[Closed] Pyrennes

Have you had a look at https://www.hikepyrenees.co.uk

I’ve come across them a few times and it’s maybe a bit of an older crowd but worth an ask. The owner seemed nice.

On the Spanish side I reckon hut to hut would be a bit hard. Having said that I know a very cool company who do camp to camp and use traditional mules to move equipment between the camps. It’s an amazing experience, we use it for bike trips. PM me because it’s a bit more complicated than just passing details.

Have a conversation with these people. There’s many things you can do along with high walking. https://m.facebook.com/adventurecreators/

We've used Colletts (in the Dolomites about 4 years ago) and found them to be a very good company. I'd definitely use them again.

HTH

LR

Colletts are very well regarded. I've been to many of the locations that they run holidays from and used some of their routes for ideas for walks.

I think the Pyrenees one is located in Panticosa which is a good base but the Pyrenees in that area are much better for multi-day hut to hut walks not day walks.
I'm sure you could create your own holiday by looking at the itineraries from tour providers. In that area you'll be in and out of France a fair bit so you'll need to have a few bits of vocab.

Do you know which part of the Pyrenees you'd prefer to go to? It's a big range of mountains

I'm from Pau and rarely do multi-day in the high mountains. It's just too hard, your kids will hate it. We never did anything with junior that required carrying more than a light day pack till he was too old to want to do it with us.

I suggest summit and back days with a rest day in between. The odds of a family of four getting far with 1000m days with a pack without someone getting sore feet or some kind of injury niggle is low (there are exceptions). If your days are less than 1000m you aren't going to get very far.

Travel light and fast, pick some spectacualar routes that don't involve climbing anything harder than F+ and have fun. Edit: get out early, afternooon thunderstorms aren't funny in exposed places.

type "bureaux des guides pyrenees" into Google and they'll pop up on the map. Contact the ones near to where you want to walk. One of the nice things about the Pyrénées is that there's a lot (everything if you're confident and competent) you can do without a guide. The paths are very well marked, the popular ones resemble elephant trails and there are refuges you can use as shelters even if you don't plan to overnight.

Make sure you check the refuges are open. We walked in to the refuge below Brêche dear Roland in Sept and it was being refurbished. Alas no beer for us.

Thanks for all the replies. Very impressed with COlletts and really helpful on the phone. Good point Edukator, Colletts said many families had done the multi day option but I think we will need to carry the gear of our youngest one in our sacks but, although he is very fit, I am now concerned ...

How much climbing do your intended routes involve? And more to the point, how much descent? Going up with a 10kg pack isn't easy, descending with a 10kg pack day after day is harder. I find it very hard to start the day with a pack weighing less than 10kg even staying in refuges - snow is a real possibility in July. Even the easy routes such as the GR10 average nearly 1000m a day with some very big days in the central section. Do parts of the HRP and it'll be more and harder under foot. The two days of the GR 10 I'm most familiar with (in and out of Gourette) both involve 1000-1400m of up/down. In Uk terms that's more than Ben Nevis from sea level with altitude making things slightly harder (2400m high point). Bad weather will make it even harder, July is often wet, August much less so.

If you're all properly fit you'll do it, but enjoy it more if you all have a bit in hand and no obligation to move on every day.

Madame suggests day walks radiating out from a base and having one night out to make it more of an adventure. Perhaps do the Tour du Pic d'Ossau with a night at Pombie, or Ariel/Pallas with a night out at Arrémoulit. I much prefer camping over refuges (I like sleep and being able to stop almost anywhere) but that adds about another 1.5kg each.

Some other thoughts before sleep, because I like sleep remember. 🙂

Food: Refuge de Wallon was our worst experience. Arriving on skis we were presented with a thin soup and some green beans with scraps of ham. Maybe 400 calories when we needed 2000. The Brêche when it was open did good food. By 15 junior was eating for two or three when walking multiple days. Having 4000 calories per day for him sometimes wasn't enough so I went hungry. When you think you've got too much buy another two of those 800gm Quatre-Quarts cake things for the kids.

And water. In limestone areas such as le Pic D'Anie there is no surface water so you can't rely on a purifier and have to carry all you need, a lot if you're lucky and get 25°C and sunshine at 2000m.

Thanks for all the advice. We have just completed 6 days in the Spanish Pyrenees with Colletts. We actually did self guided using Colletts route guides and we had one night in a refuge which was a brilliant atmosphere, we all learnt to read maps and the biggest day had 1300m of ascent. As you said, hut to hut would have been too hard but by the end of the week the kids were setting the pace and what a stunning location

Roughly which sector out of idle interest? If you're just back you've had 4/6 days good weather days.

Glad it worked out. We are just going with the family for a long weekend waking. We are using the mules we use for some of our biking trip to carry camp and food. That way we can be pretty free and not drop down low again. We have a 5 year old. I will report back if anyone is interested.

Hi Edukator, we were based in Panticosa and most walks were between Panticosa and the border with one walk in France ( Ayous Lakes ). You’re right about the weather, only today was cloudy with visibility down to 100m but it was a nice change to be 10C cooler! The refuge we stayed in was called Respomuso, great simple food and the beer was flowing! And to Doug, yes I would be interested so please report back

Ayous lakes is one of our ski-touring trips when the alvalanche risk isn't too high. A spectacular view of Pic du Midi D'Ossau as the sun sets. An aquarelle by a friend of what it looks like in Winter:

It's good to hear you enjoyed it and hope you'll be back to do another bit.