This work investigated how important the explicit modeling of sunlight exposure (aspect, slope) is for discharge simulation in a high alpine catchment. The used spatially-explicit hydrological model includes a simple snow accumulation and melt routine (based on the degree-day method) and simulates discharge at a daily time step. The main conclusion of this work is that the role of sunlight exposure, while being crucial to simulate the hydrological response of individual subcatchments, is averaged out at the catchment scale.