Renting a chalet in Wengen for a week with my wife, and we are looking to see if there is some kind of high hut in the area. We'd like to depart Wengen early morning and hike most of the day, arriving at some high mountain cabin where we can get a meal and overnight lodging.

Ideally one of the basic communal type places, but really looking for recommendation of high hut in very beautiful surroundings, deep in the mountains. We are willing to sweat to see the good stuff, and we have lots of camping experience deep in the Rockies.

Wengen is a Swiss town in the general Eiger / Monch / Jungfrau region of BO. Any hut systems I should be focusing on? Haven't had much luck Googling this, what exactly do they call these high huts in the Alps?

What you plan is very easy to accomplish.
Start with the website of the Swiss Alpine Club, which runs many of those huts.
www.sac-cas.ch
You will find a map with the huts there.
The word you look for is "Berghütte" (mountain hut)
Many of those are run by an alpine club, like the SAC in Switzerland, or have other owners.
Usually there is a difference in prices for members and non-members.
A Berghütte can be as comfortable as a hotel with individual rooms and amneties. Or more rustic communal accomodation.
In general, Berghütten offer full board so you won't have to pack anything but what you need for the hike.
Just make sure that you understand without any doubts what skills are required to reach the hut. Many will be just a hike (more or less strenous) but there are also many which require real mountain climbing skills.

One more thing...one of the toughest parts of planning this trip is thinking about how to take the train / cablecars to a place where I can start my hike. Thinking we would probably be able to get more bang for our buck if we took the cablecar from Wengen deep into the mountains, which would allow us to hike somewhere really cool.

For now I'll just take somebody who can point me in any direction to help plan something like this. Thanks!

Thanks. We're comfortable with navigation and survival skills in the wilderness. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Assume I'll have to reserve something in advance. Would love the idea of one of the communal joints, with a good view.

Yes, advance reservations are highly recommended or can be mandatory.
Hiking in the Alps means less wilderness than in the Rockies, so it's not so much survival than bringing a mobile phone that works with the GSM standard. Weather is much more volatile, so that is indeed the key factor to take into consideration.
In high season, you can expect a substantial amout of "traffic" (other hikers) anywhere you go.
If you stay in Wengen, you can address that TI by email with your question. It's a very common activity so I am sure the local experts will give you a lot of hiking options.

Wengen itself is not a good place to start a hike to one of the mountain huts, sorry. First you have to go down to the valley and start at Stechelberg in the Lauterbrunnen valley or in Grindelwald.

Most high alpine ambience probably offers Rottalhütte (from Stechelberg 5.30 h) at 2,755 m. Other options are Schmadrihütte (2262 m, 4.30 h from Stechelberg) and Gspaltenhornhütte (2438 m, 6-7 h from Mürren, in the neighbouring Kiental valley).

From Grindelwald there is only one in really high alpine surroundings - the Glecksteinhütte at 2317 m, 3 h from Hotel Wetterhorn on the road to Grosse Scheidegg. The others like Faulhorn hut and Mändlenen/Weberhütte are rather half-day excursions.

In other words, can we wake up on Tuesday morning, get to the trailhead somehow (using train, cablecar, or cab) and hike up to the hut in a single day? We'd then spend the night in the hut and hike down, take train back to Wengen the following day.

Basically travel time from Wengen to trailhead - can we do it in about 3 hours or less total?

I think I've figured out a decent route. Looks like it will probably take 6-7 hours plus about 45 minutes to get to Murren. If anybody has a better option please let me know.

Travel from Wengen to Murren in the early morning. (take train via lauterbrunnen) Should be easy.

From Murren hike the Via Alpina trail stage 117 up to Sefinenfurgge pass
http://www.via-alpina.org/en/stage/117

At Seifinenfurgge, there is a trail that takes you to Gspaltenhornhutte, which serves dinner + breakfast and has three large rooms with 70+ beds and a large stone terrace overlooking a gorgeous Alpine view. It's about 68 chf per person per night.
http://www.gspaltenhornhuette.ch/ind...&id=1&Itemid=2

Yes, sounds good. I saw 73 CHF per person per night.

We are planning a similar trip this summer. We have a place to stay in Wengen for a week plus. How did your trip turn out? Did you make it to Murren? What would you recommend? Thanks!