What is settled
- Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The three countries this site knows best.
- Late May into June. It is the best window in the Alps, and the rest of this page explains why.
- Small groups, led in person. Doug is going anyway. That is the whole premise — not a coach tour with a guide who read about it.
- Anyone can come. This is not a family-and-friends trip. If you have read this site and thought "I want that one", it is for you.
What is not settled — and we would rather say so
- Whether there is one departure or two. There may be an earlier group and a later one across the window, and that is partly what we are trying to find out. Telling us which end of the season suits you is what decides it.
- Northern Italy and Eastern France. Both are under consideration as extensions rather than as fixed legs. Say if either is the reason you would come.
- The price and the group size. Neither is decided, and quoting a number we might not hold to is not how this site works.
- The exact route. We have a very good idea. We are not going to publish it as though it were final when it is not.
Why late May and June, and not July
- The flowers are out and the snow is still on the peaks. That overlap lasts a few weeks and it is the best thing about an alpine spring. Look at the Männlichen photographs on this site — gentians growing to the edge of the gravel with the Eiger still white behind them. Those are early June.
- The lifts are running and the crowds are not there yet. High summer in the Bernese Oberland is a different and much busier place.
- Long light. By the first week of June the valleys hold light until well past nine, which changes what you can fit into a day.
- And the honest catch: some high routes and one or two mountain railways open later in the season, and a cold spring moves everything. Planning around that is the job, and it is a reason to go with someone who has been there in that exact window rather than to guess at it.
