Hiking in Switzerland - Rochers de Naye

Sumi
Sep 13, 2016
3 min read

Just like skiing, hiking is another great outdoor activity in Switzerland. We went recently to Rochers de Naye, and it was absolutely beautiful.

Rochers-de-Naye is a mountain of the Swiss Alps, an imposing rock formation above Montreux (a city in Switzerland). The views we are suppose to get from up there are of Lac leman and the surrounding alps, as well as of Mont Blanc massif and Geneva’s famous Jet d’eau fountain.

So we made our way to the summit by driving to Col de Jaman. But you can also take a train to the summit. From there, we started our hike to the peak. The hike is supposedly about 3 hours.

Hiking is a very relaxing and peaceful activity for me and my husband. It helps us destress and relax and it is a form of meditation for us. The beginning of this hike was very easy. And we like challenges, but so far we weren't challenged at all.

From the Col to the top is not an easy hike, but it is certainly doable. The more challenging part we had to face is going across the face of a scree slope and then up a pretty steep and narrow cleft in the rock. Now, it started getting tougher. It was sharp zig zags of exposed and rocky trail which ascended steeply – we were both panting and dripping in sweat almost immediately, struggling to keep our feet on the ground.

We immediately knew this is not going to be easy. At more than half way done, we were like climbing for our lives, at any moment, you can literally die if one step goes wrong. The key here is to take it easy and safely, and take lots of breaks, and you should be fine. This is really my type of hiking, where every step taken determines how long is your life span!

I honestly enjoyed this hike a lot. The path is well marked, and even though the danger is there we saw a family with children of about 10 years old on the trail who weren't having much difficulty. We hiked it down, but You could then ride the train back down in comfort. I would say you still have to be in great shape to do this one. But if you do it slowly and carefully, you can manage to enjoy the hike. We were told there will marmots that we would see when hiking, but we were out of luck and didn't see any.

This hike was definitely worth it. The views you get are amazing. we got stunning panoramic views of the icy giants of the Bernese Valais and Savoyan high Alps with Mont Blanc. Rochers-de-Naye is not only the starting point for hikes but also a take-off point for paragliders and hang-gliders. In the picture below, it is me, but I definitely didn't go for this adventure yet.

Just a note here: As for the time to go, during the middle of summer, haze tends to build up during the day, so the morning can be better than the afternoon for visibility.

Go ahead and go for this hike! Let me know how hard it was for you?