Members of the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association can go through a lottery that takes place in March to make reservations for the following winter. Nonmembers must wait until June. Memberships start at $25.
“Nobody gets any preferential treatment,” 10th Mountain director Ben Dodge said. “That’s really important to us. It’s not like our board members get first dibs, or staff. I put my name in, and I get what I get.”
Dodge conceded guide operations do get some “preferential treatment,” in that they are able to block a small percentage of nights before the lottery occurs.
“The reason they are able to do that is because they’re planning primarily the longer trips, the multiday (and multihut) trips which you just can’t get in the lottery,” Dodge said. “How much can they block? It depends on how much they used the previous year. Not how much they blocked the previous year, how much they used. Ultimately they use between 2 and 3 percent of available nights.”
Guide operations are obligated to return dates they have blocked if clients don’t fill them.
Hut spaces can be bought and sold more spontaneously on the system’s website: www.huts.org.
