Abstract. The dependability of a network is its ability to cope with failures, i.e., to maintain established connections even in case of failures. IP routing protocols (such as OSPF and RIP) do not fit the dependability objectives of today applications. Moreover, forwarding techniques based on destination address (like IP) induce many-to-one connections. If a dependable connection is needed, all primary paths and protections having the same destination must be established in a coordinated way. In this paper, we propose a fault recovery for many-to-one connections based on a cold (preplanned) protection. The main advantage of our approach is that the recovery in case of failures is achieved within a short delay.Additionally, with respect to other approaches, the dependability of the routing scheme is increased in the way that it statistically copes with many failures. The algorithm we propose computes an efficient backup for an arbitrary primary tree using an improved multi-tree algorithm.