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May: the valleys are walkable, the high cols are not
If you are looking at May dates, the honest answer is that you would be walking a different route from the one in the guidebook. The valleys are clear. The cols are not.
Where the snow actually sits
The high crossings hold snow long after the villages have dried out — the approach to the Col du Bonhomme and the stretch on to the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme in particular, where the cover turns continuous rather than patchy. Snow on a col is not just cold: it hides the path, it makes a slip consequential, and it turns a four-hour stage into something else entirely.
What that changes
Two practical consequences. Huts at altitude have not opened yet, so the stage lengths that make the classic itinerary work are not available to you. And the sections people reroute around in early season — valley alternatives, the bus links — are exactly the ones that make a May attempt feel like a compromise rather than the walk you came for.
The useful version of "when"
Most years the full circuit comes into normal condition somewhere from late June. If your dates are fixed and early, plan for the valley route and the bus links rather than assuming the cols will go — and check conditions again in the week before you leave, not in the month before.
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