The Hiking Club partners with ExoLabs to provide snow data from space

How AI, satellites, and Swiss innovation will keep thousands of self-guided hikers safe in the Alps this summer.

How much snow is still on the trail, and where exactly is it? The answers to these important questions are required for early-season hikers to assess the risk of their planned route and determine if any changes are necessary. Uncertainty around snow conditions can be costly, leading to both re-planning and risk-taking, negatively impacting what should otherwise be the incredible experience of hiking in the Alps.

For the past 5 years, The Hiking Club has been undertaking the task of providing the latest trail conditions through a human-led approach, a “Break The Trail” update from The Hiking Club team, and then ongoing daily trail reports from trail ambassadors from The Hiking Club community. Despite these programs giving self-guided hikers a comprehensive view of where the snow is on the trail at a point in time, these updates can quickly become obsolete. The Hiking Club team has been searching for a way to provide more regular snow updates in a format that is targeted and actionable.

Thanks to The Hiking Club’s new partnership with ExoLabs, we’ve found it. The Hiking Club has integrated ExoLabs’ estimated current snow depth and 48-hour new snow forecast layers into the map in their trip planning app. Snow uncertainty will be a thing of the past on famous multi-day trails in the Alps, like the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, and Alta Via 1 Dolomites.

The estimated current snow depth will be critical for hikers in June and July, to ensure they have the most up-to-date information on where the snow is located and its expected depth along the trails. The 48-hour new snow forecast will be valuable for hikers throughout the season as it will indicate where and how much snow is expected to fall along the trails for informed decisions.

Estimated current snow depth and 48-hour new snow forecast layers now available in The Hiking Club trip planning app.

These legendary trails attract self-guided adventurers from around the world who are often experienced in mountain hiking but have little or no experience in the Alps. Without having local knowledge over multiple seasons, applying general snow reports of an area to a hiking route is hard. Tour companies often use local guides to check trails and translate these reports for their clientele, but self-guided hikers who have planned their own trips don’t have access to this resource.

““It has never been easier for self-guided hikers to plan their own trips in the Alps, and by adding ExoLabs snow layers to our app, we will also help make the early season hiking experience safer than it has ever been before.””

— Brendan Jones, Co-Founder of The Hiking Club

ExoLabs has developed an innovative solution to show the expected current snow cover and snow depth on a map. Their truly novel approach feeds daily satellite imagery and weather station data, (including field readings and snow analysis), through complex models driven by modern machine-learning techniques to produce a snow distribution over the topography of the Alps and other mountain ranges worldwide. This snow projection has a 20-meter resolution and is updated daily.

The snow depth layer was validated with over 2 million data points from the Swiss Alps and achieved an average error of just 0.36 meters of snow depth. Given the high variability of snow depth distributions and the spatial resolution of 20 meters, this is considered a very accurate result. It will be a marked improvement on the single high-level snow report for a region that has previously been available to the hiking community.

Make informed route decisions based on estimated current snow depth data in The Hiking Club’s trip planning app.

The new snow layers are now available in The Hiking Club planning app, part of release V1.11, and will be the basis for our 2024 trail updates program during the early hiking season.

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About ExoLabs: Linked to the University of Zurich, Exolabs specializes in environmental monitoring. Using satellite data as well as weather and climate models, and modern machine learning techniques, ExoLabs is able to gain a comprehensive insight into the condition of our environment. This valuable information is then presented in a user-friendly format in order to facilitate informed and sustainable decision-making.

About The Hiking Club: The Hiking Club allows adventures to easily plan and safely navigate legendary trails in the Alps. With a trip planning app, GPS mobile maps, and up-to-date trail information, The Hiking Club has everything a self-guided hiker and trail runner needs for their inspiring and challenging journey.

2024 Training Diary: First 6 weeks

Off season activities: I enjoyed competing in a local triathlon during the off-season. Michael (L) and Brendan (R).

In October each year, I transition to my hiking off-season exercise regime, which involves very little forward planning, structure, or activity tracking. This is in stark contrast to my action-packed hiking season in the Alps, which is all about detailed daily planning and capturing content. While my off-season approach to exercise usually adds a couple of inches to the waistline, it’s a great way to unwind and give my body a break.

At the end of February, my approach to exercise changes gear as I move from free-wheeling to a formal training plan in preparation for the upcoming hiking season in the Alps! I started following a structured plan in the lead-up to last season and found it to be a game-changer given my old approach was no longer working for me. You can read more about my training environment and change in approach here.

As noted in our first training diary blog post, Susan and I are planning to complete 8 legendary hikes to share updates for our existing trails and capture content for new trails we’ll be adding to The Hiking Club platform. My training plan for this year has been designed around completing the Tour du Mont Blanc in 5 days. All the trails I do after this will have similar size days, so provided I stay healthy and focus on recovery and maintaining my fitness between hikes, this is the right plan for me.

Training plans for hiking in the Alps: The Hiking Club has an educational webinar and template to help hikers create their own training plan.

I created my own training plan by using our template last year to prepare for my ‘Break the Trail’ hike. Given I was able to achieve all my hiking goals in 2023, I’m using our training program again for my 2024 preparation! Below, you will find a few notes and a self-determined grade for each of the training components over the first 6 weeks of my 2024 training plan.

Starting point

I chose to immediately build on my average weekly step count from the weeks leading up to the start of my training program rather than reducing my step starting point by taking credit for introducing strength sessions. I felt confident doing this wouldn’t overload my training, as I had already taken a conservative estimate on my current weekly step count and was already doing a lot of cardio training, which would be reduced. By using this approach, based on my average weekly steps before starting the program, our training framework calculated that I needed a 12-week training plan to reach the goal of being ready for a 5-day Tour du Mont Blanc.

Strength sessions

Mark: 5/10

Despite having the best intentions to complete these, I’ve only done half of the sessions so far. Because of this, I haven’t done any ‘deload’ weeks as I’m already having these rests by not doing all the sessions. I’m disappointed by this, given I know how important and beneficial they are! I always plan to do them in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. However, I’m not very motivated to exercise at this time, especially when it’s the second workout of the day, so I needed to change it up for the next 6 weeks!

ENDURANCE TRAINING - SHORT CARDIO

Mark: 10/10

Bike riding: I love understanding how to take credit for different activities with the conversion table in our training plan. Pat (L) and Brendan (R)

I’m enjoying a variety of activities for my short cardio, including swimming, running, stair-stepping machines, and bike riding. I haven’t had any problems achieving my short cardio goal, and I regularly go well over the weekly target, given that it’s normal for me to do a lot of cardio each week.

ENDURANCE TRAINING - STEPS

Mark: 8/10

Training in Australia: A steps endurance session quickly turns into a short cardio session when there is a snake on the trail!

I’ve had a lot of variability in my step count each week. In total, I’ve done 33,000 more steps than I needed to over the first 6 weeks of the program, however, I’ve gone way over the weekly goal in half the weeks and then between 2,000-7,500 steps under on the other half. Each week, I’m pleased to have completed a longer endurance session on Saturday and will focus on trying to get closer to the step goal each week.

One thing I realised is that my stride length is nearly 50% higher when I run than when I walk. Therefore, I’m doing a distance-based step conversion for any hiking/running where my stride length is more than a walk, so they can be applied to the overall step count in the same step unit measurement (which is my average step/stride walking length).

REST

Mark: 8/10

One planned rest day and occasionally I’ve also had another unplanned day when I couldn’t find the time for training. Rather than changing my plan to train on my next planned rest day, I’ve opted to ‘catch up’ on the endurance training.

It’s great to be back training with purpose again. Based on how I’m feeling halfway through my 3-month program, I’m confident that I’ll have the endurance and strength to thrive on my 2024 Break The Trail hike. If you want to use our training program to create your own plan, check out the bundle below.

Sale

2026 Training Bundle: How to train for a multi-day hike in the Alps

Sale Price: €29.00 Original Price: €48.00

*Promotion - Get the training bundle for €29 (usually €48)*

Training for a multi-day hike in the Alps is not easy when you live at sea level. It can be hard to know how best to prepare your body for big elevations, mountain conditions, and back-to-back days on the trail.

Our 2026 training bundle is designed for hikers preparing for a multi-day hike in the Alps, such as Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Alta Via 1 Dolomites, Alta Via 2 Dolomites, Tour of Monte Rosa, Bernese Oberland Traverse, Tour des Combins and West Highland Way.

It’s for those that are looking to improve their hiking performance through a combination of step endurance, cardio and strength activities.

The 2026 training bundles includes 2 of our popular training materials:

1. 3 Month Training Program

2. Webinar: How to train for your multi-day hike in the Alps

Designed in partnership with Stacey Hardin, Founder of Pique to Peak, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Athletic trainer, our 2026 training bundle prepares your body for hiking the Alps.

It includes:

• Recorded 90 minute webinar: How to train for your multi-day hike in the Alps

• Training program PDF: Learn about our Alps specific methodology

• 3 Month training template: Create your training program based on your current fitness and specific hike stats, including distance and number of days on the trail. Schedule weekly workouts, track your steps and see your workout history.

• Library of workout videos: Watch demonstrations of hiking specific strength exercises

The training program is based on 3 core activities:

1. Step endurance

2. Short cardio (i.e 20-30 min run, bike, swim, incline walking)

3. Strength exercises (i.e 30-40 min exercises such as squats, planks, push-ups)

Purchase

Author: Brendan Jones, The Hiking Club
A pizza-making, craft beer-loving, peanut butter connoisseur that has been exploring the great outdoors since completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award in high school. He started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature. You can read more about Brendan and the team here.

Should I get an Alpine Club membership for the Tour of Monte Rosa?

The Tour of Monte Rosa travels through Switzerland and Italy.

If you are a member of one of the respective alpine clubs, you get discount on accommodation at their mountain huts. Unless you plan to stay exclusively in alpine club mountain huts, it is not usually worthwhile getting membership only for the hike. Here are the details on each alpine club membership:

Britanniahutte

SWISS ALPINE CLUB MEMBERSHIP

The Swiss Alpine Club has a membership program that provides discounts to their mountain huts. Membership is from 80 CHF and is open to non-Swiss citizens. For full details click here. The huts along the Tour of Monte Rosa that are owned by the Swiss Alpine Club include: Britanniahutte.

ITALIAN ALPINE CLUB MEMBERSHIP

The Italian Alpine Club has a membership program that provides discounts to their mountain huts. Membership is from 45€ and is open to non-Italian citizens. For full details click here. The huts along the Tour of Monte Rosa that are owned by the Italian Alpine Club include: Rifugio Teodulo, Rifugio Crespi-Calderini, Rifugio Pastore, Rifugio Oberto.

Rifugio Teodulo

Rifugio Pastore

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plan and navigate your ultimate Tour of Monte Rosa adventure