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Weather

Located in a beautiful cirque walled by the Weisshorn and Zinalrothorn, the Cabane d’Ar Pitetta looks wintry after a summer snowstorm

It’s an old adage, but there’s more than a ring of truth to it: ‘Mountains make their own weather.’ This is as true of the Valais as it is of any other region of the Alps, and from massif to massif, valley to valley, and even from one side of a valley to another and from the foot of a mountain to its summit, different influences come into play to create micro-climates and individual weather systems. On the whole, Valaisian valleys not only benefit from lying in the rain-shadow of the Bernese Alps, but enjoy a more settled and slightly warmer climate than their neighbours. However, generalisations are not to be taken too seriously, especially as Alpine weather patterns appear to be in a state of flux under the influence of global warming, and walkers who go there should be prepared for all eventualities.

If planning to walk reasonably high, June will normally be the earliest month to contemplate a holiday in the Alps, and even then there will probably be limitations because of low-lying snow or even avalanche danger. In the Valais, temperatures are at their highest in July, with the likelihood of electrical storms; rainfall is at its heaviest in August, while September can be utterly magical. Then the first night-frosts will be experienced in the mountains, and the days can often be luminescently clear. If the weather holds, October rewards with larchwoods turning gold and fresh powder snow on the summits, but many resorts will be closing down for a few weeks before the winter season begins.