Hikes in the Alps in November

November hikes among the last larches and on low trails: Val di Campo, the Cima di Morissolo above Lake Maggiore, Valle Antrona, the Acquafraggia.

November is the most uncertain month of the year for walkers: in some years the first snow covers the high valleys early in the month, in others autumn lingers with clear, mild days until December. Our list holds both possibilities together, with the last larch hikes at the top and, straight after, the low trails of the lakes and valley floors that still work when it has already snowed higher up. Almost all high huts are closed, the summer lifts have stopped, and the days are so short that it pays to think in hours of daylight before kilometres.

If the snow is late, Val di Campo with the Saoseo and Viola lakes stays at its best into November, and the Rifugio Cristina in Valmalenco or the balcony path between Silvaplana and the Maloja can still offer the last colours. When winter comes early, instead, the Cima di Morissolo above Lake Maggiore, the loop of the Antrona and Campliccioli lakes and the Acquafraggia waterfalls with Savogno and Dasile are short, low hikes full of things to see. The Sentiero del Cardinello, in its gorge on the Via Spluga, is lonelier than ever in November.

Good to know

In the Swiss National Park the larches shed their needles in the first half of November, sooner if hard frosts and wind arrive, and from then on the Engadine valleys turn from gold to grey within a few days. Down on the plain, meanwhile, the days of temperature inversion return, with fog below and sun above, which make the balconies over the lakes more interesting than the summits. The Splügen Pass road usually closes for the winter between November and December.

11 November, St Martin's Day, was a deadline in the Alpine and farming world: in many German-speaking regions service contracts and land leases began or ended at Martinmas, at the close of the farming year, so much so that the day was called Zinstag, the day rents fell due. In northern Italy the phrase fare San Martino still means to move house, and anyone walking in November often finds the same end-of-season mood in the closed summer pastures and emptying villages.