SS, can you tell me more about the Pre-Alps, best places to stay best areas etc. I am looking to widen my horizons but am unsure where to go. This looks like a good middle ground between the the UK hills and the big mountains?
It is good middle ground, you could spend time here and then do the odd day on bigger mountains and that would work really well as a way to get experience.
I would suggest somewhere like Château d'Oex, Gstaad or Leysin as being good bases but Switzerland's full of this sort of terrain, it's a hobby horse of mine that people come here and go to Zermatt or Grindelwald and miss the best bits. Funnily enough someone posted a comment on my blog the other day asking just the same question.
Some hut to hut tours are fairly easy as well, I'm going to post some photo's shortly of a trip I did in Graubünden near the Swiss, Austria and Liechtenstein borders although a couple of sections there are a bit hairy.