Hasenmatt

Jura Mountains, Switzerland

29 July 2018

With Markus and Wen

A beautiful hike in the Jura Mountains

A wonderful trip where Wen and I were joined by my dear friend Markus. This was our first time in the Jura Mountains and Markus’s first visit to the highest point of this elongated east-west ridge north of the picturesque town of Solothurn. The area is bustling with hikers, bikers and paragliders who all come out here to enjoy magnificent views of Switzerland’s pre-Alps. You can see as far as the city of Basel from the top!

Lots of route options exist to get to the summit. We drove to the small town of Oberdorf, parked by the Weissenstein gondola station (for those wanting a quick and lazy way up to the east side of the ridge), and headed up a quiet forest trail that is a joy to hike. It’s pretty steep in some parts and there isn’t too much in terms of views on the way up, but the area is refreshingly peaceful and uncrowded – we only ran into one or two other groups on our way up.

The trail intersects with a gravel road near the top of the ridge, and this is where it gets busy again. Scores of families and hikers of all ages were out and about enjoying this gorgeous bluebird Sunday – hiking is Switzerland’s national pastime after all. Near the top the ridge opens up and a small silver cross overlooking a meadow signals the finish line: Hasenmatt summit!

While dozens of paragliders were swishing above and below us, taking advantage of the rising thermals along the ridge’s steep south face, we were content to lazily lounge in the sun and try to identify the villages along the Aare River below us.

Instead of taking the same way back, we opted for the more “knee-friendly” route, a gravel track that runs in switchbacks a little further west down the mountain. The best part of this descent was waiting near the bottom: an old quarry known for its dinosaur footprints in a set of huge, near-vertical rock slabs. It was quite impressive to see how well-preserved some of these fossilized footprints are, especially with the low angle of sun in the late afternoon.

We got back to a car after 7.5 hours at a leisurely pace, ready to celebrate a beautiful day of hiking with Rösti (a type of hash-browns pancake, Switzerland’s national dish), beer, and of course some Swiss chocolate :).

DOWNLOAD ROUTE (GPX FILE)

DISCLAIMER: Use at your own risk for general guidance only! Do not follow this GPX track blindly but use your own judgement in assessing terrain and choosing the safest route.