are likely to be seen from a distance. These shy, agile members of the antelope family have short curved horns, a distinctive white lower jaw and a dark, reddish-brown coat with a black stripe along the spine. The chamois has acute hearing and an incomparable sense of smell, which makes it notoriously difficult to approach; if you should disturb one, it will probably give a sharp, wheezing snort of warning before racing away.
The ibex is more elusive in the Silvretta and Rätikon Alps than the chamois, but when sighted, the adult male is a noble-looking creature, with its large, knobbly, scimitar-shaped horns. Short-legged and of stocky build, the adult male leads a more-or-less solitary existence until the autumn rut, when one dominant buck fights all-comers for the prize of a harem of females. Less stocky and with shorter horns than the male, the female ibex feeds within a group of other females and their young. Their coat is similar to that of the chamois, but without the black stripe along the spine or the white lower jaw.
The small, streamlined and long-tailed stoat inhabits the upper pasturelands and preys on ground-nesting birds, marmot cubs and even the mountain hare. In the summer months its fur is a russet fawn, with white underbelly and throat. In winter its coat turns completely white.
Both red and roe deer may be seen in the forested lower slopes and outlying meadows, while the red squirrel scampers among the pine and larch woods. In these same woods, jays and nutcrackers make their presence known with their distinctive cries of alarm; the nutcracker is well-named as it uses its strong beak to break open pine cones to get to the fatty seeds hidden inside.
Perhaps seen more than any other bird in the Alps, the ubiquitous alpine chough scavenges for picnic leftovers on accessible summits and around mountain huts. This member of the crow family has an unmistakable yellow beak and coral-red feet, and is often seen in small, boisterous flocks among the high rocky places.
Alpine flowers
Clockwise from top left: Trumpet gentian; Gentian lutea; Glacier crowfoot; Daphne cneorum (all photos: Linda Reynolds)
But it is the sheer volume and variety of alpine flowers that in the early summer transform the Silvretta and Rätikon Alps with a bewitching palette of colour. Wandering along the track that leads to the Chamanna Tuoi (Tuoi Hut) on one occasion, we were struck by open meadows in the lower Val Tuoi in which there were so many flowers in bloom that we could imagine there was no space left for a single blade of grass to intrude. Elsewhere the screes and boulder fields below the southern face of the Drusenfluh and Sulzfluh were transformed into magnificent rock gardens, whose visual beauty was matched by the fragrance of scores of tiny daphne flowers (Daphne cneorum).
All the main zones and habitats of mountain flowers are represented, from lush valley meadows to glacial moraines and bare, windswept rock ridges, and everything in between; and with the glaring white limestone of the Rätikon range being especially productive, the botanist will have a fine time. Next to the Lindauer Hut a long-established and well-laid-out alpine garden is a good place to check out the names of plants you’re likely to see as you trek among these mountains.
This is not the place to give a comprehensive list, but the following notes will provide an idea of what to expect.
With the melting snowfields in late spring and early summer, the tiny tassel-flowered alpine snowbell, Soldanella alpina, is among the first to appear, followed by drifts of Crocus albiflorus and C. vernus (the white and purple crocus). The lovely white glacier crowfoot (Ranunculus glacialis) is amazingly adaptable, being found among both dry moraine banks and in damp soil beside streams, and even on high ridges and in the gravel of a broad snow-free pass in the Silvretta range.
There are several types of orchid and primula, and at least two varieties of pasque flower (Pulsatilla alpina and P. vernalis). In rocky places succulents from the stonecrop family usually flower in July and August, while the showy alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum) spreads its pink or red blooms across the mountainsides any time between late June and the end of August.
Cushions of saxifrage and androsace spill over rocks, while both the meadows and rocky places have their fare share of gentians – the great yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea) standing upright, and perhaps most eye-catching of all, the bright blue trumpet gentian (G. acaulis) taking pride of place in the early summer.
When to go
The season for trekking and high-level walking in the Alps is dictated by the timing and amount of the previous winter’s snowfall, and the availability of accommodation – in other words when the huts are open. Most of these are staffed from mid-June until October, assuming reasonable conditions, that is.
In a ‘normal’ summer the most favourable period to tackle routes described in this guide should be from the end of June until the end of September. But you should be aware that late-lying snow or ice in sheltered high places and north-facing gullies could hamper the crossing of the most challenging passes – even as late as August in some years – and neither sudden storm nor snowfall at any time in the summer can be ruled out.
Late June and early July is when the flower meadows are at their best, and when natural rock gardens among screes and boulder fields add a dazzling array of colour. July is often a month of increasingly warm or very warm weather, when the valleys and hut dormitories can be stifling, and a cool mountain breeze is a welcome gift. August is when most Europeans take their summer holidays, so the trails and huts are at their busiest. A build-up of heat during the day can lead to severe thunderstorms in the late afternoon and evening.
September sees the return of cooler weather and the onset of autumn; the number of visitors decreases and there’s more room in the huts. But while September used to be known for having fairly settled weather, in recent years climate change has made such predictions unreliable.
For a five-day weather forecast before you go, check the website of MeteoSwiss – http://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/web/en.html which gives frequent updates in English.
Getting there
Travel to the Alps by public transport is straightforward from the UK, with several options available, depending on your preferred starting point in the mountains. My own preference is for a flight to Zürich, followed by train for the Swiss side. Zürich is also useful for those intending to approach the Rätikon Alps from the Austrian valleys.
By air
Air travel information is notoriously vulnerable to change. In addition to complex fare structures, schedules are often rearranged at short notice, new routes introduced and abandoned, and airlines go out of business with little or no advanced warning. Readers are therefore advised to check the current situation either through the internet or via a High Street travel agent.
Zürich is far and away the most convenient international airport for these mountains, with easy access to mainline trains from the airport building. Regular scheduled flights from major UK airports are currently operated by British Airways (www.ba.com) and Swiss International Airlines (www.swiss.com), along with low-cost operator EasyJet (www.easyjet.com). Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) also flies to Zürich from Dublin in conjunction with the Swiss national carrier.
Innsbruck airport is useful for walkers planning to visit the Austrian flank of the Silvretta Alps, but do check current flight information on the internet, as carriers and schedules here change more frequently than those
