A couple friends and I are planning on being in Switzerland October 2-5 for an extended weekend. It will the first time in Switzerland for all three of us. We'll be flying out of London after class on Thursday afternoon and getting into Geneva around 2245, if I recall correctly. We wanted to be able to get a very early morning train out of the airport Friday morning, and it seemed the only way to do that was to fly out late Thursday. Anyway, I'm sure I am the 1000th person to ask this on the forum, but we're looking for a weekend hike to do. There's really two big dilemmas that we're currently trying to figure out, namely do we do a two or two-and-a-half-day hike, staying in huts for two nights (basically doing an "open jaw" type trip where we train in somewhere, hike and then leave via a different station back to Geneva) or rather set up base somewhere and do a couple of day hikes.
The second dilemma is obviously where to hike. The answer to that seems to be to "throw a dart at a map and you'll probably be happy," but I don't really want to do that. From what I've read, the big 3 popular places are the Bernese Oberland, Valais, or, if you want to hop over the border to France, the Chamonix area. Most of what I've looked at so far has been in the Bernese Oberland area.
Any input would really be appreciated. Just some more info on ourselves to help out... As I said, we fly into Geneva at 2245 Thursday night, and fly out of Geneva Sunday 5 Oct. at 2145. We're all in above-average to great physical condition, and are looking for a challenge (i.e. we wouldn't mind the challenge of squeezing what's normally a 3 day hike into 2 or 2 and a half days.) We want to balance travel time with the challenge, though. We all have relatively extensive hiking experience. We are not your prototypical American college students (at least I hope not). Get us away from the crowds. (i.e. I'd rather be in Gimmelwald than Grindelwald) [/LIST]
October is late for high elevation alpine hiking ... huts will be closed and I expect snow at fairly low (by alpine standards) elevation. Since I have never hiked in Switzerland later than the first week of September I can really add nothing more.
Where have you done most of your hiking? Basically at what elevation and in which seasons? Winter hiking in Colorado is different from winter hiking in my NH White Mountains
Really? That's disappointing to hear, considering a lot of the hikes I've been looking at seem to indicate they're doable up until the middle of October on average, and they seem to be at relatively high elevations. Two of us are east coast guys, so I've personally done a lot on the Appalachian Trail and offshoots, particularly through the Shenandoah. Also West Virginia, etc. I've done those in all seasons, with everything from snow on the ground to temperatures in the 90's. And my mom's from New England so I've done some hikes up in your neck of the woods in Vermont and New Hampshire during the summer, but clearly nothing remotely close to the Alps (so I guess that "extensive experience" comes with a caveat.) The second and third members both have done some hiking in Colorado.
The Dents du midi area (Valais alps) is very nice and the Refuge des Dents du Midi, Cabane de Susanfe and Auberge de Salanfe seem to be open in October. Better give them a call to be sure though.
There are many hiking options in Chamonix (low to high altitude), plus a convenient airport shuttle service.
Have a look at the Swiss Alpine Club's hut reservation page to see what is open in early October: http://www.sac-cas.ch/en/huts/search-a-hut.html . There are plenty still open at lower levels, although if there was a lot of early snowfall this could change very quickly.
Assuming no snow, you could do for example:
Day 1: Train to Sedrun, hike to the Etzlihütte
Day 2: Etzlihütte - Treschhütte
Day 3: Treschhütte - either Oberalppass or Gurtnellen, train back to Geneva
Edit: link posted simultaneously with zymogen, sorry... Picking up on her suggestion, part of the Tour des Dents du Midi could be doable in two and a half days if there is no snow.
Day 1: Train to Champéry, hike up to the Cabane de Susanfe
Day 2: Cabane de Susanfe - Auberge de Salanfe
Day 3: Auberge de Salanfe - Mex - bus and train back to Geneva
Side note: Most, if not all, of the SAC huts have a winter room that will be open for use. You will have to bring your own food, start a fire, etc.,.. but there will be beer-wine-drinks available on the honor system plus a bed and a duvet/wool blanket to sleep in.
Have a lower altitude backup plan (less than 2000 m). I would head for Wallis.
Wherever you decide to go, be prepared for snow and hard conditions. Just the last week in the Prealps (the one I see from my windows are 1200-2600m) there was snow one day, none the following day, then again snow for 2 days. It's just 40 km away and here in Bern it was 24 degrees all the time...
Over the Easter weekend, some coworkers and I did sections 3-5, of the Alpenpässe-Weg with some modifications. Most notably we stayed at Terrihutte instead of Scaletta. Terrihutte is listed as open through mid October.
There was.... a bit of snow on days 2 and 3. We had correctly divined that it was packed down enough for us to get by without snowshoes. We all brought crampons, but never quite needed them. A map was essential. I think my feet would have frozen without gators. Ice axes were nice to have for balance. We saw other groups on both skis and snowshoes.
That said, if you do go hiking when there is snow, do make your own risk assessment, check with the hut wardens ahead of time about trail conditions, be prepared to turn back if it gets too gnarly, etc, etc.
A bit off topic, but it's confusing that the English version of the wanderland site refers to this route as the "Alpine Passes Trail", given that what the English-speaking hiking world knows as the Alpine Pass Route is something completely different.
Wow, thanks for all the replies... Sounds like weather is definitely a big variable ...anyone want to throw out a guess as to what the chances are I could do, say, parts of the Tour des Dents du Midi with decent weather (trails passable, little to no snow, etc.), or is it as unpredictable as it sounds? I'm going to start getting in touch with a couple places tomorrow, and I'm sure they can give me answers regarding that as well. Also, just so I have a few ideas if conditions/forecasts do seem to be bad leading up to the trip, does anyone have any lower elevation recommendations? Great views with those would definitely be a plus.
I have a house in Chatel in the Portes du Soleil and I can tell you that the Dents du Midi is already quite snowy. We have great hiking trails in the Val d'Abondance. You can hike along the crests at 2000m during the day and pop back down into the villages at night to sleep.
As the trails straddle the border between Switzerland and France you have a number of choices of villages: Abondance, La Chapelle, Chatel, Torgons, Morgins, Avoriaz, Morzine, etc.
I don't know the route, from what I can gather from hikr.org, parts of the Tour des Dents du Midi are doable with snowshoes or skis. So in a sense, parts are gentle enough to always be passable.
That said, especially with intermediate amounts of snow, things can be more challenging and slow going. I suspect the odds are good if you are serious about doing it, but will reiterate the need to do your homework when hiking late season.
If you're in the good shape you say you are in, then you can do the whole tour de dents du midi imo. Take the train into Champery very early Friday morning and hike to auberge de salanfe. Saturday hike to Auberge de Chindonne, Sunday back to Champery. Here's more info: http://www.dentsdumidi.ch/en/
Btw, there might be snow on the dents du midi but the trail goes at a lower altitude around it.
What you can do will depend mostly on the weather. I'd prepare 1 good and 1 bad weather option and decide on Tuesday/Wednesday what to do.
If the forecast looks iffy I would rather go to a "popular" mountain place (Chamonix, Zermatt, Riederalp, Grindelwald, Leukerbad). There are often many hiking trails in these areas, there are more bad weather options for when it rains and cable cars bring you quickly up to a nice altitude.
Also, even the popular places aren't very busy in-between the summer and the winter season (minus perhaps Jungfraujoch).