---
type: "article"
title: "Notes from a Rifugio"
newsletter: "Midlife In Motion"
newsletter_handle: "midlife-in-motion"
newsletter_url: "https://midlife.joycestack.com/"
author: "Joyce Stack (@joycestack)"
published: "2026-03-16T17:37:38.000Z"
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---

# Notes from a Rifugio

Notes from a hiking holiday last year.

![](https://storage.mlcdn.com/account_image/2117849/n8Tvi20hcaolbP7G9OvX6WRhXbTIYYWc9xpdFFTx.jpg)

Notes from a Rifugio

The first thing you notice in a rifugio is the boots.

They line the wall like a small monument to the sweat and day’s labour that got you here.

### The Rituals of the Rifugio

- the welcome from the rifugio owners - always amazing
- the buongiornos
- the ease with which the rifugio workers slip between English, French, Italian and German - hashtag lifegoals.
- communicating despite the lack of a shared language
- packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking

### The Strange Domesticity of Mountain Huts

- the fake flowers
- bad alpine pictures in the rifugio
- the massive helicopter dropping off supplies
- the 5-minute shower
- sharing a bathroom with loads of strangers - a topless German woman washing her armpits like this was the most normal thing in the world
- catching yourself sounding like a Californian asking if they have WiFi
- the enforced boredom when they say no so you write in your journal

### Sleeping Arrangements

- praying you'll be lucky to have the bunk room to yourself
- praying you'll have a hot Italian in your bunk who has a penchant for Irish women
- praying that you won't have a snorer
- the quiet awkwardness of sharing a tiny bunk room with one ageing man

# **The Landscape**

- the Alpine flowers in early June
- the butterflies
- the smell of pine
- the sound of gushing rivers
- streams and rivers looking paused from a distance
- the cow bells somewhere in the distance all day
- the crunch of gravel under my boots - my hypnotic soundtrack for the week
- the cold alpine water on hot tired feet as you lay in soft grass taking a break

# **The Food & Dining**

- all the pasta, cheese and speck
- the cakes — all the cakes
- the history of alpine food - how a hut at 3000m still manages better food than Ireland
- the unfortunate sweaty smell from the late arrival who sits next to you at dinner

# **The Body**

- the burning in your calves as you push and scramble up scree and steep rocks
- the same socks for 3 days
- the same t-shirt for 4 days
- the same trousers for a week
- the way your brain shuts off like nowhere else

# **Fear**

- the fear sliding down a steep decent of gravel and scree
- crawling on your knees under an overhang wondering WTAF you are doing with your holidays
- the fear of breaking an ankle because you didn't tie your crampon on correctly
- the fear of hearing thunder on a 3000m ridge and hoping you get off before a total downpour

# **The Characters of the Mountains**

- the nod that says **we are all feeling it** when you are descending and they are ascending
- the runners with thighs like boulders
- the person running down with their hands in their pockets from a 3000m peak
- the smokers - how are you doing it?
- the Italian that told me I am a *strong woman* for doing it solo.

# **The Small Conversations**

- apologizing to Italians for Irish food when they tell you they visited Ireland
- the smallness of the world when someone shows you their cycle route in Ireland which went past your local village

# **The Unexpected**

- the adder

### The Quiet Sense of Achievement

- the quiet contentment of completing a week-long hike
- pushing your own boundaries and realizing the limits were mostly in your head
- climbing mountains because you can
- the quiet gratitude of being strong and able 🏔️

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## Discussion (3 replies)

Numbering shows the reply tree: `2.1` is a reply to `2`. Message text is reproduced verbatim as posted.

### 1. Fran Mendez (@fmvilas) - 2026-03-17T20:42:58.822Z

I'm going to copy you. Next time I do a 3000m I'm going to take notes.

Love these posts, Joyce. Keep 'em coming 🙌

### 2. Joyce Stack (@joycestack) - 2026-03-18T20:28:45.046Z

> Quoting Fran Mendez (@fmvilas): I'm going to copy you. Next time I do a 3000m I'm going to take notes. Love these posts, Joyce. Keep 'em coming 🙌

I have a small mountain journal that I take with me to keep little notes.

### 3. Fran Mendez (@fmvilas) - 2026-03-18T20:29:58.541Z

You just gave me an idea. I have a little journal from the Pyrenees that I never used for anything. Now I know what to use if for! 💛