winter walking in central europe - where??

[dannnnn]

hey all,

so i was planning on walking the overland track around may this year... but as it happens i will be in switzerland in february and figured i may as well stay an extra week and do some winter walking in europe. the thing is, whilst a lot of people in australia seem to get pretty excited about going for a walk in the snow i am having a hard time finding much about it in europe. it seems they have the better sense to stay indoors. can anyone help me out please? keen on something around 4 nights in switzerland, austria or the north of italy. staying in huts/lodges would be preferred to tents.

cheers!

- dan

[durks]

That's mid-Winter. If you are thinking of the high mountains, people will be ski-touring between huts at that time of the year but that's still mountaineering rather than 'winter walking'. You could do similar trips using snowshoes I suppose, provided you knew what you were doing.

[frenchy_84]

Do the type of walking where you have a lift to go up and some skis or a board to help you get down. There is a reason winter walking doesn't seem popular and it's not because everyone is indoors rather that skiing is so much better

[dannnnn]

i am already going skiing for a week at a swish chalet in austria!! but going up and down a hill with thousands of other people is a very different experience to a bushwalk!!

[samh]

Hi Dan,
If you are able to read german or italian here (http://www.hikr.org/) are some hiking reports from Switzerland. http://outdoorseiten.net/ is a good forum where you could also post questions in English, although signup is in german, sorry. Another option would be to stay at a hut for 4 days and do some daytrips. I guess you know that at that time of the year snowshoes are a must on most alpine tours.
Some other useful websites are http://wanderland.myswitzerland.com/en/welcome.cfm which also has information in English and http://www.englishforum.ch/sports-fitness/58438-hiking-switzerland.html. Dont forget also that at that time of the year some roads are closed or can be closed suddenly due to snowfalls, which at times cuts of entire valleys.