The High Point

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 steep descent from the col was one of the things people had warned us about, but it wasn’t too bad. It was completely covered with snow, but was manageable without an ice-axe.

Having dropped down a bit we had a slight climb up to Portal de Remune, then a seemingly endless descent towards Benasque. There was a huge amount of snow for the top half, which caused us a few problems with navigation, but eventually we left the snow behind a dropped down through less exciting terrain until finally we had mobile reception for the first time in four days and shortly after that, a Coke and a Magnum.

During the four days we’ve been cut off, one of the things on my mind has been two friends who I was supposed to be meeting yesterday evening at Refuge de Renclusa. Lucy and Ross were due there either Friday night or early Saturday, but the half-days Klaas and I took meant I didn’t get to Renclusa untill today - unfortunately the lack of reception meant I couldn’t tell them. After searching in vain for 20 minutes I eventually found them in the dinning area, which was a huge relief. Having discovered I wasn’t there this morning they’d decided to climb Aneto, the highest peak in the Pyrenees, so were both a bit broken - quite a first day! They were going to walk with me for the next few days but there’s a notoriously nasty bit tommorrow so we’re going to meet them tomorrow night instead, and hopefully finish off the section together, reaching Salardu on Tuesday afternoon.