Hiking the Alps

When to hike the Alps

From July to September, all 25 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. Not one of them does from December to April.

Averaged across the destinations, July is the warmest month at 14 degrees in the hiking window and January the coldest at -6.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 932 metres at Salzkammergut to 2,572 metres at Ortler, with a median of 1,739 metres. Salzkammergut clears the criteria in 6 months (from May to October), Ortler in 3 months (from July to September).

The longest season belongs to Triglav National Park, at 7 months (from May to November); the shortest to 9 destinations, including Vanoise and Verbier, at 3 months each.

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is snow cover, for every one of the 25 destinations.

In January, the quietest month, every destination is closed, all of them by snow cover.

Not counted here is one further destination for which we publish no recommendation. It is listed below with the reason.

Conditions in August

August is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 10 degrees at Engadin to 18 at Salzkammergut, and rain falls on 46 to 75 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 25 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.