Saturday 29th Sept Restanca to Refugio d'Amitges 17 kms

Early start at dawn. Straight into an uphill slog. Clear skies but very cold which means the snow has not disappeared. I for one am regretting the party last night and I notice the other 2 are quiet as well. Due to the fact that the refuge at Colomers is closed and the weather is freezing we have to climb through 3 high mountain passes today to get to the next refuge on our route. We climb to 2500 mtrs to cross the Port d'Oelhacrestada and drop into an alpine valley with some magnificent lakes. It is full of deep snow and dark cloud is starting to blanket the sky. As usual in many parts of the GR11, the waymarks are few and we spend an hour and a half walking through the snow up hills and down to lakes in a frustrating waste of time and energy looking for the route. We regroup and decide on 1 last attempt. The weather is really starting to look bad now and if we dont find the way in the next half an hour we will have to turn back. Unbelievably we almost immediately stumble on a track marker. We cross behind a lake and begina grind up to a pass, the snow obscures the boulders we are trying to walk over, feet slipping and at times plunging down into the gaps. As we get near the gap in the mountains the wind is building and the temperature drops. Suddenly, as we reach the pass, we are bombarded by a driving snow storm. We hide behind a boulder and pull on more gear. It was 12 midday. We had been going since before 8am and had completed only 4 kilometres. We literally slid off the top of the pass, skidding and at times floundering in the deep snow. As we dropped in altitude the snow turned to rain. 2 hours later we arrived at Colomers, a lake with the closed refuge. We still had another 10 kms to get to D'Amitges so after a 15 minute pause to eat a muesli bar and a bit of orange we pushed on through the drizzle. We were in the National Park of Aiguas Tortes which is a region of beautiful lakes. Our path wound past dark green meres fringed with mountain pines. We still had one more high pass to get through and now we were slogging uphill in heavy rain. As usual CB was leading the charge with Mr Jackson on his heels. I followed a very distant 3rd. We had been going for over 8 hours in bad conditions with barely a break and I was just focusing on putting 1 foot in front of another following the footprints in the snow and pulling myself up from 1 boulder to the next. Up ahead CB was struggling to breathe through a full on cold. Chris J, in a moment of literary inspiration, describes the pass we were sweating our way up to, as "El Collado (the pass) of Mental Fortitude". The pass, when we got there, was shrouded in mist. We were only 2 kilometres from the refuge. It took us an hour and a quarter to get there walking along a narrow, snow covered track cut into the side of a steep mountain side 60 metres above another lake. We arrive finally at the refuge sopping wet, 11 hours after we set out. As we approach I ask CB what time it is, "Dinnertime" he answers. Never better put.