Aiguilles Tortes

After a hard few days in the UK our walking trip to Spain seemed an even better idea to clear the heads before next guests arrive.

We had been trying to get to the Aiguilles Tortes National Park a few years ago in spring time but snow stopped our plans.

We headed off from the barn on the picturesque route over 3 cols of windy roads into Spain, very mizzly weather so no views.

Anyhow our walk in for the first day was only a couple of hours up to the Refugi Restanca so we were not too worried about the weather. As luck would have it the walk in was great, mushrooms galore so Al and I had a lot of fun wandering up to the hut looking at all the vast variety about, fantastic. Arrived to the hut in eerie weather.

The hut was perched by the lake and the mist came and went that evening but we sat inside happily playing cards. Highlight of the hut was the great friendly guardian, low point was the disgusting soup!

We chatted with the guardian and decided if weather was good we would do the Lac Rius loop and have another night at the same hut as this area was meant to be wild and not frequently visited. Woke to fabulous weather so plan A was on the cards. We saw nobody at all until after lunch at 2pm so a real bonus. Beautiful lakes, stunning granite peaks and perfect length 6.5hours so back in time to sit in the sun and brace ourselves for the same disgusting soup!!! but the pasta and roast pork in prunes was delicious. Met 3 very nice Dutch guys for dinner which was fun and who were also heading our way the next day.
Next day we were heading over to Refugi Ventosa and we decided to have a “Stevie Explore” on the way taking in Pic Montardo, incredible we had the summit to ourselves for an hour on our own and could see Mt Rouch which is the big peak next to the barn and pieced together the sky line. Clouds initially in the valley looked cool and by the time we left it was totally clear and we could see very clearly our days walk from the day before.
We headed “off piste” for the descent and found a nice little place by the lake for lunch before heading down to the refuge situated in a gorgeous location with yet more FAB views. Sat in the sun before checking in and the hut was really cosy, went up to the dorm which was one room with 70 beds!!!! mind you it was the best nights sleep Al and I both had on the trip thanks to wax ear plugs!!!! Luckily the place was not full as 70 people in one room would have felt like prison! Lovely food and 1/2 litre of wine sent us to sleep well.

Big day ahead of us for day 3, luckily Al made a good decision not to take in an extra summit as i always tend to be slightly over ambitious! We headed over a Col not popular so route finding kept us on our toes and then over into Cirque Colomers which has around 30 lakes so by the end of the day Al was over lakes!!! Just stunning and again the place to ourselves which just makes it. Colomers Hut was our least favourite but we did have fish for supper which was a lovely change from stodge, brekky was on the other hand dreadful! Luckily we were walking out that day so not too much of an issue as we had tapas lunch to look forward to.

A steady 1.5 hour climb up to the Col before descending back to Billy around lunchtime.
tapas lunch was a perfect finale to the trip away.
A truly amazing place to visit and we just touched on the west side so east side still yet to explore and lots of climbing too.

We then stocked up on Spanish petrol and food as so much cheaper than France before heading back to St Girons for a load of washing and a DIY shop.

Back to the barn via wood stacking at Peter’s for around 9pm. Prawn salad for supper and bed!

 

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