Hikes in the Alps in January

Where to hike in January: low, sunny trails above Lake Maggiore, Lake Como and in Valchiavenna, from Monte Barro to the Acquafraggia waterfalls.

In January the high mountains belong to ski tourers and snowshoers, and we will not pretend otherwise: this page gathers the trails of the Prealps and the valley floors instead, where with a little luck you walk on dry ground in the sun while the plain stays under the fog. They are short or medium-length hikes, suited to short days on which it pays to be back before the sun drops behind the ridges. The list comes from our own season tags and includes routes we have marked as spring hikes: in a dry winter they are often walkable, in a snowy one they are not, and the difference is made by that year's weather rather than by the calendar.

The fixed points are the Cima di Morissolo, half an hour's walk above Lake Maggiore with the maze of tunnels of the Cadorna Line, the loop of the Acquafraggia waterfalls with Savogno and Dasile in Valchiavenna, and the short, entertaining protected path on Monte Barro above Lecco. On Lake Como, Alpe Giumello and Monte Croce di Muggio make an hour and a half's stroll, while the ridge between Monte Grona and Bregagno and the Monte San Primo loop climb higher and are worth considering only once you have checked the snow. If you want a long day, the Sentiero del Tracciolino runs for kilometres through galleries and tunnels, high above Val Codera.

Good to know

The phenomenon that makes January interesting for walkers is called temperature inversion: on days of high pressure, cold, damp air settles over the plain and turns into fog, while a few hundred metres higher the air is milder and the sky is clear. For anyone setting out from Milan this often means driving through grey and emerging halfway up the climb, with a sea of fog below and the snowy Alps ahead, a sight the rest of the year does not offer. It is not a rule, since a single weather front changes everything, but it is the reason the ridges above the lakes are worth the trip even in midwinter.

Lombard tradition calls 29, 30 and 31 January the giorni della merla, the blackbird days, said to be the coldest of the year; the meteorological records do not always agree, but the legend of the white blackbird turned black by chimney soot is still told. More practically, in January we carry microspikes for icy stretches in the shade, read the avalanche bulletin as soon as a route gains height, and check the opening hours of mountain huts each time, because in this season they vary a great deal from one place to the next.