Boval Hütte

The first Boval Hütte, a small stone shelter for guided ascents of Piz Bernina via the Morteratsch glacier, was built by the Bernina section of the SAC in 1877; the present larger building dates from 1939 and has been extended several times since. The hut sits at 2495 m on a lateral moraine of the Morteratsch glacier, with one of the most direct front-row views of the Biancograt — the white snow arête on Piz Bernina that is the most photographed ridge in the eastern Alps.

The hut's location has made it an unintended observatory of glacial retreat. The Morteratsch is the longest glacier in the eastern Alps and has been shrinking continuously since regular measurements began in 1878; the wooden distance markers along the approach trail from Morteratsch station — one for each decade — let the casual walker step through more than 2 km of retreated ice, with the 1900 marker now standing on dry rock far below the current snout. The Boval is consequently a popular non-climbing destination for school groups and university field trips studying glacier change.

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