Returning to Bagnères-de-Luchon, I hitched to the car park at the head of the Lys valley. The afternoon’s walk took me up to the Maupas hostel, 1300m above. Again this was my personal variant: it was my first time at Maupas.
I arrived in cloud. Only when the skies cleared after dinner did I realise quite how vertiginous the site is. Continue reading Pyrenean Haute Route 2016. Days 28–34 Bagnères-de-Luchon to Alós d’Isil
Louis went home from Gavarnie. I would be on my own for the rest of the hike.
The HRP heads over a pass to the Cirque d’Estaubé and then to the lower reaches of the Cirque de Troumouse, two lesser-known cirques. Continue reading Pyrenean Haute Route 2016. Days 20–27 Gavarnie to Bagnères-de-Luchon
After a week’s rest at home, I returned to where I had left off, Somport.
Continue reading Pyrenean Haute Route 2016. Days 14–19 Somport to Gavarnie
I’ve now walked the length of the Pyrenees three times on different routes. 2700km, Atlantic to Mediterranean: 164 days hiking. I’ve been asked which route I liked best. Is it the Pyrenean Way (GR 10) [guide and forum] in France, the Senda Pirenaica (GR 11) [guide and forum] in Spain and Andorra, or this year’s trek, the Pyrenean Haute Route [Cicerone guide] (Haute Route Pyrénéenne, HRP, in French; Alta Ruta Pirenaica in Spanish) which flits across the border every second day?
Like all the other walkers in the Orreaga/Roncevaux Pilgrim’s hostel we were woken by the sound of monks singing. But unlike them the four of us were the only ones heading north, still on the Camino, but in the wrong direction. Once we had climbed up to the ridge we were in France – but only just – passing by frontier markers 200 to 204. This is where the Pyrenees really start, although they are still clothed in grass. We saw very few other walkers.
If you don’t have a tent, you still need a roof. I had chosen Egurguy on the basis of the excellent Pyrenees Refuges and Cabanes site. It lived up to expectations, which weren’t very high. I slept in huts about once a week. Continue reading Pyrenean Haute Route 2016. Days 7-13 Orreaga to Somport
The official route of the Senda Pirenaica (Spanish GR11) is being changed in order to conform to new safety standards. Although it is true that the passage in France to the west of Candanchú is often damaged by avalanches, the new route has other failings. It drops down into the Canfranc valley creating a long detour in a valley blighted by road traffic. See Aragon Mountaineering Club‘s page on the subject.
Update: August 2017. Tom Wheeler has pointed out that there is a detailed description of the new GR11 route from Lizara to Candanchú dating to October 2016, though these walkers followed a different path above Candanchú.
I knew I could never walk the Haute Route (HRP) – too high, too technical, and above all I would need to carry a tent and all the extra kit that implies. But then, in the dog days of February, I came across TransPyr, a guide which claimed a tent wasn’t necessary. I looked at other guides to the Pyrenean Haute Route.
Each one proposes a different trek. The walk, it seems, is not a itinerary at all, more of an idea!
Continue reading Pyrenean Haute Route 2016. Days 1-6 Hendaye to Orreaga
The Senda Pirenaica crosses the Camino at the western end of the Pyrenees. I am returning there this year, staying in the Roncevaux/Orreaga Pilgrims’ Hostel so I have been reading about the ‘other’ trek.
Continue reading Review of The Journey in Between: Walking el Camino de Santiago by Keith Foskett
Go to Open Street Map, navigate to the sector, choose “Map for cyclists” and print.
If you want to plan your walk on your computer in more detail download
Before the 1970s only a handful of walkers had crossed the Pyrenees from E–W but hundreds of thousands had done it from N–S or S–N, and not just at the ends near the coast. Hannibal and Pompey; pilgrims on the Way of St James; Cathars; pedlars; shepherds; Napoleon’s armies; smugglers; Ramond, Russell, and other explorers; golondrinas; priests with Spanish religious statues; political refugees; the entire Spanish government with its paintings and gold; Jews and pilots; maquis; economic migrants; terrorists… All crossed the Pyrenees.
[Note: some of these routes are not particularly recommended for walkers but are included for their historical interest. Each route includes practical information for those who wish to cross from the Senda Pirenaica (GR11) to the Pyrenean Way (GR10).]
Many of these crossings are now celebrated by official treks, mostly created in the last fifteen years, with interpretive panels and museums by way of explanation. These are known as Grand recorridos transfronterizos in Spanish and Sentiers de randonnée transfrontaliers in French.The Aragon government has just launched a project [Spanish text] to develop them.
Continue reading Pilgrims, golondrinas, refugees: crossing the Pyrenees
