Leysin - Tour d'Aï
I did this hike together with a friend on the 3rd of August, 2024. I was visiting my friend in Lausanne for a few days, and we had decided to do a one day hike. The weather forecast had been changing a lot, but in the end we decided to hike the below trail up to Tour d’Aï.
Full route: Swisstopo
We travelled by train from Lausanne to Leysin Feydey, where we started the hike. Walking out of the village, and on the first part of the hike, we had very foggy weather. Luckily, it cleared up the higher we got, and after the first hour, we saw the first parts of blue sky.
After a steeper ascent up through what is a skiing area in winter, we made it to Lac d’Aï. There had not been many people on the trail so far, and we had enjoyed the calm and peaceful start to the day.
From here, we first continued around the lake and up on the western side of Tour d’Aï. It was a narrow hiking trail winding its way up in a zig zag pattern. The clouds kept on rolling in, and it was really nice to constantly have changing surroundings.
Back down at the lake, we had a small break at a little kiosk, before we continued up to Tour d’Aï. The trail up is a blue.white route, with a ladder and shorter sections where you had to climb, but nothing problematic. The trail is though at some places very narrow with steep side, so I would not think it suitable for people with vertigo.
As we slowly made our way up to the top, the weather kept on changing. One minute we had clear views and the next we were walking in fog. I do though really like this kind of weather, as I find that clouds make everything seem more mysterious.
We made it to the top, and spend some time up here having lunch and enjoying the briefly clear views. From here, we could see down to lake Geneva and the mountains in France, and we generally had quite good weather while being up here. It was a really fun climb up and my first blue-white hiking trail.
We made it down the same way we had walked up, and thereafter continued to the Berneuse cable car station. We wanted to hike back down, but stopped here for an afternoon break and delicious piece of pie.
From the cable car station, we had great views to Tour d’Aï where we had just been, and it was really cool to follow the trail we had just hiked. After a good long afternoon break, we continued back down to the train station, from where we made our way back to Lausanne.
