Creux-du-Van

This past Monday, was the Jeune Federal holiday in Neuch. It’s a Cantonal holiday as opposed to a National holiday. Instead of having a day to rest, we decided to hike up the Creux-du-Van. Only about 1.5hrs to get to the top, this hike is much shorter than that of the one in Grindelwald and of the one done in Locarno last year. The difficulty of this hike comes in the form that it’s quite steep and narrow in parts, and then depending on the weather conditions, the mud/rock combination can get quite slippery. The hike has 14 switchbacks, which is great to keep your mind focused on the goal. The first couple are pretty long (makes logical sense if you’re heading up a mountain), and seem like they’re never going to end, but the higher you go, and the more tired you get, the shorter they become and you really feel that the end is near. By the end, I was pretty to be happy to be at the end. I was a little bit more tired than I wanted to be. Although, I must say now, after the fact, I’m not sore or anything, so that’s pretty good.
At the top, you get a wonderful view of Lake Neuch and the city in the distance. It’s pretty wonderful.
Unfortunately, this particular day was really cloudy, and as such, once at the top, we couldn’t see a thing. Last year, the weather was beautiful and it was blue skies and sunny, and after a short rest at the top, we headed back down to be rewarded to a fondue at the end of the hike. This year, we were scheduled to have fondue at the top instead (ugh, can you imagine hiking down after eating a mass of cheese and bread?). It was really really cold at the top, and started to drizzle. We were also in a cloud (so cool!) which was extremely dense. You could hardly see 5 metres in front of you. A little scary knowing that you’re standing on top of a cliff. Anyway, at the top, we went for a fondue (I must admit, I only had bread and didn’t even dip any cheese – fondue isn’t my fav meal ever) and headed back down the same way we came up instead of walking around to the other side of the cliff and down another longer route (we didn’t want to risk people falling off the edge). The way back down was a little slippery, but not too bad. No wipe outs on my part!