Nidlenloch Cave Trip

On the weekend eight of us went to visit the Nidlenloch Cave up by Solothun. This is a cave that is open to the public and the first part you can visit without a guide. The entire cave network is about 7.5km but we only did maybe 100m or so. Moving around was hard work and with the pack I was carrying and my natural grace I felt like a clubfooted hippo. But first, getting there!

Four of us caught the train to Oberdorf, which is significant because this is 10 minutes from the dinosaur footprints that we visited in the spring. Anyway, this time we continued up the Jura, walking on the snow which was rather icy (and also much much less compared to Davos which currently has about two meters).

It was a lovely walk through the woods on a beautiful day and we had a great view down to the lake (sometimes visible through the clouds). The hike was about 600m up and maybe 3 or 4 km and there were lots of people on the trails.

When we reached the summit there was a restaurant that everyone was meeting at. Four more people came from Geneva by car. However, it was the hikers who were carrying all the food, cheese and fondue pots! A heavy load!

At the restaurant we gave them a time when we would be back, paid a small fee, bought some maps and got directions to the entrance of the cave. We also changed in a room down below - they even have a shower for people who go in the cave.

We walked up a steep slope of snow up to the base of a cliff where the cave entrance was located.

There was a good track in the snow so it was fairly easy to follow. The entrance of the cave was a tiny crack in the rock and didn't look like it would lead to much of anything.

We had the key to the entrance from the restaurant and unlocked the gate and slowly started to enter the cave.

I waited outside wondering why it was rather slow getting in but when my turn came up I quickly realized the challenges! The most difficult part of the entire trip was probably the entrance. It was below zero at the entrance and full of ice and also rather steep and slippery! There were chains and ropes to help you descend but very quickly it was very dark and you couldn't see where you were stepping. We all had headlamps but we were going down backwards. You definitely had the feeling of hanging on for dear life! At least I did anyway, at one point there was a rope and not chains and it was very icy and slippery. We had people spaced out to help guide the rest on the way down into the cave.

We grouped at the bottom of the descent and continued on our way. However, it was still pretty cold and there were icicles hanging from the ceilings and walls and the ground was piles of rocks and puddles of ice. I slipped and came down hard on my hand which turned into a nice bruise. It also made moving around more difficult since it hurt to push off with my left hand.

Sometimes the roof of the cave was quite low and you had to crouch and squeeze through parts, but other times it was open enough that you could see the entire party descending in front, their headlamps lighting up just around them.

One point was called dry lake (I think, it was in German) which was low and flat and rather tricky to go through with packs. We had cheese fondue and two cacquelon, wine, water, extra lights and batteries, it was not a light and quick tour! Once were past the entrance area it grew warmer in the cave, around 8C.

There was one point where it was a bit of a squeeze. I never had the feeling of forcing myself through the hole, but we had to take our packs off and push them in front of us. I had zero grace for this part (well, ok, pretty much no grace for any of it).

However, no one had a claustrophobia problem in the tight spot which was a good thing. The tunnel part was maybe 2 or 3m long.

At the end of it we continued on until we came to a bit of a drop. I didn't fancy going down, not with a hand that I couldn't trust and it was also getting late. I did spot a tiny bat sleeping in a tiny cup in the cave wall.

At this point our party split. It wasn't too much of a danger, there were four in each group and the cave didn't really have any branches, at least, not in the beginning part where we were. Four of us went back to cook the fondue and four more continued on but they didn't get very far.

Cooking the fondue was interesting, we found a little side alcove where we set up and got the two pots heating. Normally when you cook fondue you heat it on the stove and then move it to the tiny alcohol burner which basically keeps it warm. However, we only had the burners and it looked like we wouldn't finish in time because the cheese took so long to melt. However, we lit a second alcohol burner with no lid and set it under the metal cacquelon and then we had a rather large alcohol fire and the fondue melted much faster! Almost too fast, we had to keep it off the flames towards the end as it boiled away. However, we were all cold and hungry enough that the cheese didn't even stay in the pot long enough for form much of that nice burnt crispy bit that you fight over at the bottom! After we finished the first fondue we poured the second one into our super pot set-up and quickly polished that one off too.

Then in the light of the headlamps we picked all the bread crumbs off the floor and continued out of the cave. We moved more quickly as we left because it was mostly up. The icy bit at he front was a bit easier and then out into the sunshine for the end of a beautiful day.

I caught a car ride down to Solothun and then the train back to Davos and I was just a bit muddy on the train.