The alpine chalet can be 100 to 300 m higher than the upper limit of the trees. So it is necessary to mount the firewood. The best solution is to cut the dwarf alders (arcosses) in the spring (which rise a little higher than the spruces, up to almost 2000m), to build fagots, then to mount them in the autumn at the cottage, when they are already a little less heavy. They will finish drying in the barn, and will be perfect next season. It is also possible to mount cut timber in the forest below, the wood is also very dense and even the spruce is a good fuel.

Since the beginning of the century a model of cast iron wood stove is used everywhere. It heats very well, and allows cooking in cauldrons whose narrower bottom is made to fit the openings. The stove is much more practical than the chimney that lets out too much heat in the duct. The stove is lit in the morning, to make the coffee and heat the milk, and a soup is put to simmer, it will stay there all the day, the evening the fire is extinguished and the soup has only to be heated. Depending on the size of the chalet, the stove has 1 to 4 holes. Instead of the rings that are common for the surface of a wood stove, a sort of one-piece salvage cover is used. These lids are quicker to remove or put back than the rings. The stoves of this era are practically all in very bad condition today, because even by removing the pipe in winter, condensation and moisture rust the bottom of the stove, doors and rings break. This stove model can still be purchased through an Italian manufacturer who makes exact replicas (see the Marisa Hardware in Modane).

Dried dung is also a very good fuel, burning gently (and odorless). The dung is dried Brick-built in molds, or directly on the roof sheets metal (but the acidity of the fresh dung oxidizes the sheets metal). The wood was mostly used to light the stove, then the dung takes over.

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