Today began with a short sharp climb from the refuge up to Col Inférior des Literoles which, at 2,983m, is the highest that the HRP goes. We had a great climb up, both feeling pretty strong after our two half-days.
Reaching the high-point of the route felt great, but obviously we couldn’t leave it at that, so we climbed on up the remaining 17m and took a few photos at 3,000m.
The second section of the HRP came to an end today, with a great climb from Refuge des Oulettes de Gaube, followed by a dull descent into Gavarnie.
I left the refuge at 07:40 for the climb up to Hourquette d’Ossoue (2,734m) with a few early morning clouds clearing, but the weather didn’t seem to be able to make up its mind and the clouds came back as I progressed. The route from the refuge was on the GR10 all the way to Gavarnie, so was easy to follow until the snow, but even then there were some footprints. Remembering Mark’s advice, I ignored the crampons and made as much use as I could of the islands of rock, but as these ran out I put the crampons on and headed over the col (photo), meeting a couple of people coming the other direction. The snow went all the way down the other side to Refuge de Baysellance, which I reached shortly before 10:00.
Because there’s a lot more snow around than usual, there’s also a lot more water in the stream and rivers. The path I was following came to a crossing after about 30 minutes this morning, but the water was way too high to cross. Someone had kindly placed some big metal pipes every couple of feet and piled rocks between them to try and create some stepping-stones, but the entire construction was under water.
When I was writing about Port du Lavédan yesterday I didn’t mention a minor injury to my foot, as it didn’t seem important at the time. I’d been standing almost still and my left boot had slipped between 2 rocks, one above the other, so the side of my foot had been squashed between the rocks. I’d sworn at the time and thought how painful it was, then carried on.
The guidebook I’m using gives each day a grade to indicate how hard it is. Grade 3 is a short easy walk, grade 2 is a “classic HRP day” with a fair amount of ascending and descending, and grade 1 is “suitable only for experienced, well-trained mountaineers.” The vast majority of days are grade 2, with a few of grades 1 and 3.
There is a fourth grade, E, which stands for extreme. There are 4 of these, and today was the first. I’d been looking forward to it, as it was the first day that involved serious snowfield crossings, but I’m no-longer looking forward to the others!
Ford Prefect almost got it right when he advised Arthur Dent that a towel was the most important thing to take with him, but personally I’d always take a face flannel if space or weight were restricted. The flannel has proved its worth time and again: you can wash with limited water supplies, e.g. using a bucket; if you want to wash in a cold stream it limits the amount of cold water splashed around and you stay warmer; in a shower where you have only 3 pushes, it adds flexibility; and of course, if you wring it out, you can use it as a towel, so Arthur would have ben fine.
When I first arrived in Lescun on Thursday, I met an American couple outside the post office, who told me that England had drawn their third match of the World Cup and been knocked out. I don’t know whether that was an honest mistake or a wind-up, but it wasn’t until Klaas showed me the results in his paper that I discovered the truth. If I was near a bookie’s I’d bet my tent on the Germans beating us on penalties.
I dropped into Stanfords earlier this evening, hoping to find a copy of the new guidebook I’m going to take to the mountains, and left about an hour later and over £120 worse off!
Last time we were in the Pyrenees we took the original guidebook written by Georges Veron when he came up with the idea of the HRP back in the late 1960s. In the intervening 14 years I’ve mislaid that, so decided to try the “other” guide - Ton Joosten’s “Pyrenean Haute Route”. The second edition of this was only published last year, so hopefully it’s going to be up-to-date with any changes on the ground.
Training for the Pyrenees has begun! Pete Smith and I spent the weekend in Snowdonia, where we hoped to climb some of the Welsh 3000s, but the weather was much worse than forecast and we never actually made a summit.
The plan had been to start with Tryfan, head along the Glyders, then even consider taking in Snowdon before heading back to camp on the Glyders. Unfortunately the scramble up the north face of Tryfan took way longer than expected, and ultimately ended in failure: we met various groups who’d given up at a steep snowy gully, and when we went round to have a look we decided they’d made the right decision.