Switzerland's Jura Crest Trail. Ali Rowsell
vegetarians are catered for. Some local specialities include:
Rösti: a traditional grated potato fritter dish, originally from the canton of Bern. It is served with your choice of accompaniments from mushrooms and fried eggs, to local cheeses and hams.
Croûte au fromage: a bread-base, toasted and smeared with garlic and brandy, heaped with melted Alpage cheese (local to the area) and baked in an oven. Most buvettes offer additional ingredients such as a slice of local farm ham, a fried egg or mushrooms.
A typical rösti served in most buvettes in the Jura
Fondue: usually served moitié-moitié, meaning half and half (of two cheeses), making use of local cheeses of the area. The dish is always served with rustic bread, and can be accompanied with a plate of local cured meats. Alternatively for meat-lovers, fondue bourguignonne can be found in some buvettes. Instead of a dish of melted cheese, hot oil is provided for meat to be cooked in to your liking.
Raclette: a semi-soft cheese that is melted on small pans over a stove, served with whole baby potatoes, cornichons (small pickled gherkins) and silverskin onions.
Vacherin Mont d’Or: a seasonal (September to April) rich and creamy cheese found in the latter stages of the Jura Crest Trail, in particular throughout the Vallée de Joux. Produced and stored in circular pine boxes made from the Jura forests, the dish is pierced and stuffed with garlic cloves and drizzled with a glass of white wine before being baked in an oven. The dish is served over crushed whole baby potatoes.
Self-catering is a possibility, and provisions are generally quite accessible. This is especially true through stages that pass large conurbations, such as Stage 1 where the towns of Baden and Brugg offer plentiful opportunities. Despite the trail following the high Jura plateau, it passes over cols with public transport, alongside farm roads every few kilometres, enabling access to local towns, facilities such as farm shops, markets and convenience stores, and provisions.
The stages have been organised to start and finish at locations with good access to public transport or amenities such as cols or villages, to assist the independent, self-catering hiker. Some stages have limited provisions along the route, such as between Stages 2 and 3, where only a simple farmers’ market is available in the village of Hauenstein, and between Stages 4 and 5 where basic provisions can be purchased from buvettes and farms. Planning ahead is sometimes required if you choose to self-cater during the early stages.
Language
Switzerland officially has four main languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh, with German being the most spoken language throughout the country. German is spoken for the first six stages of the Jura Crest Trail; French is spoken for the remaining eight stages. English is widely understood and spoken throughout the route, and will almost certainly be spoken by staff at lodgings, resorts and larger towns. A basic English/German/French dictionary can be found in Appendix C at the back of this guidebook.
A welcome sight – a sign for a mountain buvette on the Pâturage de la Montagne (Stage 5)
Money
Switzerland deals in the Swiss Franc (CHF). Despite Switzerland not being in the European Union (EU) or using the euro, the euro is commonly accepted throughout Switzerland, especially at large hotels. Swiss ATMs offer euros as well as the Swiss Franc in some cantons. Banks usually open Monday to Friday during working hours, alongside having an extensive lunch break. It is advisable to carry cash on you when walking the route, as some buvettes do not have access to Wi-Fi for card payment.
What to take
If you are staying in dormitory-style lodgings a sleeping bag liner is generally required. Silk mummy-shaped ones are the lightest to stow away in your backpack. A headtorch with spare batteries are essential pieces of kit in the event that you get lost and need to navigate in the dark. In the summer months, sunset takes place between 2000 and 2100 generally, although this does not negate the need to take sufficient emergency lighting. Do try to keep the weight of your backpack below 10–12kg, including a minimum of 2 litres of water to remain hydrated. Other items you will need include:
Boots: comfortable, lightweight, broken-in boots, with ankle support and a good grip on the soles, essential due to the rocky terrain that you will encounter throughout the trail
Waterproofs: breathable waterproof jacket and trousers are essential even in the summer
Clothing: a wicking base layer, fleece mid-layer and an insulated outer
Hat and gloves: highly recommended, even in the summer
Sun hat, lipsalve, suncream and sunglasses: a lot of the high plateaus of the Jura are exposed, with limited cover from the sun
Trekking poles: lightweight telescopic trekking poles are extremely useful to help to redistribute some of the load on the upper body and reduce the impact on the knees.
Maps
The Swiss have produced very detailed online mapping, considered to be some of the best in the world, that can be downloaded to electronic devices and used offline. Some platforms provide it free of charge, for example Switzerland Mobility, an online free tool to find hikes, bikes, paddles, ski tours and snowshoeing throughout the country. Public rights of way can be discovered, alongside recommended routes.
Swiss paper maps are beautiful, intricately detailed pieces of art. You can purchase waterproof, tear-resistant mapping online, as well as download files, from the Federal Office of Topography, otherwise known as Swiss Topo. As with Harvey’s Maps in the UK, the hiking scale is generally considered to be 1:33,000, although 1:50,000 is recommended if you are completing the full trail to minimise the number of maps you need to carry.
If opting for the Swiss Topo 1:50,000 maps, you would need the following sheets to cover the full route:
Stage 1: 215T Baden
Stage 2: 214T Liestal (only a small part of this map is used)
Stages 2 and 3: 224T Olten
Stages 4 and 5: 223T Delémont
Stage 5: 233T Solothurn (only a small part of this map is used)
Stages 6, 7 and 8: 232T Vallon de Saint-Imier
Stages 8, 9 and 10: 241T Val de Travers
Stages 10, 11 and 12: 251T La Sarraz
Stages 12, 13 and 14: 260T Saint-Cergue
Alternatively, Kümmerly and Frey cover the Jura Crest Trail at 1:60,000 on sheets 3 (Jura), 4 (Basel), 5 (Aargau), 8 (Neuchâtel), 15 (Lausanne – Vallée de Joux) and a small part of sheet 21 (Geneva). They also cover the first third of the trail at 1:50,000 on sheets 9 (Baselland), 10 (Aargau) and Jura (15).
Waymarking and trails
The Jura Crest Trail (also known as the Jura High Route) is regarded as a Swiss classic. The first official waymarked paths were placed in 1905, and the route has since become one of seven national long-distance paths. Therefore, the route is generally clearly marked. There are some places where the markers are hard to find, sometimes due to fencing being relocated, but these parts are clearly identified in the route descriptions contained in the guide.
A large part of the high alpine pastures and slopes of the Jura have been laid to bocage farming, where small sections of farmland have been interspersed with drystone walls and fences; a farming technique more suited to the area, as due to the undulating terrain it is unsuitable for machinery. This leads to a significant number of footpaths being laid throughout the Jura, and therefore the hiker needs to be vigilant and remain on the Jura Crest Trail and not be distracted by additional paths which may take them off the main route.
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