Hikes in the Alps in March

March hikes as the Prealps shed their snow: Monte San Primo and Rifugio Martina above Lake Como, the Via del Fiume in Val d'Era, Lago di Cama.

March is a month of waiting: the plain already feels like spring, the Prealps start to lose their snow on the sunny slopes, and the high mountains stay wintry for weeks. It is the moment when the hikes we have tagged as spring hikes become genuinely practicable again, provided you accept that snow on north-facing slopes may last longer than expected and that a single cold front can set everything back by a month. That is why the list is the same as in winter, only with a different order of priorities.

On Lake Como our first thought goes to the Monte San Primo loop, on the most panoramic ridge of the Triangolo Lariano with lunch at the historic Rifugio Martina, and to the Via del Fiume in Val d'Era, a protected path between small waterfalls and pools at the foot of the Grigne that carries more water as the snow melts. In Switzerland, Lago di Cama is a small lake set in an amphitheatre of peaks, worth trying only at the end of the month and with an eye on the snow. The low winter routes still hold, from the Acquafraggia waterfalls to the Sentiero del Cardinello, carved into the rock of a narrow gorge on the Via Spluga.

Good to know

On the first of March the Grisons celebrate Chalandamarz: in the Engadine, Val Müstair, Bregaglia and a few other valleys children parade with cowbells and whips to drive out the winter, a festival made famous beyond Switzerland by the children's book A Bell for Ursli. On the last Sunday of March Europe moves to summer time, which for walkers means an extra hour of light in the evening, useful on the way back from longer days out.

With the warmth comes a danger that winter does not have: wet snow. Spring avalanche bulletins keep repeating that wet-snow avalanches increase over the course of the day, with warming and sunshine, and that the early morning is usually the most favourable time. On the hikes of this page the risk concerns mainly the higher sections and the gullies beneath steep slopes; the simple rule is to start early, avoid crossing snow deposits in the afternoon, and turn back without regret.