Mountain passes of the Ordesa and Mt Perdido National Park

27 October 2013

After a week and a half in the mountains, we’re taking a break in the small town of Biesla, on the eastern outskirts of the Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido. It’s a stunning day, without a cloud in sight, so different to the past few days of dark storm clouds, driving winds and rain.

A rainy climb up to La Estiba hut

The small stone refugio where we created an unlikely fire of wet pine wood and a bag of charcoal seems a world away from where we sit now at the local pub/café/restaurant with the sun is baking our shoulders as we sip our café con leches.

Another night in a cosy hut

The past week has been the most spectacular of our trip so far.  On Monday, 21 October, we squeezed an extra log of salami and wheel of cheese into our bags then started out on the GR11 towards Torla, gateway to the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park.

First views of the Ordesa Valley

The Ordesa Valley was immediately stunning. Huge walls of grey rock rose almost vertically from a narrow valley floor. The lower slopes of the valley were blanketed with autumn colour. The clear, aqua waters of the Rio Cinca forged over a series of waterfalls, creating a white foaming turmoil of water.

Autumn colours of the valley

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

After a night by one of the many waterfalls, we started out early for Circo de Soaso. It was beautiful walking in the cool morning light, before the day-trip walkers had made it this far up the valley. Rising clouds shrouded the tops of the peaks around us and we could easily have been on a Lord of the Rings type journey. We came across a small wind shelter and huddled together whilst enjoying a gourmet breakfast. Outside, the walls of stone created the feeling of being in a large amphitheatre.

The amphitheatre type feel of the Circo de Soaso

Time for breakfast

From the cirque, we started climbing, and soon left the Ordesa Valley behind. As we climbed, we became part of the cliffs – I couldn’t believe there was a trail up here. It was like a giant’s castle, the scale of the walls far outweighing anything that could be constructed by man.

Amongst the walls of the Ordesa Valley

We kept getting higher, and watched the small hut where we had enjoyed breakfast become a tiny dot in the distance.

Another tier of walls above us

After a couple of hours, we made it to Refugio Goriz. A popular place for hikers and mountaineers at the intersection of a number of trails through the Spanish and French Pyrenees. We met a couple of French walkers who were part of a larger group of 40, spending their vacation time hiking in the mountains. The rest of the group were out climbing Pineta.

Refugio Goriz

It started raining once we were comfortably tucked inside, so we took a few hours off to see if it would clear. Unfortunately, it didn't. So at 4pm, our last deadline, we left the coziness behind and headed out into the fog of the mountains.

Descending amongst the clouds

It was a beautiful walk despite the rain. The wet rocks glinted silver in the late afternoon light and springs spurting from the sides of the mountains, like a large sieve. It did mean a couple of creek crossing became a bit more challenging than otherwise…

An easy crossing!

I was happily lost in the mindless space you enter when you walk. Listening to the rain dripping on my raincoat. The plops echoing a little around the inside of the hood. I rounded a small cliff and saw Billy looking at me with a funny expression on his face. It’s the one that says, “I don’t think you’re going to like this, but if I look really positive, maybe you’ll go along with it”.

The small creek marked on the map, was now a torrent of water. Swirling around rocks, buffeting the large stone with the trailmarker, now drowning in the swollen river. I looked at Billy hesitantly, “are there any other options?” I pictured us being swept away down to the valley 400m below. A quick, but unpleasant way to make the descent.

We had a quick consultation of the map and walked up and down the creek to find the best crossing point. We found a section that looked to be flowing a little slower and Billy headed across. It wasn’t as bad as we thought, but the water was icy! Billy came back to help with my pack and I stripped off my pants – no point in getting any wetter… I held tightly onto the long metal pole that we’d found by the creek and stabbed it into the rocky ground, hoping to pole vault my way across. There wasn’t much spring in my step, but after a couple of minutes I’d made it to the other side. Feet a little frozen. But safe. Phew. Hopefully not too many more of those!

It was starting to get dark, but we still had a long way to descend down to Fon Blanca in the Anisclo Valley. Billy went ahead to seek out a shelter, whilst I continued to navigate slowly down the steep slopes.

We make it to Goriz Pass, 2,329m

We made it! As darkness fell we came upon the tiny Casa de los Cazadores (the Hunters Hut). Made of stone, with a log roof it looked very robust against the wind and rain outside. In our cozy cave we hung up our gear to dry out and started cooking. It felt great to be out of the rain! I was very thankful of the hunters who had built this place as a refuge.

Billy makes dinner in our small refuge

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

After a night of continuous rain, we awoke to …clear skies! Wonderful and unbelievable after yesterday's weather. The Anisclo valley stretched out before us, waterfalls gushing from every slope, like a network of veins, joining together at the Rio Bellos artery that ran along the base of the valley. It was such a beautiful place to be!

Wow! We emerge from the Hunter's Hut to find clear skies 

We started the climb up the steep valley, stopping to catch our breath and admire the view, chasing the sun that appeared up at the pass. 

We had breakfast near the top behind a rock to protect us from the wind. Dark clouds began to gather at the mountains to our right, and an icy wind snuck down to us. We later found out it had snowed in Goriz.

Stunning views back down the Anisclo Valley

We huddle behind a rock for our morning coffee

After 2 hours of solid climbing we reached the Collado de Anisclo at 2,449m and were greeted by our first peek of the Pineta Valley. WOW! It was like looking at a scenic painting – hard to believe that the image was real.

Views of the Pineta Valley

On the side of the pass towards Anisclo there were clear skies, but as we looked across the razor edge of the ridge, clouds formed before our eyes. We were as high as the eagles.

Clouds form on the razor's edge of the pass

I was quite anxious about how we were going to get down the 1,200m of incredibly steep slopes to the Pineta Valley in the painted scene below. 

Amazing...but a little scary too!

The path looked to trail off into piles of scree, and the slopes were like a triple black diamond run. Billy convinced me that just like ocean, where when it's scary you just look at one wave at a time, we just had to start down one step at a time and the rest would work itself out.

Starting down the rocky slopes

Incredible views 

It took us 3hrs to descend to the valley and find this campsite near Rio Cinca, next to a mire that started to collect fog as evening fell. Billy worked some magic and managed to light a huge fire from piles of wet wood. We sat around the fire and felt like the past incredible 48hrs had been a dream.

Billy has become a fire master!

24 October 2013

Time to celebrate a couple of days of magnificent walking. We checked in at the Pineta Refugio and walked down the road to the 4 star Parador Biesla for a fancy menu del dia.

A great way to recover from some hard walking

25 October 2013

Once again, time to leave the sanctuary of a hut. We set out from the Refugio this morning... into the wind and rain.

Another climb to a mountain pass (Billy is a tiny dot in the middle)

After a 900m ascent, we came across La Estiba hut - an old shepherd's hut that was very welcoming! It was a cold, wet and windy afternoon, but once the rain subsided we managed to get some wood from the nearby forest. Yay for the fire and a bag of coal!

So warm and cosy next to the fire!

26 October 2013

Next morning was beautiful. The clouds lingered on the Pineta range, but the sun warmed up our ridge

La Estiba - the shepherd's hut

Following the road now, we wound our way down to the small town of Bielsa. A group of 3 hunters gave us a lift for the last few kms - they were heading home for lunch after an unsuccessful morning. Along the way, a protective goat chased us down and headbutted the car - much to the amazement and amusement of us all!

And that's where we sit now, spending a bit of time absorbing the last few days that still seem quite wondrous to us both.