2012 AMC hut fees.. You'd better sit down for this one!

[JimHalpert]

Originally Posted by Stalking Tortoise

I thought you were in paper sales.

well, yeah, but "i'm a paper salesman please check your math" doesn't carry a whole lot of weight.

[hiker8261]

Yup sorry, threw an extra zero in. I meant to say that those two huts probably bring in $12,500 per sold out night.

chris

[jeff]

Imagine what it would cost to hike the Appalachian Trail if it wasn't built and maintained by volunteers.

[dmax]

I hope this never gets down south to the Smokies or Shenadoah or I'll see alot of stealth camping for me. In the Smokies, I wouldn't even hike the AT again if they head that direction.

[7Sisters]

Jim - I'm a CPA too!

With regard to the cost. I too agree the real issue comes to bringing a family. I simply can't bring my family to the whites and stay in the hut. I can't justify spending $400 for the 4 of us for one night.

With regard to the business aspect of this. I also agree with Jim and am not going to debate the fairness of it. I do think they may have long term issues when kids didn't grow up going to the whites and staying at the huts.

The majority of food is no longer brought on backs. Each year, the dried goods for the year get airlifted to the huts. The fresh goods are brought on the backs of the croo. I'm not sure how much it costs to utilize the helicopter, but it's more expensive then the backs of college aged kids.

[Hometown]

I'm not a big fan of the huts and the the only one I stayed at during my thru was Lake of the Clouds. BUT, I did get a funny story out of it.

So, I'm doing my thru-hiker work for stay by washing pots and pans with my buddy Segue. You know, feeling the whole 2nd class citizen thing when a guy (paying guest) about 50 years old with a teenage boy walked up to the Croo member at the desk.
The man asked if they could get a shuttle down, off the mountain. She looked up at him and answered that something could probably be arranged from Mt Washington and asked if there was a problem.
The man pointed to his son and said, "we've had a wardrobe malfunction."
I about lost it at that point, I couldn't imagine what the "malfunction" could be when you were decked out in LL Bean from head to toe, unless you maybe had a broken zipper.
I must say it brought me great joy for the remainder of my hike, thinking about having to be rescued over a wardrobe malfunction.

[Snickers06]

Just to add to my original post in this thread here:

All huts cost the same. Whether it's Lonesome Lake and food is packed in on a one hour's hike, or at Lakes of the Clouds where food is hiked DOWN from the summit a mile or two, or whether it's Galehead hut where food has to be hauled in a long way (several miles).


Work for stay for AT thru hikers.. sometimes you sweep out the bunk rooms the next morning (and your departure is delayed till 9 am or so or more), sometimes you lecture to guests, sometimes you shovel compost. It all depends on where and when you get the privilige.

For one hundred bucks+ .. a hiker could go to any number of hostels on or near the AT, have two nights lodging as well as several all you can eat meals. The hiker could stay almost a week at the SunnyBank Inn, or Uncle Johnny's or at Shaws.

The AMC huts are so lucrative that they subsidized the campsites/shelters. I guess for many of the flatlanders money is no object when it comes to a night with the kids high on a mountain!