20th & 21st October: Day 18 & 19
Day 18: 0 miles, 0ft ascent.
A day off. The shop in Salardu is closed, so I’m burning through my supplies. I think this is where I make a mistake: my guidebook refers to the ‘6 day wilderness’ but turns out that’s just a name – it splits it into an 8 or 9 day trip, and I don’t realise.
Day 19 – 12 miles, 10 hours, 5,594ft ascent; Cumulative: 309 miles, 86,352ft
I reach the German thru-hiker’s boulder field. It’s hard to describe the challenge of this, but I understand why the guidebook says it is not a heavily frequented route. That point comes back into my head when I think about the chances of twisting an ankle – lowering myself down into 4ft gaps between boulders, climbing back up, huge rocks shifting as I put weight on them. And then the sun starts to set. I think about how long it would take for someone to find me if I get injured – might be no one comes this way again until next year…
It takes an hour and a half to go 1 mile, but it’s fine, I get through.
I sleep in a climbers hut by the lake – has old mattresses in it! Luxury.
Looking back at Salardu
Some fun cross winds going across this ridge
22nd October: Day 20
Today: 20 miles – 5,801ft ascent; Cumulative: 324 miles – 92,153ft ascent
Fantastic day scrambling about in the mountains in the sun, and then sleeping in a refuge that was once upon a time flown out by helicopter and pinned to the mountain with steel cables.
The only minor worry at the back of my mind is the forecast of the coming apocalypse in a week or so. There will be days of snowfall and the night time temperature will get down to -12.
The Ice Apocalypse cometh.
23rd and 24th October: Day 21 & 22
Day 21: 17 miles – 4,452ft ascent
It’s 23rd October – the ice apocalypse will arrive the night of the 26th. I need to get into, and out of, Andorra by then.
Today is memorable, but I take no photos. Various slightly tricky bits, ending with a steep slippery descent down the edge of a river/stream.
I am starting to lose my nerve by the end of the day and am glad to find a wide flat grass area to camp, which I share with some horses.
They spend some time generally getting to know me, but in the end decide that, on balance, grass is more interesting.
Day 22: 12 miles – 6,155ft ascent; Cumulative: 353 miles – 102,760ft
I reach the foot of the pass into Andorra. It looks difficult – a long steep treacherous scree slope. I’ll stay at the climbers hut at the bottom tonight, but this will be a great challenge tomorrow. With all my training and experience I might just make it..
.. I open the door of the hut to find a 3 year old and a 5 year old that went over the pass the day before – this slightly deflates my sense of drama.
Their dad has broken his rucksack because he was carrying the whole family’s stuff – 35kg or more. The mum was carrying the 3 year old. The 5 year old walked herself. They live in an off grid cabin near Gavarnie.
There’s also a Spanish photographer here. Having not seen anyone on trail for a week, it’s funny to have 6 people staying the night in the same tiny cabin.
They don’t know about the ice apocalypse, and they change their plans to get out of the mountains when I tell them. I hope I don’t turn out to be wrong about it – and in two days I will be pleased, at least in this respect, when the apocalypse does arrive exactly on time.
25th and 26th October: Day 23 & 24
Day 21: 17 miles – 4,452ft ascent
Day 23: 11 miles – 2,776ft
Day 24: 22 miles – 7,835ft; Cumulative: 386 miles – 113,371ft
48 hours to the apocalypse – there’s a hotel open at the border on the other side of Andorra, I just need to get there in time.
I come off the HRP and take a shortcut through the middle of Andorra to do it. It’s fun to be on my own route. It’s not without it’s challenges – the most ascent of any day on the trip.
As I get to the top of the last peak, around 8500ft, the weather is darkening and wind picking up, and I still can’t see this ski resort town that, if you believed the internet, was up here somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and has about 10 hotels that are all open off season. Which seems weird.
Turns out it does exist. And is weird.
Arrival on the Western side of Andorra
The last ridge on the eastern side of Andorra
27th & 28th October: Day 25 & 26
0 miles, 0ft ascent
I’m holed up in Pas de la Casa as the apocalypse sweeps through.
I’m in the attic of this hotel – I have the velux window open a bit and heating on (sorry climate change) to watch the storm.
It’s pretty intense stuff and in a couple of hours thick icicles have formed which stop me closing the window – I have to hack them apart with my ice axe in the end. Probably the most useful thing I use it for this trip (I hesitate to say any trip…)
When I arrived it was heaving with French people buying crates of alcohol and staggering about in the car parks to get them into their cars. I assume the apocalypse will stop them – but in the morning the snow plough clears the roads and I see the stream of headlights winding up the mountain from France to recommence the desperate buying of booze for tax purposes.
In the evening, the French have dissipated and I go to find food. The only people out now are entrepreneurs driving forward morally challenging street-based enterprises. I’m not really sure which of the day and night activities it is that keeps the 10 hotels open in the off season.
The storm stops and I plan to head out tomorrow into the snow.
End of the High Pyrenees. Now I just need to make it through the fresh powder snow to the Mediterranean.