La Dôle – An encounter with chamois

You don’t have to travel far from Geneva to experience some great hiking and see amazing wildlife. Just 30min by car from downtown Geneva, we found ourselves standing in an alpine meadow amongst bell laden Swiss milk cows staring up at La Dôle. This peak in the Jura mountains along Lake Geneva’s northern bank is easily discernable from the others around it, it has a weather and air traffic control station atop it. But that manmade feature on top didn’t discourage us, nor many others, from hiking to the summit and having a trail picnic while soaking up the sun and enjoying the commanding view of the lake and the Alps to the south.

We set out from a small parking area (alt. 1450m) about half a kilometer short of the Chalet de la Dôle. The chalet is a great place to start and/or finish a day hike. It is a small version of the quintessential Swiss alp chalet outfitted with various sized ornamental cow bells hanging inside, a fire burning in the fireplace – yes even in the cool summers – and wood benches and tables to enjoy a hardy meal. We didn’t stay long however, and headed south with the summit over our right shoulder. The climb is well marked – as are all Swiss trails – and slowly takes you up through the tree line. Along the way we passed some grazing cows, one licking its newborn calf not more than an hour or two old. The young calf was still wet and could hardly stand with legs shaking and teetering this way and that. If only we had been there an hour earlier, what a sight that would have been. We pressed on and as we neared the final ridge came across a stone wall that ran the entire length of the ridge. Other than keeping the cows in check we have no idea why the wall was there. Once at the summit (alt. 1677m) we found a great spot to stretch out legs, take in the view, and enjoy the lunch we packed in. Although it was a little hazy you could still the snow capped Swiss and French Alps as backdrop for Lake Geneva splayed out below us. It was truly a wonderful sight.

(looking left: SE)

(looking right, towards Geneva: SW)

As we finished up lunch we noticed chamois below us along the steep slope of the mountain. There were 20-30 in total, little did we know that we would get much closer to more chamois before the hike was over. We packed up and headed north along the ridge (we planned a circular route from the car). This route was much more exposed and steeper with several cuts and small gorges carved out of the trail from heavy rain and snowmelt making it a little slower. We hiked down to a saddle and then double backed below the steep rock face we had just descended.

It didn’t take long for us to notice up ahead in the shadows of some trees a few dark brown “blobs”. Not having binoculars on us, we proceeded slowly hoping they were resting chamois and not just bare tree stumps. As we got closer we were rewarded with a very up close and personal view of several chamois with their young. Amazingly they didn’t startle and run, but they are likely familiar with how slow humans are and as we were downhill from them were not a real threat. As we stood and watched the ones above us about a dozen more came up from behind and crossed our trail, quickly scurrying up the rocky edges to safer positions. This was the real treat of the hike, great views are one thing but watching wildlife up close in their natural environment is something all to itself. After some time we moved off slowly continuing down to the chalet.

As we passed the chalet, now from the opposite direction from the morning, we came across yet more cows and found, yet again, another mother cow licking her newborn calf. Easy to differentiate from the morning as this was a black cow vs. a brown cow from earlier. We missed this birth by no more than an hour or two as this newborn was also unsteady on its legs and the mother still showed signs of having just given birth. What an amazing day.

Kümmerly+Frey Map 38 Nyon-Geneve / La Dôle 1:40,000 or Kümmerly+Frey Map 25 Vallée de Joux / Nyon 1:40,000