Bivacco Luca Vuerich: Free Nine-Bed Summit Hut in the Julian Alps

On the bare summit of Foronon del Buinz, 2,531 metres up in Italy’s Julian Alps, stands a tiny wooden A-frame with nine bunks and one of the finest views in Friuli. The Bivacco Luca Vuerich is a free mountain shelter built in a single day in 2012 by the family and friends of Luca Vuerich, a young Italian climber, in his memory.

A memorial to Luca Vuerich

Luca Vuerich was an Italian mountaineer who died in an ice-climbing accident at the age of 34. His family decided to remember him with something other climbers could use: a shelter on a high summit of the Julian Alps, open to anyone who makes the climb.

The bivouac stands on Foronon del Buinz (also spelled Buinc) in the Montasio group, in the municipality of Chiusaforte in the province of Udine. Directly across the valley rises Monte Canin on the border with Slovenia, and the bigger peaks of Jôf di Montasio (2,754 m) and Jôf Fuart (2,666 m) sit close by.

Built in a day by helicopter

The Italian architect Giovanni Pesamosca designed the shelter between December 2011 and April 2012. To make construction possible on an exposed summit, everything was prefabricated in the valley:

• 30 CNC-milled panels of cross-laminated spruce, three glulam trusses and a larch floor;
• six round concrete piers as a foundation;
• 18 helicopter flights to lift the parts to the top;
• a team of 12 – professionals, mountain-rescue volunteers and friends of the Vuerich family – who hiked up and assembled it in one day.

The finished hut covers only about 15 square metres, with nine sleeping places tucked under the steep roof. Seen from below, the A-frame looks tiny against the rock.

How to hike to the Bivacco Luca Vuerich

The usual start is the car park at Piani del Montasio (1,520 m), reached by a narrow, steep, asphalted road of about 6 km from the Sella Nevea pass (1,190 m). From there the route climbs about 1,000 metres, plus some extra ups and downs, to the summit.

• Time: plan 3 to 4 hours up, longer with snow on the route.
• Difficulty: a walk and scramble with an easy via ferrata – around ten cable sections from the Forca de lis Sieris saddle (2,274 m) to the hut – plus exposed unprotected stretches below the summit. Carry a ferrata kit; the route is not for anyone who suffers from vertigo.
• Snow: early in the season, steep, slippery snow patches call for crampons and an ice axe.
• Crowds: the hut is popular, so avoid weekends and Italian public holidays if you can.

Plan ahead before you go: according to recent reports from hikers, the volunteer managers now keep the door locked and give registered visitors a code for a key lockbox, so contact them before your trip and carry a light bivy sack as a backup. There is no charge to stay; there is an offering box for donations, and everything you carry up, including rubbish, should come back down with you.

More alpine shelters and cold nights

Sleeping at 2,500 metres is cold even in summer. Our guide How to Stay Warm Outdoors: Clothing, Stops and Sleeping Systems covers the basics. For other ideas about sleeping in the mountains, see Highline Hammocks in the Italian Alps: The Work Behind the Picture and The Orange Solar Tent Concept: Shelter with an Energy Budget.

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