Last year I walked from Lescun to Gavarnie - wonderful, and possibly the best section of the High Level Route (anyone agree?)
Planning to return in August and want, if possible, a comparable 2 weeks or so. Starting at Gavarnie would make sense setting off towards Cirque d’Estaube, and the Aigues Tortes looks a good area. Don't want to spend too long in Ordesa; I prefer the green parts.
Could start from somewhere else; nothing's definite and my goal is fun rather than ticking off a route. Prefer the High Level Route to the lower GR5 or 10.
Any recommendations? I used/followed Ton Joosten's book before but if I just followed his route onwards it leads to more serious/arduous/difficult terrain which is not what I want.
Plan is to fly to Lourdes, so also need to finish in a town with good travel links back to Lourdes.
I was going to say a circuit of and climb to the summit of Perdido, Gavarnie to Gavarnie, but if you prefer the French side perhaps not.
If you did the Passage D'Ortiz and the high cols beyond on the way to Gavarnie last year I would carry on from Gavarnie on the Haute Route. The difficult days ahead are not much worse than what you have already done.
Did you mean the Passage d'Orteig Derek? If so, I didn't do it - too exposed for me. Even the little approach track scared me. At one point you have to shuffle past a calf level boulder where the track is about 2 feet wide, and there's a near vertical drop of hundreds of feet. With a big pack, I didn't like it. Went down to the lake (?) and back up again, to Arremoulit.
Supplies are another factor. I keep my pack very minimal and with about 3 days food maximum (lunch and breakfast), relying on the huts for evening meals (though I camp outside them).
Nothing wrong with your idea. Alternately get the bus from Lourdes to Bareges and walk through the Nouvielle Lakes. Either way get on the GR11 to Viados and then one of the routes to Benasque. The GR11 from there round the back of the Maledeta massif is quite wild and then onto Aigues Tortes. Try and devise a route which ends up on the French side otherwise your likely end point is Espot which will require hitching back across the border. If you go through Vielha keep your eyes shut. Because of the new tunnel it looks like one big quarry.
I did mean Orteig. If you didn't like that perhaps you are right. Mind you we went down to the lake too, but then wished we had tried it having seen it from below.
So did you continue on the HRP as described by Joosten Derek? I'm not ruling it out and I guess there are variant paths to take - but Joosten does describe the Gavarnie-Salardu stage as the most difficult section.
Also got to consider supplies, and somewhere to connect back to Lourdes at the end of it.
I have been translating backwards because we did this Hospitalet D' Andorre to Bagnere de Luchon. Then a year later Luchon to Col de Somport, (2 days from Lescun). We carried nearly all food, and camped where we stopped. We did the whole route by Joosten but backwards. The wildest least frequented and longest without resupply was Hospitalet to Salardu. But the highest toughest was Vielha westward (ignoring the walk out to Luchon and in the next year). I would agree that Joosten's Extreme days are the hardest, are there 4? but you have done one of them! Missing the Passage does not mean you did not do that area. I found the cols on the day East of the Passage D'Orteig to be very hard. I am sorry I forget the names and do not have the maps here.
In terms of supply there is a supermarket only a mile off route 2 days East of Gavarnie after the Cirque D Estaube. Joosten mentions it but makes it sound less than it is. We carried food from Salardu to Luchon, 6 days I think, and Luchon to the supermarket I just mentioned 7? Hospitalet to Salardu was supposedly 8 days but then the resturant that Joosten mentions as also selling a little food (1 or 2 days East of Salardu) had closed so we had to stretch the last of our food. If I remember we also carried 6 days food from Gavarnie to Col de Somport as we took time out to climb Vignemale and Petite Vignemale.
I would say do Gavarnie to Gavarnie circuit and take in the summit of perdido,great views, as Dereck thought of suggesting.The weather is more stable and drier on the Spanish side.Not as green but it is lots of rain and mist which make it green on the French side. Good and cheap bus ride from Gavarnie to Lourdes.
I did it in late August,got a bit warm but well worth it especially getting through the Breche de Roland gap.
Does anyone know of transport from Luchon to Salardu? I'm hoping to do a Chris Townsend route from Salardu through the mountains to Luchon (Long distant walks in the Pyrenees) any thoughts on that?
