Snow Time in The French and Swiss Alps

Written by Lindsay Cannon 04 October 2008

Last modified on 30 June 2020
October snow! October snow!

Snow has arrived in the Alps! 

It's only early October and the snow has already arrived!

I headed off to Swiss Val Ferret today for a very wintery walk with snow shoes. We were heading for Le Chantonet which is a wee summit near the Petit Col Ferret. It was very atmospheric as we headed up the first part of the climb with larch trees coated in fresh powder - really beautiful. I think my friend Barry and I got a bit of a shock when we realised how much snow had fallen overnight as we were up to our knees in places. The compass was out for the first time in ages with visibility down to about 20m.

 

snowshoeing in a storm

We successfully made our way up around 600m of the ascent before deciding that not being able to see anything was a bit of a lost cause. It was, however, a lovely day and after deciding to turn back and return to lower altitude we were rewarded with blue skies and sunshine! It certainly put us into winter mode and I can't wait for more snow to arrive and to get those snowshoes out. 

If you love the idea of hiking in snow, why not join one of our wonderful snow shoeing holidays this season?