Top of Jura via Arête du Raimeux and down via East Ridge - the joyful west-east traverse

Inspired by Zaza’s comment here: „Weiss jemand etwas über den Ostgrat, östlich von Petit Pré? Der sieht im Profil halbwegs gangbar aus und das gäbe mit der Grande Arête zusammen eine elegante Überquerung des Raimeux! “, I gave this suggested Mont Raimeux traverse a try, and as expected it is spectacular and joyful!

There are various reports about the alpine ascent to Mont Raimeux via the west ridge (Arête du Raimeux) on hikr (see this page). If you read them all (including comments) you’ll definitely find the details you need. ironknee’s report here with all its comments is probably sufficient if you don’t want to read them all.

My Remarks about the Arête:
As ossi already mentioned in his post: The Arête is kind of a borderline T6. (Since we now have the possibility, I actually rated it a T6-.) The rock is mostly very solid and the exposedness is tame compared to other T6s I’ve done. Also, there are plenty of possibilities to safeguard the tour, but for typical T6 routes it is not possible to do so. To rate it an easy climbing tour, would probably be more adequate than declaring it a T6.
As one can guess from nadirazur and Fenek’s meanders on the "upper" Arête and also from comments in ironknee’s report, it is indeed kind of difficult to find the right route on the ridge after you get to an altitude of around 900m. I did get stuck more than once while trying to stay on the ridge as much as possible on little towers which got too difficult to climb. So I had to turn around and bypass them on the northern side a few times. Once I also climbed up such a tower and continued along it, but got stuck because the way down further up seemed impossible for me without rappelling.


The East Ridge:
From the summit of Mont Raimeux to the farm at Le Petit Pré, there is a marked path (T2, even though it’s marked yellow only… ;-). Instead of following the path to Corcelles which makes a right turn at P. 1070, I continued to follow the East Ridge. The first few hundred meters to an altitude of about 950 meters are rather easy and not too steep. Later it gets harder and steeper. Rather fragile rock and pretty steep terrain. I mostly stayed right on the ridge and only sometimes a little south of it. The roots of trees are often better grips than the not so solid rock. Further down it then got less steep for a while and I got to a little fireplace with clear path traces coming from the right side.
I continued to follow the ridge and it got very steep, again with rather fragile and sometimes mossy rock, but there are enough roots to hold onto here too. I mostly stayed right on the ridge with a few exceptions when I bypassed a little south of it. The whole ground was kind of damp and rather slippery too. For the last 100m down to the river it then got too steep for me and instead of strictly following the ridge I crossed into the south flank down to about the point where there is a little bridge on the map (or probably a little further west, I didn’t see a bridge). From there I then followed the nice little gorge, along and in the creek to the point where you get out of the forest near Bächle. There I found some remainders of a very old and mostly destroyed once wide and solid path on the northern side of the creek (maybe the reason for the bridge there?).

I would rate the most difficult parts of the East Ridge T5 (maybe T5-), if strictly done all the way down to the river it might even be a T6. Its character is quite different from the West Ridge, because all of it is in the forest and as compared to the West Ridge the rock is rather fragile and sometimes mossy.

From the farm at Bächle I then followed the marked path to the train station at  Corcelles BE. Another remark: The ticket machine at the train station there only accepts coins, no bills. If you happen to not have any change like me, you have to get on the train (Selbstkontrolle) without a ticket, but I guess if they come and check tickets you’d have a good reason not to pay the fine.


All together this complete west east traverse of Mont Raimeux was very delightful and I can highly recommend it! Thanks Zaza for the idea.


 Moutier - Georges de Moutier - Arête du Raimeux – Cabane CAS Delémont – Raimeux de Grandval – Raimeux Sommet – Sur le Golat – Le Bambois – Le Petit Pré – P. 1070 – Bächle – La Hauteur –  Corcelles BE