Walking the Pyrenees High Route (Haute Route Pyrenee: HRP) in Early Season

Overview

In April, May and June 2011 I walked from the west (Atlantic) coast eastwards along the Pyrenees to the highest point: halfway to the Mediterranean side. This doc summarises the trip from a ‘technical’ point of view.

Mainly I followed the HRP (ie. Haute Route Pyrenee, aka  La Alta Routa, The High Route, the other one) but also a bit of the GR11. See a rough map. The route is split between France and Spain.

The intended audience is others thinking of walking the Pyrenees early in the season.

When?

When planning, I found a lot of information about Summer walking, but very little about Spring or Autumn walking.  This webpage aims to plug that gap.

I started at the end of April and finished mid June. During this time :

• there are very, very few people around,
• the refuges are mostly shut.
• above 2000m there was significant snow.
• temperatures at night were low (min -5°C) and okay during the day (10-25°C)·          
• it snows high up

That summary might sound dubious, but was actually it was a great time to go.

Where to go and in which direction?

I walked west to east. See a rough map. This worked well, because it gradually got steeper as I gained more experience. And as the weather warmed (in June), it got higher and colder. Also, most guide books go in this direction.

In the low Pyrenees (see below) I followed the GR11 which is on the Spanish side. Then, I switched to the HRP which is right along the French / Spanish border.

What was it like?

The Pyrenees are divided into low, medium and high.

Altitude	Towns	Desc	Altitude (m)	Duration
Low	Irun to Canfranc	Forests, remote but usually pass though a village each day. No snow.	0 – 1000	2 weeks
Medium	Canfranc to Parzan	Small mountains. Patchy snow. 2-3 days without villages.	1000 – 2000	4 weeks
High	Parzan to Aneto (highest peak)	Big mountains. Snow. No villages: walk down to them as required.	2000 – 3300	4 weeks

 The low Pyrenees a bit dull, but great to get fit, meet people, eat well and generally settle in.

The mid Pyrenees were starting to get challenging and more serious but only standard bushwalking equipment (no crampons) were required.

The high Pyrenees were serious, snowy and generally awesome.

How hard is it?

When I left, I was a 34 year old guy, medium fitness. I had a reasonable amount of bushwalking experience but no alpine experience. I had lots of skiing experience but had never used an ice axe or crampons.

It was physically hard in the mid to high Pyrenees, because it’s steep and sometimes rocky. In the high Pyrenees, it was also hard technically (snow, ice, temperatures, mist, navigation).

By starting on the low west side, I got fitter and more confident (with navigation, in snow) over the weeks. I read the magazines in the refuges and talked to everyone. By the time I go to the harder high Pyrenees I felt confident (though nervous in parts) and fit.

What do you need that you can’t buy?

• Experience in hiking, though you can get it on route (see above).
• Hiking partner: I went alone. Overall I think this was safe as I was more cautious and took extra gear (see below). I enjoyed the solitude (there’s a lot). I met a friend on route for a week – this was great too.
• French and Spanish: I’m fluent in French and roughly fluent in Spanish. It was great to be able to chat, vital to make bookings for refuges and useful to discuss the route conditions. This isn’t essential, but I’d highly recommend learning the basics in both languages.
• Time: the more the better, so you can go at an easy pace. Absolute minimum is 2 months for the whole HRP; I took 1.5 months to go halfway.

What do you need you can buy?

My list is below. Some notes:

• Less is more·
• Spend the money on good important stuff (eg tent)·        
• Save the money on little stuff (eg fork)·        
• Pack weight of ¼ body weight: maximum for mortals·        
• Pack weight of 1/5 body weight: maximum recommended
• I was safety focused and wanted to be self-sufficient. However, there’s a trade-off: the more safety stuff you take, the slower and more tired you’ll be, which defeats the original safety intent!

Thing	Mass (g)	Brand	Note
Dry bags x4	160		Great for organising, worthwhile. Colour code.
Gar bags x3	20
Pack	2800	MacPac Torre. Great but heavy.	Need one iceaxe strap and crampons holder.
Jacket	700
Overpants	550		Helpful if you can get off over boots and crampons.
Down Jacket	700	North Face off ebay	Wore all the time in camp
Kath Pants	450		Lightweight pants for walking.
Pants – fleece	220		Wore all the time in camp and days off
Gloves, Hat, oVermitts	200		Bought quality overmitts on route and needed them. Used a fleece hat with visor and ear warmers instead of separate beanie and sunhat.
Socks, Underwear, Thermals	700		Marino wool thermals and underwear excellent. Cotton useless.
Fleece	500		Took a thin one. Layers, plus down jacket was a good mix.
Gaiters	130		For snow
Fuel	350		Gas – see notes
Stove, cup, pot, scraper, grips	600		Mini gas, like a PocketRocket. Alumunium and plastic pots/fork fine. Spork great.
Wallet & Papers	250
Meds	200
GPS	170	GPSMAP® 60CSx	Garmin maps (“TOPO”) reasonable. Used GPS as a backup to traditional navigation.
Map Case	80		Essential
Mobile	100		Bought a SIMM in Spain. Used as camera too. And alarm clock. Minimal coverage but okay in villages.
6 AAAs for Torch	0		Lithium to work when below zero.
Torch	60		Head torch. Quality one.
Battery powered phone charger	20	Duracell	AA battery powered for phone. Could use a light plugin charger instead or a solar one.
First Aid, Survival	300
Mat	450	Thin, short thermarest	Okay unless on snow.
Sleeping Bag	900	MD 900g 700 loft down	Fine in a tent. Nights downs to -5°C.
Tent	2900	Kathmandu 4 season	Biv’d most nights. Appreciated the extra space of a 2 man tent. Could use a lighter or smaller one, but in the big storms I enjoyed the 4 seasonness.
Camelback	200		Excellent in the cold to allow drinking on the go.
4 Aas for GPS	0		Spares
Contacts	200		Contact lenses – 1 day disposables. Worked well.
Crampons	450	CAMP 450 Strap on	Aluminium for lightness. Must take off for rocks. Many don’t like aluminium and one did break but I think the lightness is worth it.
Ice Axe	250	Black Diamond 90cm	Bog standard axe. Made a wrist strap. Longer was good for use as a kind of walking stick. Aze was useful for step cutting occasionally.
Compass	50		Top quality, but don’t need a miltary or sighting one. Small declination in Pyrenees.
Guide Book + Maps	400		Maps the more important. Used 1:50 000 which was okay. French ones better. Guidebook was the Spanish “La Alta Ruta Pirenaica” ISBN 84-9829-023-6. Was pretty good but some dodgy “alternatives.” I needed a mini Spanish dictionary to assist with terminology. Guidebooks where most useful for planning ahead (info on food, villages, etc). Sometime info is out of date so beware. I called ahead as required. Refuge “guardians”, when available, are the best source of information.
	15060		Total

 So that’s 15kg. As a body weight fraction:

Total	% of body mass	Total
Everything except boots	22%	15060
With 3kg foods and water	27%	18060

 I found 15kg (one fifth body weight) okay and more than 19kg (one quarter) burdensome. UPDATE 2015: This is needlessly heavy: I'd now aim for 10kg by taking a lighter pack, tent and down jacket.

 See the figure below for categorisation of mass. Note that:

• It’s really about: clothes; tent; pack
• The small, expensive stuff (titanium cup, fork, etc) is solving a non-existent problem. However, Google “Light Hiker” if you want to really get into it.
• Making this kind of list, with accurate weights was very helpful in decision making.

Figure 1 – Mass of all equipment (g) (excl boots) by category

Day to Day Essentials

Food, water and shelter are the essentials, and I’ll add one: a track.

Food

The longest stretch without any supply points was 4 days. Mostly I carried 2 days food plus 1 day emergency. Where possible I ate inrefuges as it’s very sociable. Plus there’s chocolate, wine and beer.

Water

Due to snow melt, water was generally abundant. A one litre Camelback was suitable, but I sometimes needed my dodgy one litre plastic bottle if I was sleeping high.

In the lower areas I used Aquatabs (i.e. chlorine pills) and then nothing in the higher areas. No problems from water. I did get sick twice (vomiting at night) but I think that was over-exertion.

Shelter

Most refuges are shut until mid-June. I assumed refuges were shut unless I could contact them by phone. Where possible, phoning ahead is appreciated by the guardians. If a refugee was open, there were usually a handful of people, or none. On weekend some were crowded (I heard) and so I biv’d then.

I biv’d most of the time, even if refuges were open. I found eating inside with others, and sleeping outside alone a good mix. In the high Pyrenees I never had to sleep on snow, but did sometimes have to clear the ground. In the lower, populated areas, I had no troubles biv’ing, but it take care to ‘hide’ the tent, leave nothing and set up camp late.

In the higher mountains some refugees have a winter section open which varies from emergency only (too smelly) to lovely (gas cooker, fire, etc).

In May and June there it’s light from 5am to 10pm so there’s plenty of time to hang out.

Track

Route-finding was a fun and challenging requirement on the HRP. 1:50 000 maps were okay and pretty accurate. I improved as I well.

I figured getting lost was the biggest danger, so I took a GPS as a backup. I did use this occansionlly to confirm my position. Whiteout conditions or general bad weather were the biggest challenge, followed by the track being covered in snow. The GR10 and GR11 are well marked (at least compared to the HRP).

Safety

Track Safety

The maps show ‘paso delicado’ or ‘passage délicat’ in parts which I found means, depending on the weather, snow, etc:

1. Slightly difficult track section: fine to traverse, OR

2.Highly dangerous track section: avoid like the plague

Sometimes they were a bit dicey, other times I took them, and it was fine. The best way to differentiate between the two is to talk toother hikers and refuge guardians. Guidebooks are helpful here. I avoided some difficult sections and when the long way. Sometimes the only way to find out is to try and see, because each year is different (snow, ice, etc).

Ice and Snow Safety

I experienced no avalanche danger. I went on a few glaciers, but talked to others beforehand to check conditions. There are few glaciers anyway, particularly compared the Alps which is an advantage for solo or small parties. The crampons and ice axe were necessary. I didn’t take snow shoes (‘racquets’)  and didn’t need them, although I was told they were useful during other years. Instead, I’d go really early to avoid the soft snow.