Refuge remix – Creative workshop in a refuge

Refuges have different geographical, technical, cultural and functional characteristics to conventional tourist accommodation. Under the influence of climatic, cultural and technological changes, their status, functions and audience are changing. They are becoming veritable recreational laboratories, where heritage issues and quality of welcome are now combined with issues of initiation, experience, transmission and observation of the relationship with the mountains.

The Refuge Remix approach makes it possible to rethink the space-time of the refuge and its surroundings, reinterpreting social, temporal and spatial rhythms with a view to conviviality and sustainability. It was tested in June 2019 as part of the Refuges Sentinelles research program, in a mid-mountain context, at the Alpe de Villar d’Arène refuge (Écrins).

Refuge Remix is based on a methodology deployed over three days to bring together multidisciplinary teams to design and implement inspiring ideas. These ideas are based on creative challenges drawn up in advance of the event by the research team and stakeholders (warden, alpine club, commune, etc.). They are implemented at the refuge in the form of usage scenarios and functional prototypes, using lightweight materials and tools that have minimal environmental impact and are easy to transport.

In 2023, a Refuge Remix was organized as part of the HutObsTour project – refuges as observatories of tourism transition at the Couvercle refuge (2683 m) in the Mer de Glace basin (Mont-Blanc), one of the project’s three study sites. Accessible in four hours’ walk from the Montenvers station, it is emblematic of the history of mountaineering. Its use by climbers of all levels has been severely affected by glacial retreat, making access and climbing more difficult and complex both upstream and downstream.

Using the case of the Couvercle refuge as a starting point, the aim of Refuge Remix 2023 was to explore creative scenarios that could offer inspiration and design ideas appropriate to the environmental and cultural changes facing the owners, managers and janitors of high-mountain refuges and huts in the Alps: new services, facilities and audiences, new activities, temporalities and spatialities… The prototypes produced were exhibited at the refuge during the summer of 2023, then brought down to the valley to be presented to the public in conjunction with local players: Maison de la montagne, Musée alpin, Club alpin. A film following the participants during the event is currently being edited.

From September 2 to 4, 2024, the Refuge Remix experiment was repeated in Switzerland’s Val Ferret at the Saleinaz hut (2691 m), offering a special context for volunteer caretaking. Its frequentation (around 900 overnight stays per year) by hikers and mountaineers of all abilities has been severely impacted by landslides and glacial retreat, making access and climbing conditions both upstream and downstream more difficult and complex. However, the fact that the hut is run on a voluntary basis makes it more economically resilient to fluctuations in visitor numbers than other huts.

Members of the Refuge Remix organization team :

Victor Andrade (Pacte), Philippe Bourdeau (Pacte), Laine Chanteloup (Cirm), Christophe Clivaz (Cirm), Mélanie Clivaz (Cirm), Sophie De Rosemont (Pacte), Marc Langenbach (Pacte), Jean Miczka (Cirm).