Hut Croo for the Appalachian Mountain Club

For two summers in college I worked on hut croos (yes, that’s actually how they spell it) for the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). The AMC was founded in 1876 and over the course of the next century, they built eight high-mountain huts in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. The huts offer beds and meals to hikers. They are managed by a seasonal staff of 5-10 people called the “croo”. The croo are responsible for hiking in all the guest food, cooking and daily hiker safety, including search and rescues.

Working in a hut croo was the best summer job. Everyday I woke up near the alpine zone of a magnificent mountain range with croo and guests who love hiking as much as I do. Below are some highlights of my time as hut croo and Assistance Hut Master at Madison Spring Hut and Mizpah Spring Hut.

Croo

The croo is made up of 5-10 college students or recent graduates. We work together to serve food and guide thousands of hikers recreating in the Whites.

My croo at Madison Spring Hut (I’m 2nd from the right). We loved to dress up for our guests. These folks are now nurses, doctors, scientists, educators and cooks.

Wake up

The croo wakes up the guests every morning with a unique alarm.

My croo at Mizpah Spring Hut waking up guests with a song. Notice how happy the guest on the bottom bunk (bottom right) is to be woken up with singing, a trombone and a melodica.

Blanket Folding Demonstrations (BFD)

Once guests are awake and have been served breakfast, the croo does a demonstration on how to clean up their bunks and fold their blankets before they leave. BFDs are silly, entertaining and often entirely improvised.

Ali (right) and myself hosting a BFD Olympics where each event was a demonstration on cleaning up your bunk.

Cooking

Croo rotate cooking responsibilities daily. The cook of the day wakes up at ~5am to cook breakfast for all guests (50+) and spends the rest of the day cooking a multi-course dinner for evening guests. It’s a long day in the kitchen so we make sure to have fun.

I made a cookie very loosely resembling a horse with my extra cookie dough.

Packing

Hut croo pack in guest food and pack out trash every couple of days. We use wooden and canvas packs (”pack boards”) to load 45+ pounds of food. Depending on the hut, the hike into the hut can be 4+ miles with 3k feet of elevation gain. Summers in the huts were the fittest I’ve ever been.

Nate loads up his pack with guest food and a pirate flag before hiking up to Mizpah Spring Hut.

Nature talks

Every evening a member of the croo offers guests an informational presentation about the environment or the hut. I once offered guests a tour of Mizpah Springs Hut’s waste management system. I had a surprisingly large attendance…

My nature talk on waste management in the alpine zone at Mizpah Spring Hut. I’m in the front with the apron.

Meetups

The huts are placed along a point-to-point distance of 52 miles of trails. On special days, croos from adjacent huts will run to a midway meeting point and have lunch together.

A lunch date between the croos of Mizpah Spring Hut and Lakes of the Clouds Hut.