Alpine Pass Route

A west-to-east crossing of the Swiss Alps, the Alpine Pass Route runs roughly 350 km from Sargans near Liechtenstein to Montreux on Lake Geneva, climbing over sixteen mountain passes along the way. It takes strong walkers about two to three weeks and is celebrated for packing an astonishing amount of alpine scenery into a single traverse.

Every day brings a new pass and a new valley, from the Toggenburg and the great limestone wall of the Säntis to the Bernese Oberland beneath the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, then the Pays-d'Enhaut above Lake Geneva. Cowbells, cheese dairies and immaculate Swiss villages fill the valleys between the high, often snow-flecked cols.

It is a demanding but non-technical walk, with daily ascents frequently exceeding 1,000 metres and a few steep, rough descents. Switzerland's superb infrastructure means mountain inns, dairies and village hotels provide beds and meals, and postbuses or trains offer easy escape from most valleys. No permit is required, and the trails are impeccably signed.

The route follows historic trans-alpine trading and droving paths that linked Swiss cantons for centuries, now knitted into the country's national hiking network. Snow closes the higher passes into early summer, so the reliable season is July to mid-September; even then, sudden weather can dust the cols, so walkers carry warm layers and watch the forecast closely.