Guide to Pyrenean Haute Route HRP trek through France and Spain

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Reviews

The Pyrenean Haute Route (known in French as the Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne) is a long-distance footpath from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean that follows the main ridge of the Pyrenees. The Haute Route is not itself waymarked, which means that there are all sorts of marks along the trail: paint flashes in various colours, GR waymarks (red–white), cairns, border stones and sometimes no marks at all. To a certain extent the Haute Route is not a trail as such, but rather an idea. As a result, Haute Route walkers often have a choice of routes, and there are numerous variants that allow walkers to avoid difficult sections of the Haute Route’s main track.
In summer, from mid-July until the end of August, very little mountaineering equipment is needed. Only the third section of the Haute Route includes a few stages that may require crampons and ice axe, and there is a three-day variant in this guide (from Viados to Hospital de Vielha, after Day 25) that enables you to avoid these. Should you follow this alternative route, it is possible to complete the Haute Route without any mountaineering equipment.

Having said that, the Haute Route is suitable only for experienced trekkers. Those who undertake it must have wide experience of walking on all sorts of terrain, including steep scree slopes, boulder fields and snowfields. They also need to know how to navigate in the mountains, even in difficult conditions (such as mist). The Haute Route leads sometimes through untamed, remote areas where there are no waymarks or paths. The ability to read the landscape is necessary; a good intuition of route finding (which comes with experience) is useful; and knowledge of how to use map and compass (or GPS) is indispensable.

Throughout the route there are numerous variants – alternative routes that allow you to avoid a difficult section, should weather conditions not be in your favour. But even if you take the variant on every possible occasion, the Haute Route is still a tough trek that can only be completed successfully by experienced, well-prepared mountain walkers. More than 800km of walking and over 40km of climbing (and descent) isn’t a piece of cake. The variants are certainly not meant as an invitation to walk the Haute Route ‘the Dutch way’, avoiding every difficult section. Don’t forget that choosing the Haute Route also means choosing a challenge. Walkers who seek to avoid all obstacles set by the main track of the Pyrenean Haute Route are not quite ready for the toughest, but also the most beautiful, coast-to-coast walk through the Pyrenees.