Our first day of hiking on the HRP was going to take us from the Spanish Ski resort of Candanchu and end past Refuge Pombie on the French side of the border. We awoke before dawn, took one last shower, and headed out the door to enjoy the cool morning air.
The first hour of hiking was actually along the small road connecting the two ski resorts. It doesn't make for good hiking, but the views were still amazing.
After reaching the resort of Astun, the trail turns up the mountain and heads north through a grassy mountainside, following a deep ravine.
We eventually reach Col des Moines on the French/Spanish Border, and start back down the mountain on the French side.
The trek to the valley floor was beautiful, down more grassy fields filled with herds of sheep, cows and horses.
From this side of the valley, we had great views of the Pic du Midi d'Ossau, which is kind of like the Matterhorn of the Pyrenees. It's distinctive shape shows up on advertisements for the area, and is distinctive from very far way.
Upon reaching the valley floor, we turn east and head up the other side of the valley, underneath Pic du Midi, and up to Col de Peyreget.
From Col de Payreget, we could see down to Refuge de Pombie, the first manned refuge on our trip, but not our final destination for the day.
An hour later we reach the refuge, and sit down for an hour to relax. It's at this point that I'd like to pause, and say something about how Sarah and I plan for our trips. On a normal trip, we look at the guide book, and it'll say that a trip should take 12 days. We look at the mileage, and based off our best guess of our abilities, we do it in 7 days. This trip was a little different. No guidebooks lists actual mileages for each stage, only the number of hours that it should take you. No problem I think, we can just knock off a few extra hours each day and it'll be just like Switzerland where we did a "15-day" trek in 8 days.
Well each guidebook by the Cicerone company (who I highly recommend if you're hiking in Europe BTW) is written by a different person. Apparently Ton Joosten, who wrote this book, doesn't f*** around. Once we reach Pombie, the recommended stop for the day, and realized that our Bishop itinerary had another couple of hours on it, we began to realize that this was no ordinary trip that's dumbed down for the lazy hiker. This trip means business, and it's business is kicking Brian's ass.
Back to the trek though. After soaking our feet and looking at the map a dozen more times, we decide to just keep going and see how far we get. We headed down the valley for another two hours until we reach a large field prior to the road, and decided to pitch the tent for the night. We were about half-way through our added mileage but were too tired to think about climbing back up again to the next refuge.
It ended up being a fantastic campsite, with fresh water to bath in, and gurgling sounds to lull us to sleep. We would need all the rest we could get for the next day. Our day from hell.
Day 0
Day 1
1 comment:
Wow, absolutely amazingly beautiful countryside! Looks like a gorgeous trek, but man, my feet are aching for yours already. Day from hell, huh? I like the cliffhanger. :)
Post a Comment