Refuge des Évettes

Rifugio des Evettes

Refuge des Évettes is a staffed mountain hut at an elevation of 2,594 m in the Vanoise massif of the Alps, in the Haute-Maurienne Valley of Savoie, France. It stands in the Cirque des Évettes, in the commune of Bonneval-sur-Arc and is operated by the Lyon Villeurbanne section of the Club Alpin Français, part of the Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne network of refuges.

History

A stone built refuge, the first on the site, was constructed in 1907 by the CAF in partnership with the Touring Club de France. It was deliberately destroyed by the French army in Jube 1940 so it could not be used by advancing Italian forces, and was replaced in 1948 by a temporary wooden shelter. In the early 1960s the CAF undertook a broader programme of renewing its high altitude facilities and in 1968 decided to rebuild the Évettes refuge on the same site with a capacity of 70 people. The commission went to Atelier d'Architecture en Montagne (AAM) of Chambéry, a practice known for mountain developments including Courchevel 1850 and Les Arcs. The project architect, Guy Rey-Millet, worked with engineer Jean Prouvé and his collaborator Léon Pétroff, who had developed a self supporting three dimensional aluminium frame system built for small triangulated models. This construction method removed the need for internal load bearing supports and left the floor plan free. The frame components were prefabricated off site, allowing them to be transported by helicopter, in small, lightweight sections and assembled without heavy lifting equipment. Stone from the earlier demolished refuge was reused for the new building's base. The current building was erected over eight weeks in the summer of 1970 by a team of three worker and opened that year.

Preservation dispute

In 2017 the FFCAM adopted a 10 year renovation plan for its refuge network. A related reconstruction scheme for the Évettes refuge, assigned to architect Philippe Caire in April 2021, called for the demolition of the existing building and its replacement with a 354m structure with a capacity for 54 beds. Docomomo France, a heritage conservation organisation, wrote to the regional cultural affairs authority in February 2022 to argue for the building's preservation, on the grounds that it is among the few surviving structures built using the Prouvé–Pétroff aluminium frame system and would, at its elevation, be the highest refuge in the world with such a frame. The organisation also pointed to the 2017 demolition of the comparable Refuge du Col de la Vanoise, which had itself been officially labelled a "20th-century heritage" building in 2023, as a precedent it hoped would not be repeated.

Architecture

The refuge's structure is a self supporting aluminium assembled from small three dimensional modules bolted together at the corners, with the resulting load transferred to galvanised steel post around the building's perimeter. The façades are clad in prefabricated "Matra" panels, a wood frame filled with fire resistance phenolic foam injected in a honeycomb pattern, closed with a cement broad and face with a fiberglass reinforced polyester coating, giving high thermal insulation and full weatherproofing. The roof is flat and designed to retain snow cover, reducing snow shedding onto the façades and sparing users the task of clearing the door and windows after a day out. Interior partition, doors and furniture were purpose designed by the architect and built from laminated wood panels supplied by the Rousseau company. The refuge was also among the first in France to be equipped with solar panels and is heated by wood.

Location and access

The refuge sits on a south facing site above a group of small, rock bordered lakes, facing the glacial cirque and the séracs of the Évettes glacier, below the peaks of Albaron 3,637 m, and Grande Ciamarella 3,676 m. It can be reached from Bonneval-sur-Arc by driving 4 km to the hamlet of L'Écot, then following the slopes to the right of the cliff up to the Col des Évettes before continuing north to the refuge.

Use

the refuge is used as a base both for family day hikers to the surrounding lakes and glacier, and for mountaineers and ski tourers attempting the Albaron and Grande Ciamarella or crossing the Évettes and Grand Méan glaciers. It is staffed in two seasons each year, braodly from late February/ early March to early and from mid-to-late June to early September, with dates varying annually.