Snow at Conangles 1550mtrs

Thursday 27th Sept. Refugio de Conangles

Woke up at dawn this moring to find heavy snow falling all around the refuge we are staying at. The mountains we want to climb up to were completely invisible in the white out. So no walking today. The forecast is for it too improve in the next day or two. We can only hope so. The owner of the refuge where we are staying, Génis Roca, gave us a lift in his car to Viella, the nearest town, so we could do some shopping and other jobs.
Its a bit frustrating because we want to get on but common sense must prevail.
Fortunately the food is great where we are staying and they have a nice fire to warm up around.

www.refugiconangles.com

"Far From Home" by Chris Bennett

We are halfway through our journey now and a lot of the time we are completely isolated from the world. At times we walk together, at times alone and we think about those we miss. Chris Jackson worries about his dad, I miss my family, and Chris Bennett misses his family and new arrival to this world, Eve. He wrote this poem about it.

"The way is steep; up through angled mountain peaks,
I sip my water, replacing sweat from weeks and weeks,
Of,
Climbing and descending and climbing again in the rain and the sun.
Awesome, beautiful, majestic peaks off which cascading waters run,
We are rewarded by our day's efforts to gain Pirineos lofty peaks and passes,
Picturesque yet mighty landscapes forced up during earth's past is,
Inspirational and calming for our bodies and soles,
But the ones on our boots are getting worn and ripping holes!
We are happy to be here amongst nature's most rugged,
At times whining when we feel a bit buggered.
But mostly we are happy to continue along the path,
Of the GR11 whilst we talk, and sing, and laugh,
But sometimes we are brooding quiet as we wander, seek and roam,
When remembering loved ones and the comfort of our homes.¨

Chris Bennett. Refugio de Pescadores. 24/9/2007

Wednesday 26th Sept Beaten by the weather.

Rain this morning and a bad forecast. We set out with wet weather gear on and follow the track through the drizzle for an hour reaching 1800mtrs. At this stage the rain turns to snow and looking up we can see nothing. A complete white out. The temperature has dropped below freezing. We huddle for a conference. We had planned to climb to 2350mtrs and set off across country to the next refugio, Restanca but with freezing temperatures, snow and low visibility we decide to abort the attempt. We have returned to Refugio Conangles. The forecast is no better for tomorrow but so many times the forecast has been wrong. For sure tho, winter in the Pyrenees is arriving and we still have 22 more walking days to go. They are going to be cold ones.

Chris Bennett and Chris Jackson at Ballibierna pass 2710mtrs

Last day in Aragon

Glacial lake at 2440mtrs. After this we climbed to 2710mtrs and crossed over the Collada Ballibierna.

Tuesday 25th Sept Puente de Coronas to Refugio de Conangles 17.5 k ms

The weather has definitely chilled. We woke early, it was still dark. Breakfast and off. We were below the peak of Aneto, 3404mtrs, the highest in the Pyrenees. Unfortunately the grey clouds obscured the summit. CB and J surged ahead but for some reason it wasnt my day and the higher we climbed the slower I went. We had to cross the Ballibierna pass at 2710mtrs and it was a struggle to the top with cold wind at our backs. We climbed down into a valley of lakes and tussock with fairly easy walking for an hour or so. Then the landsape changed and we had a 700mtr steep fall through forest down to the Salenque river. After that we had a fast walk through beech forest finally reaching the Noguera Ribagorça river, the boundary between Aragon and Catalonia. We stayed at the Refugi de Conangles and had without doubt the best food of any refugio. Our hosts, Ginès y Elena, were great. Ginès Roca had been in the first spanish climbing expedition to the Himalayas in the 70s.

refugio de estós

Early morning.

Sunday 23 Sept Biados to Estós 11.5 km

What should have been an interesting day amongst high peaks turned out to be a dreary, cold damp hard climb up to the Estos pass with the cloud level at 2200mtrs which meant that since we were above that level we walked in the mist with views of nothing. We were going to push on further than the refugio but we arrived there cold and the thought of trudging on in that weather was not appealing. A shame as the Estós valley has a lot to offer in the way of scenery.

Monday 24 Sept Estós to Puente de las Coronas 19kms

Today is an object lesson in how high mountain forecasts can be wrong. We are up before dawn and the stars are twinkling without a cloud in site. A quick breakfast and we are away shortly after sunrise. It is amazing the difference blue sky makes. Spirits lifted and yesterdays dreariness forgotten we march down the valley. An "easy" day today, we only have a climb of 700 mtrs to our destination, Refugio de Pescadores, a simple hut beside the Vallibierna river with no facilities. We arrived late afternoon with the sun still shining but a cold wind blowing. Wash some clothes in the river, collect firewood. We have the place to ourselves. By tomorrow night we will have finished the section of the walk that goes thru Aragon, and we will have arrived in Catalonia.

Ainsa at night

Sunset at Ainsa

Sat 22nd Parzan to Refugio de Biados 20 kms

Bad weather. One of the most boring days of the trip. It rained on and off and was quite cold. We were up close to the solid layer of cloud so had no views. It was, as always, an uphill climb to a high pass, Paso de los Caballos 2326 mtrs. Basically we are moving through the Pyrenees using the ancient pathways used by the local peoples for thousands of years before the advent of the car. This involves moving from one mountain valley to the next, climbing to the head of each valley and then over the ridge between the mountains and down into the next valley. Up until very recently these valleys were very isolated with each valley speaking their own dialect of whatever the regional language was. Still today some of the older folk speak the original dialects but they are fast disappearing. We notice that as we move from valley to valley even the types of trees and other flora change. Earlier in the walk we were surrounded by green pastures and forests of beech and oak. Now the ground has become drier and stony with black pines and other conifers. We have moved into the mediterranean zone. Back to the walk, the excitement for the day was, as we stopped for lunch, after climbing 1200 mtrs over 10 kms, CB realised he had left behind his mattress in the bed and breakfast place we had stayed last night, an expensive and vital piece of equipment that would be very difficult to replace. We had another 10 kms to go to finish the day and there would be no easy way out from there. He decided to hide his pack, head back down the 1200mtrs, get his mattress, and return to the top, collect his pack and finish the days stage to the refuge. Apart from the physical effort, the problem was daylight hours. CJ and I arrived at the refuge to find it was full. We would have to camp and it was raining. Plus we had to wait at the refuge for CB. By 7pm I decided to leave my pack and head back to find Chris before it got dark. I bought a can of beer from the refuge to give him when i found him and was just about to go when he showed up. Smiles all around. And as 3 people didnt show up at the refuge, we got bunks for the night.

Wed 19th Sept Pineta to Parzan 19 kms

After yesterdays effort we were looking for an easier day, but every day on the GR11 is a hard day. We had blue skies and set out late at 9am. Up the road to the Parador we turned right into the woods and straight into a stiff climb. 1000 mtrs up over 8 kms. On the way up we cleared the tree line and had fantastic views of Monte Perdido and Añisclo, the vertical face we had climbed down yesterday. As we got near the top we saw a "Quebrantahuesos" (Bonecrusher) eagle gliding overhead. There are only 40 pairs of these left. The afternoon was spent following a long forestry road down to the village of Parzan. A couple of beers and then a 3 km walk down the highway to the town of Bielsa. We wanted have a break and get a few jobs done in a town but Bielsa had nothing we needed. We stayed the night and bussed to Ainsa. We stayed 2 days. It was like having a weekend off from work.

Incoming weather

At 2000 plus metres in the Pyrenees, the first warning you get that the weather is about to get nasty is cloud production on the tops. In this photo, what had been a sunny, mild day was about to become a freezing cold thunderstorm in the space of the next 20 minutes. Things happen fast up here.

Ordesa National Park

This section through the Ordesa National Park was the best track surface we had walked on. Sadly it didnt go far. The forest and views up to the canyon rim were spectacular.

No problem with signage here.

We THINK we might know where we are...

Thanks to all

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for helping us with this trip and especially to those who send messages of encouragement.
Unfortunately because I am uploading photos and text by email from my mobile phone to the blog, I cant read the comments that you leave until I get to a internet cafe, which in these parts are few and far between. But thanks anyway to Vicki, Tim and my dad, the Bennett mob,

y muchisimas gracias a Lola y Carlos por los mensajes SMS de animo. Los aprecio muchisimo.

Up here in the mountains we are very isolated and to know that people are thinking about us means a lot. You can send texts directly to my cell phone +34677216283 I dont always have coverage but I will receive them when I do. Richard Gerard, if you are reading this please let us know how the Rugby World cup is going. Here in Spain it doesnt exist as far as the spanish press and tv are concerned. And we are only 10 kilometres from the french border!!

the Monte Perdido glacier

Knocked that one off.