Although the introduction that I wrote to my full diary of my walk on the Haute Route Pyrenees is included in the Blurb book that I produced and is thus available through Blurb for a small fee, I thought it might be of interest to some if I included it in a separate post. So I repeat what I wrote below:
Introduction
I had decided in early 2012 that I
would do a long walk somewhere in 2013 when I would reach the age of 65. I had originally thought of walking the Via
Alpina but decided it was too long and having read stories regarding the
difficulty of obtaining maps and the fact that many sections weren’t way marked,
I decided that the Haute Route Pyrénées offered better options.
I spent a considerable time planning
the walk including the navigation methods to be used, gear to be taken and in
getting myself fit.
Navigation
Of course, the Haute Route is, itself,
not way marked in many areas and therefore thought had to be given to navigation. The answer seemed to be GPS especially as I
would be on my own a lot of the time.
After doing some research I decided to try using software on a mobile
phone as opposed to buying a dedicated GPS navigator. This had the advantage of only having to
carry one item, as I would need a mobile phone in any case. After some research I plumped for using
Viewranger on a Samsung Galaxy S Advance.
This enabled me to buy digital maps for both the French and Spanish
sections of the walk and to mark the route sitting at a PC at home using the
waymarks given in the latest edition of Cicerone’s Guide to the Pyrenean Haute
Route by Ton Joosten. With the use of
the digital maps, the 500 waymarks and the detailed instructions in the guide,
I was able to produce digital maps for each day’s walking which each had about
50 or so waymarks. These “routes” could
be backed up on the Viewranger website.
The only difficulty with using any electronic
device to aid navigation is the fact that they need power. The Samsung had one advantage over an iPhone
in that spare batteries could be used allowing a battery to be changed every
day and sometimes before the end of the day.
There was, of course, the difficulty in charging these batteries when
sleeping in a tent or a refuge which had limited power itself yet alone the
provision of power points. As I would be
staying in the occasional hotel I could charge the batteries occasionally even
though this sometimes meant setting an alarm to change the battery every three
hours – I had four batteries in total. I
also decided to buy a solar charger and after buying and returning one rather
inadequate device, bought a Goal Zero Guide 10 plus Adventure Kit which I could
hang on the back of my rucksack whilst walking and which charges a set of 4 AA
batteries which can then be used to recharge the mobile phone. It worked to some extent but it didn’t charge
very well when hanging on one’s back walking from west to east and the best
charging was achieved on a day when I finished.
Regarding the use of Viewranger, it
was very useful on the occasions that I either didn’t know which path to take;
there was no path; when the mist came down and visibility was poor or when I
was just plain lost. On these occasions,
I could see immediately where I was in relation to my planned route – this did
rely on planning the correct route in the first place. It didn’t stop me getting lost as I certainly
didn’t refer to it ever few minutes and if I had done so, the batteries would
very soon have gone flat. It did allow
me to plan a route back to the correct path without reversing my steps
completely although this might mean going up or down slightly steeper slopes
than intended. And in the mist one had to be very careful. One other benefit is the ability to transmit
your location so someone else can see your progress. My wife found this particularly useful but it
did require the use of data on my mobile which can be costly – called Buddy
Beacon.
The times given for walking aren’t
very accurate because Viewranger doesn’t yet keep a record of the time when
stopped although I am advised that this will be given in an update fairly soon.
One comment on the Samsung Galaxy S
Advance which although technically adequate in all respects it is not a regular
model such as the S2 or S3 and accessories such as hard waterproof cases are
not available. I would have been better
off with a regular model as although the soft waterproof case (basically a
thick polythene bag) kept the mobile waterproof, the mobile wasn’t easy to use
when inside the case.
Gear and Equipment
I will make a few comments on some of
my equipment where I think it might be of interest to others.
Tent
– this was an MSR Hubba weighing
1.47 kilos suitable for one person and performed well and was very easy to erect and
take down which was especially useful when I arrived at my chosen camping area
just after a heavy downpour had started.
Rucksack - this was an Exos Osprey 58
weighing 1.19 kilos. It survived the journey but only just. My main
complaint was that the straps were rather narrow and dug into my shoulders.
This might have been the case with other rucksacks when carrying almost 18
kilos but my shoulders were never really comfortable. I contacted the supplier
Taunton Leisure on my return about the wear and tear on the rucksack and sent
them some photographs. They agreed that the wear was excessive and agreed
to send it back to the manufacturer for repairs – a few weeks later, I received
a brand new rucksack.
Stoves – I carried two stoves: a Trangia
using methylated spirits and an MSR Micro Rocket. Some guide books indicated that it was
difficult to obtain gas cylinders for the Pocket or Micro Rocket which is why I
carried the Trangia. I never had
difficulty in buying gas cylinders and never used the Trangia which when I
tried it out beforehand proved very slow.
In fact I only used one gas cylinder on the whole trip despite cooking
for myself on 12 evenings and mornings.
Boots – I used Salomon Quest boots which I
had also used on the GR5 and TMB but for some reason I suffered badly from a
soft corn between my first and second toe.
Salomon’s are slightly narrower than many boots and the heat in the
first few days may have exacerbated the problem. My only solution was the use of painkillers
every day for the latter part of the walk.
Sleeping
Bag – I carried a Gerlert
Extreme weighing 600 gms designed for use down to 0° C. It was fine when sleeping in a refuge but was
not adequate when sleeping in a tent when the temperature dropped to almost
zero in the early mornings.
Sleeping
Mat – Thermarest Neoair
weighing 360 gms was fine but expensive although slightly narrow and I soon
learnt not to blow it up too much as it became like a bouncy castle if one did.
Crampons – I used Yaktrax weighing 100 gms and
while probably inadequate on ice proved very useful on steep sections of snow
and could even be put on and taken off without taking off a rucksack.
Camera – a Panasonic Lumix DMC -TZ8 which is
small and light weighing only 216 gms with an excellent Leica 12 x Optical Zoom
Lens which I found takes good photographs.
Personal
Locator Beacon – Since
the guide book suggested that one shouldn’t walk the HRP on one’s own, I
thought it prudent to buy a FastFind Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) which
weighed 200 gms.
Alpine
Club Membership – I
joined the Austrian Alpine Club which for £30 a year not only gave me discounts
at many of the refuges but also provided insurance in case of accident or
illness.
In total I was carrying about 17 to 18
kilos which included 3.5 litres of water.
I would have much preferred to have carried less and almost all my
equipment was the lightest available. I
will admit that I probably won’t do another walk where it is necessary to carry
a tent and cooking gear. I much prefer
walking with a pack weighing around the 10 kilo mark as I did on the GR5 and
TMB.
Weather and Conditions
I didn’t start until late July for two
reasons: firstly so as to avoid the
crowds during the French holidays and secondly to avoid any snow on the high
passes. It was reported in June that
there was still enough snow for skiing to continue two months after the normal
date due to the exceptionally late winter.
I met someone who had tried to start the GR10 in mid June and had
returned to England for 6 weeks because of the conditions. There was still snow in August at Port du
Lavedan (2617m), Col de Cambales (2706m) and at Col de la Fache (2664m) and I
was advised that ice axes were required to cross Port de Lavedan. I, therefore avoided the section from Refuge
d’Arrémoulit to Refuge Wallon via Port de Lavedan by taking the alternative
route via the Passage d’Orteig and Col de la Fache. There was a considerable amount of snow on
the Col de la Fache but it could be crossed with care if not using crampons but
the use of Yaktrax made it relatively easy.
Snow was also met on many other passes but not such that it caused any
undue difficulties.
In general the weather was very kind
perhaps brilliant. The worst weather
from a walking point of view was in the first week following the start at
Hendaye with temperatures of between 36° to 40° C.
My colleague who started out with me from
Hendaye on 29th July had to return home because of the heat and I
know that some people delayed their start by a few days, preferring to lie on
the beach in such heat. I experienced
about 4 thunderstorms but really only got thoroughly wet once when it rained
for several hours. The last four or five
days in August were a little cloudy and cold without much sun but otherwise it rained a little one night
when staying at Refugi Enrico Pujol and that was it – certainly there was some
cloud but for many days there were just glorious blue skies.
There weren’t many sections of the
walk when one didn’t have to constantly look where each foot was going to be
placed next. There were a few sections
where this wasn’t the case most especially the stage between Refugi d’Ull de
Ter to Refuge de Marialles which was very easy walking and not just because
there were few ascents or descents.
There were some very steep sections and one in particular up scree which
was the only time that my leg muscles complained.
It is also worth mentioning that the
period from 1st to 15th August was extremely busy in
Spain, this period being almost a national holiday. Some of the refuges were full and although I
never had nowhere to sleep, I did have to use my tent at one refuge and at
another to sleep on the floor of the dining area.
I met very few people walking the
whole of the GR10, GR11 or HRP. I should
add that the HRP frequently used either the GR10 or GR11 as well as some of the
routes joining the two GRs. Most of the
people staying in the refuges were on short holidays, often just of a few days
who had walked in from the nearest road.
Whilst it is not surprising that I didn’t meet many people walking the
whole route with apparently about 10 people starting the GR10 each day in the
high season, presumably by the end of July there are much less and I would have
thought the figure for the HRP was just one or two. It did, however, mean that the refuges were
generally much more crowded than I had expected. There were exceptions and at Refugi de Coma
Pedrosa where there are 60 places, there were only three people staying the
night – this was unfortunate as the gardiens decided not to light any fires for
so few people and I shivered during dinner with no heating and no bodies to
warm the large dining area.
The Guide Book
I used Cicerone’s “Pyrenean Haute
Route” by Ton Joosten. I know that
others have commented on some of the inaccuracies and inadequacies which having
noted some in my copy of the guide book, I felt to be incorrect. For instance on page 82 of the guide it says
“Leave the white-red markers and follow some ancient yellow marks”. There was a comment on the Internet saying
that this was wrong and that you “should not follow the yellow/white markers
but double back left when you reach a cairn on third tree and pick up red-white
markers again.” I believe that this is
wrong and that Ton Joosten’s advice is correct if one is trying to reach the
Col d’Anaye. There were other instances
where I felt the criticism was unwarranted.
I do, however, have one serious
criticism and that concerns the timings given in the guide. I realise that this is always going to be
difficult given differences in age and fitness of those walking the route. However, it would seem that the times were
calculated from height difference and mileage as opposed to being measured
whilst walking. Whenever the walking was
difficult due to having to cross large areas of boulders or loose rocks, I
always found the times to be far too short with the converse being true
whenever the going was easy the times were too generous. I will comment on this in detail in my daily
diary but just to give one example. The
final day from Col d’Ouillat to Banyuls-sur-Mer is relatively easy going and
the guide book suggests 8 hours 25 minutes walking time. I completed this section in 7 hours 14
minutes and I stooped for at least a total of one hour during the walk thus it
took me about 6 hours 15 minutes compared with 8 hours 25 minutes suggested in
the guide book and I had a very sore foot which meant that I was walking considerably
slower than normal. Unfortunately there
were sections where the going was extremely difficult and the walking time was
two hours more than suggested.
I am also suspicious of the figures
given in the guide book for ascents and descents each day. For instance on the stage between Lescun and
Refuge d’Arlet, the guide book says 1300 metres of ascent and 200 metres of
descent. My Viewranger gave figures of
1711 and 614 metres respectively. I
can’t be certain that the Viewranger figures are accurate but when the cross
sections in the book show, for instance, a continuous downward slope from Col
de Nou Creus (2781m) to Collada de la Marrana (2535m) when in fact there is a
downhill slope to the Circo de Freser (2450m) followed by a climb of 85 metres
one begins to think that the basis of some of the information was unsound.
Training
Since I am 65, I took my training
quite seriously as I didn’t want to be walking for several weeks suffering from
blisters and aching muscles especially when having to carry a heavy rucksack. I walk about 20 miles a week on a regular
basis and from the New Year started carrying a rucksack with a load of about 7
kilos (15 lbs) increasing to 12 kilos (26 lbs) by the beginning of May. After this date, I kept a record and walked
some 250 miles at an average speed of 2.87 miles (4.6 kilometres) per hour and
slowly increased the weight carried to 15 kilos (33 lbs) – in hindsight I
should have finished training carrying at least 18 kilos (40 lbs). The training walks involved an average of 160
ft ascent and descent per mile walked (31 metres per kilometre) compared with
the actual ascent and descent walked of 330 feet per mile walked (65 metres per
kilometre) but then if one lives in England, it is often difficult to find
steep hills on one’s doorstep. The
average speed walked on the route was 1.61 miles (2.58 kilometres) per hour
taking due allowance for stops and lunch breaks.
The only problems that I suffered from
were aching shoulders and I think that this was due more to the narrow straps
on my rucksack than anything else although if I had increased the weight
carried during training I might have discovered this earlier. I had no blisters but did, as mentioned
above, have a problem with a soft corn due to my boots being perhaps too tight.
I did fall over several times and the
worse morning was the climb down from the Refugi Enrico Pujol as it had rained
all night and the path as well as being very tricky was very wet. Luckily I never did any serious damage just a
few scratches. It did mean that it made
me extremely careful when tackling difficult or steep sections and to be fair
to Ton Joosten, the guide book does mention several places where extreme care
is needed although not all of them!
Statistics
I walked 42 of the 45 stages given in
the guide book missing out the section between El Serrat and Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre
as I had a pressing engagement in the UK which meant I had to cut a few days
off the walk. In fact I only did about
half of the stages exactly as described in the guide book, making changes as
the weather and conditions dictated sometimes walking further, sometimes less
and sometimes taking short cuts, for example, avoiding the walk into and out of
Parzan which seemed unnecessary unless one needed provisions.
Total distance walked:
Number of days walking
|
715 kilometres
42 days
|
450 miles
|
Total hours walked including stops
|
328 hours
|
|
Total hours walked excluding stops
Total Height Loss and Gain
|
274 hours
47,000
metres
|
149,000
feet
|
Summary
I said that I would probably need to
re-write the summary when I had finished typing my daily diary which I haven’t
read since writing it each evening of the walk and that perhaps it might be
useful to record my general impressions taken from memory before reading what I
wrote at the time. However, having
finished typing the diary, I don’t think I need to amend anything in the
summary.
Having previously walked the GR5, the
GR20 and the TMB, one inevitably makes comparisons with one’s previous
experience. I would say that it was
perhaps slightly harder than any of the other walks but having only carried
about 22 lbs (10 kilos) when walking the GR5 and TMB, it is difficult to
compare like with like. The walking is,
I am sure, tougher not because of the ascents and descents but the general
condition of the paths whether existent or not.
I cannot remember having to pay quite so much attention to every foot
fall before and this does remove some of the enjoyment. However, there was still plenty of time to
enjoy the scenery and I took about 90 photographs of wild flowers and a total
of some 550 photographs.
The scenery is fantastic but so is
that of the Alps and Corsica. I thought
the wild flowers better than I had seen elsewhere but I expect the very late
winter and hence the late start of summer meant that there were many more
plants in flower than in previous years in August and September.
I spent 8 nights in a tent, 5 in
unmanned refuges, 23 in manned refuges and gites and 7 in hotels. My only problem when camping was the cold at
2000 metres for which my sleeping bag was inadequate. My experienced of unmanned refuges was mixed
from the excellent Gracia Airoto where there was a wood stove and running water
just outside the door to the filthy hovel at Refugi de Salinas not to speak of
the night at Refugi Enrico Pujol where 18 people slept in a hut designed for 9
people. This wasn’t the fault of the hut
just the Spanish organisation that had sent 15 scouts (boys and girls) into the
mountains to stay in a refuge which wasn’t designed to cater for so many
people.
The manned refuges and gites were
generally as good as those on the GR5 and TMB.
The food was always excellent although the Spanish idea of serving food
as though one were in a canteen left something to be desired if not just more
food – there is nearly always enough food for second or even third helpings in
a French refuge which was rarely the case in Spain – the food was equally good. Sanitation was generally good although very
few refuges had hot showers and those that did always charged a few Euros for
the privilege once 4 Euros. Of course,
hot water to wash clothes would be a real bonus which is why most people at
least wash some clothes whilst having a hot shower. One complaint I have of the Spanish and that
was there habit of leaving toilet paper everywhere and often within feet of the
refuge. And it wasn’t only near the unmanned
refuges but frequently beside the paths.
It is so easy to a) go a little further away from the refuge or path and
b) burn the toilet paper. I rarely saw
this problem in France.
There were a lot of vultures, some Red
Kites especially in the Western Pyrénées, a few Ravens, large quantities of
Choughs, Wheatears and Alpine Acceptors and a few that I didn’t identify but
not many other birds. I saw a few Isards
(called Chamois in the Alp) although they were very much more wary of man than
those in the Alps as can also be said for Marmots. I noted that the Isard are slightly redder
than the Chamois that I had seen in the Alps.
I was lucky to meet up with two
Australians, Ray and Stephen in the first few days of the walk who kept me
company between Les Aldudes and Chalets d’Iraty well almost as Ray had trouble
with his foot and rested up for a short while and I never saw them again
although I did hear that they had decided to have a couple of days rest at
Chalet d’Iraty. I also enjoyed the
company of Tobi and Nina, a German couple, who I first met with Ray and Stephen
at Egurgui and finally said good bye to for the fourth and final time outside
Alos de Isil some 23 days later and although we didn’t generally walk together
and sometimes separated and went different routes, we frequently met up again
and shared many experiences together. On
the whole, I found the Spanish less friendly than the French which I am sure
was partly due to my total lack of any Spanish language skills. I met very few English walkers, a few
Scottish who weren’t at all sociable, quite a number of Belgians and a few
Dutch so most of the time I had to practice my rather rusty French but I got by
and did manage to converse at dinner provided there were English or French
speakers – a surprisingly large number of the Spanish seem to speak no other
language or maybe they were just antisocial.
