Mr Rouch Ridge Walk to Cap de Ruhos
Early start, up at 645am and away and walking bu 645am. I slept OK but Al not so well, he was a bit cold. We decided to get going and have breakfast on the frontier.
The ground was bone dry so the hike up was very easy. Still fairly steep and some boulder hopping on the way but all pretty easy and under 2 hours we had reached the border and had fantastic views of the Pyrenees and into Spain. How lucky to sit and have breakfast at 845am with blue skies, not a cloud in sight and no wind.
We had decided not to do the summit this time as we knew we had a long day ahead and were unsure of how tricky the terrain ahead along the ridge would be so we veered off towards Cap de Ruhos which we could see in the distance, it looked a long way away and there was so sharp, rugged looking peaks on the way.
What a superb ridge walk/scramble. We headed down to Col de Mail, over to Pic des Rouges, looked over the Cirque D’Anglade and on to Pic de Montareing. This was all reasonable terrain, rock was good and not too loose and we made good progress. The final ridge bit on to Pic de Montagnoule looked more intimidating but once we got going no need for the rope to come out of the bag and conditions could not have been better for us.
Lunch much needed at the summit with not a soul in sight perfecto. Maps out looking at the views and piecing together the mountains always fun. Tomato, cucumber and tortilla wraps were devoured as we were starving.
The descent we had forgotten what steep descents are like, 2.45 hours down and knees and feet had had enough! but it was worth it.
Thank goodness that Vinnie was at the mine waiting for us rather than adding another hours walk on back to the barn. Instead we popped in to see Anouk and say we were back safe and sound, had a few rehydarting drinks and then back up to the barn.
Hot showers….NEEDED big time, unpack, cook food and bed. We had guinea fowl but sadly had no energy to do anythign special with it except roast it with veggies from the garden and spuds.
Great couple of days, would do again but would prefer a zip wire for the descent!!!!