Half Way Storm
Today was a momentous day, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’ve now completed 23 stages and have 22 to go, so I’m counting down the days to Banyuls. Secondly, it was the fourth and final of the extreme grade days, so from here on things should be a little bit easier. Unfortunately, just as I was beginning to celebrate, nature stepped in and threw the biggest storm yet at us.
After leaving Lucy and Ross with the crowds at Renclusa I’d dropped back down to the HRP and walked for about half an hour to catch up with Klaas, who’d pitched his tent on a nice remote plateau near the base of today’s climb. As with the last few days, the climb was fairly straightforward to begin with, but at about 2,500m we attached the crampons and set off across a huge snowfield towards Col des Mulleres.
It was a pretty steep climb but, just before we began it, a group of 15 Spaniards arrived out of nowhere and left us a nice trail of footprints to follow. Whilst it made the climb easier, it wasn’t quite the same, arriving at 2,900m with another 15 people. Luckily they were heading up Tuc de Mulleres (the summit), rather than to the col, so Klaas and I turned away from the group and made for the col, where we paused for lunch, staring at the infamous descent that Klaas’s guide advised using a rope for.
After a quick visit to the summit, we packed away poles, crampons and all the usual paraphernalia so we could focus on the climb down from the col. We’d watched a couple of other groups coming up various routes and had decided how we wanted to approach it, so we climbed along then crossed over at the top of the chimney we wanted to climb down (see photo taken from the summit).
The climb down to the snow was pretty nervy and involved the occasional change of plan, but after 10 or 15 minutes we were safely down and breathing a sigh of relief. We reattached the crampons and dropped a few hundred metres down into the valley before we hit rock, then began the long walk out. These walks always seem a bit of an anticlimax after the excitement of climbing over a big snowy col, but there doesn’t seem to be anyway to avoid them!
The sky had been a bit grey all day, but it hadn’t actually rained until now. It began with alternating showers and hail, then the thunder started rumbling and Klaas spotted an unmanned refuge so we went and hid in there for 40 minutes while the worst of the storm blew over.
The problem was that we only waited while the first storm blew over. As we set off the thunder carried on rumbling, with occasional flashes of lightening, but it wasn’t until about half an our later that the rain began again. When it did, it was torrential.
By the time we’d arrived at the refuge it had been thundering constantly for about 3 hours and raining heavily for at least 1, so we were glad to make it. Since then we’ve showered, eaten and Lucy and Ross have arrived, so all is well, though the refuge is run by the most miserable Spanish woman in the world - she’s just turned off the TV half-way through the World Cup final, so Klaas is now receiving updates by SMS!