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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2886 |
19th March 2017 Hiking - Walking: Puigmal 1830 m to 2600 m! Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny to start then a bit cloudy later. Max Speed: Distance Covered: Sunday 19th March – Snowshoe ***** Puigmal 1830 m to 2600 m! sunny to start then a bit cloudy later. Snow shoed 6 miles and out an epic 7 hours! Woke to yet another sunny clear blue sky day and the car park was rapidly filling up with Sunday ski tourers and snow shoers. Had a read in bed until the sun rose above the mountain opposite then got up, had breakfast, packed a picnic and set off on the snowshoes at 10.15. I only had my shorts and t-shirt with a fleece tied around my waist, even Mag cut back on the clothing as it was warm with hardly a cloud in the sky:) After walking along the lower track on Friday and how knackering that was - todays challenge was to head up the piste to a hut at what looked like the top of the closed ski resort. After Friday’s walk, up a gentle gradient, today was much steeper. Snowshoes were set up with the raised back straight away to make going up easier (we call this having our high heels on!!). We started by taking what was the Cotze 1830m blue piste up through the beautiful pine trees with several snowshoers ahead and we were over taken by several ski tourers. Mag loves counting so she would walk 50 paces and stop for a short rest, it was the only way to cover the hard slog up. Snowshoeing in the mountains is a bit love/hate, we find it hard going up, coming from a county as flat as Suffolk doesn’t help nor does our age but we love where the snowshoes take us - stunning views of deep green valleys surrounded by snowy peaks from Spain, France and Andorra. The path turned right and we approached a couple of old button lifts up, we were not sure which way to go so picked the first lift and walked under it until we reached the end of the tree line. We thought we were near our journeys end but how wrong were we! We could see the hut, which used to be the first aid hut, in the far distance and it was seriously up! It is a popular and well walked path. As we walked up the wide blue run it started to cloud up from Spain. Towns like Mont Louis behind us were still in sunshine! It must have taken an hour to do the last section and we were very relieved to reach the hut and find the perfect picnic table and bench just vacated by two young ski tourers skiing down. It was at this point we wished we had our skies because we knew we had to walk back down! But the snow is very poor for skiing on -crusty and lumpy and not much fun. There was a Spanish couple also having lunch on the hut balcony with a great dog that looked like Wookey from Star Wars:) We picked at our picnic not being overly hungry and were joined by a French couple with two dogs including a sheep dog that wanted to kiss Mag or was it after the ham rolls? The other dog was tiny and when they skied down the man had it in his ruck-sack! He had wished us bon appetite at the top and we managed a little conversation. We asked why such a lovely ski station was closed and he said ‘Money!’ just as we had thought :( As it had clouded over it was chilly as we set off back, walking over to the wooden boundary fence of the Zone Panoramic. We had fun making fresh tracks in snow where all of a sudden you would sink right in, it caught Mag out a couple of times as she took a tumble! It was then that a huge bird flow overhead followed by several more and we quickly identified them to be Vultures heading back to Spain. We wanted to walk a different way back so headed to the small snow cannon reservoir soon finding a blue run down to the Woodpark and the Refuge de l’Artigue where four French people were locking up and setting off down. There were several old wooden seated chair lift seats set up on a wire to use as seats, so we sat and rested here, having a mini chocolate bar and Mags favourite liquorice:)We could take the easy blue back the way we came or try something a little harder. Not ones for taking the easy route we went for the second option! Walking to where the antique two seater lift came up we found the piste ended and we had to make our way down under the lift which was very steep and bad on the knees, even I managed to fall over on this decent! Again, it must have taken an hour to get back to the van with us being two of the last people on the mountain. We were out 7 hrs and covered 6 miles with a climb of 770 m!!! A day off tomorrow we thought as we had our refreshing cuppa and cake. Photo Gallery Here Monday 20th March – Relax and short walk – Sunny Our third night at Puigmal. Nice start if a little hazy, but we managed to do our exercises outside before heading off. Stopped on the way down to watch the cows with very young calves feeding in a field by the road. They were mostly grey, haven’t seen that shade before. Just before Mont Louis we turned left to check out the small ski resort of Eyne part of the Espace Cambre D’Aze to see if it was open. It was but very quiet. We continued to Mont Louis to fill up with water at the small camper aire where we stayed six weeks ago, when it was covered in snow. Today there was none to be seen! We bought a loaf of bread and checked the weather at the tourist office as we would like to ski tomorrow. Not perfect but might be OK. Then drove up the road to Lac des Bouillouses where we had the most fantastic hike on our three-month adventure a few years ago:) When we were here last month the road was pretty bad with snow but this time although it looked free it still had the Ferme sign up. It is 12 km to the end and is truly beautiful following the Rive La Tet through pine forest and tundra. We couldn’t make it to the Lac as it was closed about half way up with a barrier. Several cars were parked here on a level with one of the ski lifts for Pyrenees 2000. We turned around and found a lovely peaceful spot right by the river where we spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and eating our lunch. Mag made a cuppa in our flask and brought it down to the river bank but when it was empty it rolled into the river! I had to wade in to retrieve it before it got too far downstream and it was freezing!!! I read and Mag knitted then watched some busy bees flying franticly around at low level looking for somewhere to dig a hole and bury themselves! We watched at least 3 succeed!! There were frogs everywhere, a couple in the river and loads in the ditches running through the tundra. Lots of croaking, mating and frogs spawn!!! We had seen a young family high on the cliffs behind us when we first arrived so when we had had enough of lying about we walked up. A bit of a scramble over fallen trees, snow and small streams but when we got there it offered great views of snowy mountains and our van far below. We then drove the short distance up to the small ski resort of St-Pierre-deis-Forcats arriving to be the only vehicle in the carpark. The snow is a little thin by the lifts and we checked the forecast for tomorrow on Mags phone and it’s not looking brilliant with rain at midday then the next few day getting cold with snow. So, who knows if we will be lucky enough to ski. With no wind at La Franqui either we might soon be heading home:( Although it will be sad we have got lots of stuff to look forward to :) |
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