The Pyrenees - A Complete Walker's Guide

This guidebook covers walking in the High Pyrenees for 400km along the frontier between France and Spain, from the Cirque de Lescun, on the edge of the Basque country in the west, to the Carlit massif and the Cerdagne to the east of Andorra. It is the first in our World Mountain Ranges series.

The principal charm of the Pyrenees consists in the unrivalled scenery.
Charles Packe (1826–1896)

Between the Atlantic shores of the Côte Basque and the Mediterranean at Cape Cerbère, the Pyrenees form a natural frontier between France and Spain, throughout which walkers, trekkers and climbers have almost unlimited opportunities to exercise their sport among landscapes as diverse and appealing as any to be found in Europe.

This 400km-long range consists of lush meadows and glaciers, limestone pavements, rugged granite peaks and deep canyons, dense forests, turbulent rivers born among spectacular waterfalls, and hundreds upon hundreds of mountain lakes. And since the mountains form a geographical, as well as a political, divide, contrasts between the northern French slopes and those of the south are extreme. Crossing from one side to the other is not only to enter a new country, it is to exchange landform, vegetation and even climate. The terrain may be full of variety, but so too are the people who live there, a diverse population in terms of background, dialect and culture, with those living at extreme ends of the range being united only by a common disregard for political boundaries.

Comparison with other ranges is tempting but unwise; the mountains and valleys of the Pyrenees are uniquely Pyrenean. This uniqueness is perhaps best expressed in the way in which one can so easily experience a sense of remoteness and appreciate real solitude, if sought. The range has its tourist hot-spots, of course. There are popular valleys, notorious climbs, famed viewpoints. But the Pyrenees also have more than their fair share of secluded glens, remote and rarely trod peaks and corners of true wilderness. Some of the once pristine hidden places have been sacrificed to the hydro-engineer, but as yet comparatively little has been destroyed to make way for the bulldozed pistes and mechanical paraphernalia of the downhill ski industry. Anyone who wants to get away from it all can do so here with ease, and the wild camping is second to none.

With one or two misplaced spurs edging away from the main ridge crest to confuse its alignment, the Pyrenean chain runs almost unbroken from the Mediterranean Sea to Atlantic Ocean. Near the centre of the range a distortion occurs where the anomalous Vall d’Aran breaks this continuity with an overlap bridged by the 2070m Port de la Bonaigua. With a few notable exceptions the international frontier follows the watershed, but Vall d’Aran, though draining into France, has for centuries enjoyed Spanish sovereignty despite the fact that until the Viella road tunnel opened after the war, it was virtually inaccessible from Spain in winter.

The mountains fall abruptly on the northern flank where the range is only 30–40km deep, while the southern side is much broader, presenting a rumpled landscape of ridges and strange, part-arid sierras folding one after another down to the Ebro basin. Glaciers are shrinking fast. Once the range was covered with ice, and glaciers pushed north as far as present-day Lourdes and Montréjeau, but there’s only the Ossoue glacier on the Vignemale and a few smaller cirque glaciers left today, and these total less than 10km2. But in the wake of this glacial recession lie more than a thousand glistening tarns in the High Pyrenees alone.

As for mountains, there are more than 270 summits above 3000m, many of which can be reached without need for much more than basic scrambling ability. However, there’s no shortage of technical climbing routes among the highest grades too, as well as a variety of traditional mountaineering routes and plenty of scope for icefall climbing in winter.

Wildlife is abundant, yet many species remain elusive to all but the most dedicated of naturalists. Wild boar, deer, pine marten, wild cats and a few survivors of the European brown bear population restrict themselves largely to the forests and broadleaved woodlands. On the other hand isard – the native Pyrenean chamois – and marmot are both on the increase; the former, being as shy as its alpine cousin, is found in the more remote mountain heartlands, while the latter makes its presence known in practically every valley of the Central Pyrenees. Mouflon have been reintroduced, but the ibex is said now to have completely disappeared. The fire salamander, with its black and yellow patches, various lizards and the curious aquatic rodent known as the desman have their own specific habitats, while birds of prey are seen riding the thermals almost everywhere – including Europe’s largest, the lammergeier, or bearded vulture.

Plantlife is incredibly rich, and it is not only the dedicated botanist but all who appreciate mountain flowers who will find the Pyrenees especially rewarding, for the range is known with some justification as the Flower Garden of Europe, with around 160 endemic species. While the range and diversity of species is largely associated with altitude and different climatic influences, four distinct groups of plants have a fairly wide distribution here: those of northwest Europe; others with a Mediterranean identity; typical alpine species; and those that have been marooned in the Pyrenees since the last Ice Age. Some, such as the Ramonda myconi, can be traced back to an era when the climate was subtropical.

There are three national parks – one in France, two in Spain – and several nature reserves. Not surprisingly they have their honeypot sites, but since these tend to concentrate the majority of visitors, that still leaves plenty of room for wildness, if not real wilderness, elsewhere. Although the parks have been created to protect some of the most dramatic or vulnerable locations, not all of the finest peaks and valleys are contained within their boundaries, and many truly spectacular features are located well beyond them.

About this Book

This book is an essential resource for the active walker, trekker and climber. It is packed with information on the wealth of opportunities that exist among some of Europe’s finest mountains, and aims to enable the reader to make the most of those opportunities.

It serves as a guide to the best the region has to offer the outdoor enthusiast, and is intended to provide all the background information required when planning a trip there. Questions such as ‘Where to walk?’, ‘What long treks are there?’, ‘Where and what to climb?’ and ‘What facilities exist for the skier in winter?’ are all addressed. The focus is on activity, on creating a quality experience for those who are drawn to a wild and challenging landscape that just happens to be one of the finest in Europe.

The guide covers the High Pyrenees from the Cirque de Lescun on the edge of the Basque country in the west to the Carlit massif and flat-bottomed Cerdagne east of Andorra, and is divided into five regional chapters: the Western Valleys; Cirques and Canyons; the Central Pyrenees; Enchanted Mountains; and Andorra and the Eastern High Pyrenees. Although the main Pyrenean crest carries the frontier between France and Spain, the regional chapters cover both sides of the range, with sections following lines of communication between the foothills and the highest peaks, and crossing from one country to the other by accessible routes. Each of these chapters comprises sections devoted to individual valleys or groups of valleys which, together with their walling mountains, provide a comprehensive picture of the central and highest sections of this magnificent range.

Each chapter travels eastward describing the area valley by valley, as well as giving suggestions about suitable villages from which to make forays into the mountains and refuge details for climbers and trekkers ‘living high’. At the start of each chapter is a list of the valleys described in that chapter, together with a note of specific highlights. There is a summary box at the end of each chapter with information on access and accommodation, as well as recommended topographical maps and guidebooks (where they exist) for the valleys and their summits.

Within each valley section the reader is directed to the finest walks, treks and climbs among the mountains under scrutiny. These are identified in the text by three symbols that distnguish walk , climbs  and summits accesible to all . In addition, the particular highlights of the area are indicated by  star symbol . Unlike a conventional walking book, detailed route descriptions are not included here; the guide does, however, provide an outline of specially selected routes, with a rough indication of the time such routes should take and of their severity, where applicable.

An extensive introduction to the guide gives all the practical advice and information you will need before leaving home. It tells you how to get to your destination, and what to expect once you get there. It offers a background to the mountains and their exploration, and provides a snapshot of the range with sections that help you focus on specific areas of activity, and suggests where best to exercise that activity. It also lists for the first time in an English-language guide all the Pyrenean 3000m summits and their location.

The object of this book, then, is to inspire, entertain and inform, and to show those who have yet to make their first visit what a magical range of mountains this is. But since the Pyrenean environment is a fragile one, all who are tempted to go there should treat it with the respect and understanding that is its due, so that future generations will also be able to enjoy that which we treasure today.