ski or a variety on offer in the valley town, but we came for the mountains and now we had 24 hours of them. And the mountains in the evening are a completely different experience.

When we tried to find other “rifugios” and mountain top lodges, Google would just not help.  For starters, searches for such luxury items as ski trips are always polluted with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) sites trying to flog you’re their offerings if your search term is at all related.  As a result, the deepest marketing pockets of any ski resort on a mountain dominated the search returns.  Even Microsoft’s AI Copilot couldn’t come up with answers about these lodges…

And even when I could find a place that was a real mountain-top refuge, it often lacked some of the key characteristics that I sought:

  • Sleeping – Lots of restaurant-only places.
  • Skiing/Snowboarding – Lots of places for hikers (eg. Refuge de Gouter on Chamonoix) that are not suitable for skiers, or not nears ski slopes, or simply closed in the winter.
  • Remoteness – A number of properties are indeed “on the mountain” and even adjacent to ski runs. They are classic “ski-in, ski-out” places, but they didn’t have the distinctively expansive views of being perched at or near the top of the summit. A paved road to the property would be an automatic disqualification.  Also, need at least a gondola or snowmobile ride (hence Avoriaz is borderline, but included) and have no car access.
  • Service – A number of remote chalets and lodges that are self-catering offer a very basic experience sometimes little more than a wooden shelter. Looking for places with staff to help and cater.
  • Views – One of the main objectives for staying on the mountain top is its majestic views so I would include a lower elevation property if it happened to have a great vista and a feel of being in the mountains.

We’ve now been researching these places for the past 5 years and have stayed in 3, visited 1 other and are booked for one this coming January.  I thought it would be an appropriate time to share all my research on the web.

POST FORMAT: Overviews of lodges I have visited in person will intend to have the following key information:

  • View – One of the main reasons for going in the first place.
  • Food – Since you have no other options, this is especially important
  • Getting There – Getting you and your luggage to the top of a mountain can involve gondolas, snowmobiles and even some skiing so directions are unconventional at best (and in our experience, not always very clear).
  • Specials – The ones we have visited so far all have one or more quite special offerings like and observatory or in room saunas.

TIPS:

  • Booking – Our experience is that the website booking for these places is especially difficult, so we recommend…
    • Email your enquiry to the resort and sort out a date with them that way.
    • Advance booking is key as these places have very few rooms and are increasingly popular. If next season is booked, consider booking TWO years in advance!

If you know of any to add to the collection, please do contact me at bruce_lynn@hotmail.com.