Fastest general

[Didz]

What the hell were the russians doing in the alps then?

You never heard of the Swiss Alps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Alps

Right!! I've done a bit more reading and it appears that I was slightly wrong in my earlier statement. Suvorov was not trying to invade Switzerland it seems he had already done that and was trying to get out again. The main Russian Army under Rimsky-Korsakov had been defeated by the French already and Massena with 80,000 French troops had invaded Switzerland and was advancing on Suvorov's army of 18,000 regulars and 5,000 cossacks.

Suvorov could either retreat or be destroyed.

Avoiding Massena, the Russian commander withdrew on 6 October through the Panixer Pass, and then upwards into the 9,000 foot mountains of the Berner Oberland, by then deep in snow. Massena was convinced that he would be trapped there and forced to surrender. Desperately ill-equipped and short of supplies, Suvorov neverthless pushed on, finally reaching Chur on the Rhine with the bulk of his army intact. As he watched his ragged and starving soldiers march into camp the old soldier declared that "The Russian eagles outflew the Roman eagles," referring to his Hannibal-like crossing of the snow-capped Alps.

Note: that 300 miles in 18 days (16 miles per day) was considered at the time to be quite an achievement. Though it is not directly related to the Alpine incident. It was however from the same campaign.