Switzerland In Focus - Discover Switzerland: Experience the Best of Switzerland - page 588

When to Go
Except for the depths of winter - which offers its own options for fun - you can revel in
the Swiss outdoors free of winter gear for much of the year.
» May-June The crowds are thin and the weather is often fine. Snow patches still linger
above 2000m. June is great for hiking with long, warm days and wildflowers carpeting the
slopes. Many huts are still closed and mountain transport is limited.
» July-August A conga line of high-altitude hikers and cyclists makes its way through the
Swiss Alps. All lifts and mountain huts are open (book ahead). The lakes beckon all
water-sports fans.
» September-early October Pot luck: can be delightful or drab. The larch forests look
beautiful in their autumn mantle of gold, and temperatures at lower altitudes are still mild.
Accommodation prices drop, as do the crowds, but many hotels and lifts close.
» Mid-October-November Days get shorter and the weather is unpredictable. Expect
rain, fog and snow above 1500m. Most resorts go into hibernation.
Weather Reports
The weather is notoriously fickle in the Alps. Even in August, conditions can skip from foggy to sunny, stormy to
snowy in the course of a day, so check the forecast on www.meteoschweiz.ch before embarking on long hikes at
high altitudes.
Walking & Hiking
Mighty glaciers and 4000m mountains, remote moors and flower-flecked meadows, lime-
stone ravines and sparkling rivers - Switzerland has an almost indecent amount of natural
splendour for its size. More than 60,000km of marked trails criss-cross the country and
only by slinging on a backpack and hitting the trail can you begin to appreciate just how
big this tiny country really is.
Walk Designations
As locals delight in telling you, Switzerland's 62,500km of trails would be enough to
stretch around the globe 1.5 times. And with (stereo)typical Swiss precision, the footpaths