Escaping Andorra's shopping shame

01/08/2013

Pica d'Estats from Pic de Comapedrosa

Pic de Comapedrosa,  a mere Minor with a P430 and consequently not in the JMH book. So, why bother with it when there are so many Majors around? Well, it is 2939m high, so not a tiddler. It does involve 15.6km of walking and 1565m total ascent on some rather rough ground and through snow – so it is not a walk in the park. However, the main reason I went for it is because Andorra is a separate country and hence provides a chance to add to my total of European country highest points.

Andorra is a pretty place, like the rest of the Pyrenees. However, the low VAT rates have encouraged a lot of retail development in the main valley and it is horrible to look at. Imagine, say, Glen Garry or Glen Affric filled with a continuous and ugly shopping mall for many kilometres.

Comapedrosa is, thankfully, away from the worst of this development – you can get to it from across the Spanish border. However, I chose to get there from the Andorran resort of Arinsal.

At the top of the town the road ends by going through two tunnels. The start point (1548m) at N42.57946 E1.47827 is between these two tunnels – turn right immediately after leaving the first tunnel and there is space at the end of the road for a dozen vehicles and quiet enough to sleep in a motorhome.

The trail is the GR11 and is, therefore, well marked and obvious. After a while of easy gentle walking there is a wood bridge and then a rope bridge (1777m) at N42.58316 E.1.46453 where the path becomes rougher and steeper through the trees. Unusually, the Refugi de Comapedrosa, is not on the trail – you have to leave it if you want to visit. Below the refugi there is a junction (2198m) N42.58007 E1.44859 – I have read several trip reports that indicate the authors have clearly missed this junction and carried straight on, instead of turning right and slightly down into the grassy cwm of Comapedrosa and joining a stream.

The coma of Comapedrosa

Basses d’Estany Negre - that's the couple who slipped when they got to the steeper section

The path then makes a sharp right (2499m) N42.58199 E1.43248 and continues to rise to an estany (I assume that this has a common origin with the English Lake District ‘tarn’) the Basses d’Estany Negre (2574m) N42.58367 E1.43562 where there was still a lot of late snow. Thankfully, crampons were not necessary – although there was a couple descending the snow who both slipped over and slid at the same place. I crossed the snow to the larger Estany Negre (2611m) N42.58683 E1.43676, which was blue and half ice covered.

Estany's chilled

I followed the GR11 for a bit further and then turned right to cross a difficult steep slope of boulders, stones and scree to the summit.



















The summit is marked by a metal post and I had it to myself – with grand views all round.

Shopping mall below

For the descent I walked along the ridge for a while and then dropped down equally difficult ground to the head of a snow covered slope above Estany Negre which was, just about, glissadable. I then used the ascent route as my descent route, in the twilight.

Overnight at Arinsal (1548m)

Pica d'Estats

30-07-2013 

 

Pica d’Estats N42.66700 E1.39788  is one of those summits where you can have one foot in one country, the other abroad – i.e. it is shared by France and Spain. It is 3143m high with a prominence of P1281 and comes tenth in JMH's Iberian prominence list.

Pica d'Estats summit

The pista from Areu to the carpark and barrier at La Molinassa is quite rough. I am glad I did it the night before because it takes about an hour each way, driving. On the way back down I was stuck behind another car and we were overtaken by a jogger.

There was no advantage in staying at the Refugio de Valliferrara as it is very near the start and the path is actually better than the aforementioned pista. After the refugio the path deteriorates rapidly – and it is quite convoluted with more twists and turns than a Swedish TV crime drama.

Morning

Afternoon

Pica daisy

For a long while, despite the occasional signposts I was doubting that I was going the right way as the path traverses around the Serrat d’Areste and into the Barranco de Sotllo.

Barranco de Sotllo

Estany de Sotllo

Outlet of Estany d'Estats and crossing point

Eventually the path reaches the first lake, Estany de Sotllo (2349m) N42.64879 E1.38258 and then there is the difficult task of crossing the river twice without the aid of the collapsed bridge at 2433m N42.65506 E1.38602.

The second lake, Estany d'Estats (2457m) N42.65624 E1.38822 is a good place to camp and gives a good view of the summit which looks tantalisingly near – however, there is still a long way to go using the voie normale.

Coma d'Estats

The Coma d'Estats was snow filled and it was time to put on crampons. The snow slope is long and gets quite steep at times.

Port de Sotllo

The snow runs out before the Port de Sotllo which is a collado and where you step into France (2853m) N42.66888 E1.39788.

France

The map shows a path that goes along the ridge over Pic Verdaguer to the summit – I didn't like the look of it. So, I followed the usual route which goes round the back into France and involves some decent and re-ascent and crossing a lot more snow. I tried to reduce the number of crampons on and off by crossing one patch without them – and regretted it halfway across when the drop looked steep, long and the footprints I was stood in were still icy out of the sun.

The path rises to Coll de Riufred (2967m) N42.67083 E1.40224. Crampons off and it is an easy ridge walk with the occasional bit of scrambling to the summit and with hardly a cloud in the sky tremendous views of the Pyrenees east and west.

Peek-a-boo

I was having a peaceful few minutes to myself when suddenly a host of Grande Randoneurs turned up with several dogs. I left soon after.













My descent route was very much the same as the ascent – I even found myself taking pictures of the same things because the lighting was so different between the morning and afternoon.

23.34km, 2483m total ascent

Overnight in a picnic area on the N260 overlooking the resort of Sort. Quite often on this sort of journey certain roads keep turning up. The N260 is one of those roads, as it runs to the south of the higher Pyrenees all the way from Biescas to the Mediterranean Cote de Vermeille. I look forward to meeting it again, as I continue east.

Then overnight at Xixerella Park campsite, Andorra. (1397m)

Torretta de l'Ogistics

29-07-2013

Queue for the skilift

Major, P713, 2440m high Tossa/Torretta/Pic de l’Orri/Orry is 102^nd in JMH’s 100 Iberian prominences. He added 13 more to make a list that only referred to Spain if you remove the 13 mountains in the main list that are in Portugal or France. He does not provide any detail on how to bag them. This is how I transported this one.

There is a choice of paved roads that depart from the N13 road between Rialp and Llavorsi (I am sure that someone has reversed both these names). One goes through Roni, the other through Montenario – they both meet up and head up to a ski station called Port-Aine. 

Just before Port-Aine at 1966m N42.42722 E1.20987 there is a pista with a signpost for the summit – and it is possible to drive all the way.

I arbitrarily parked at 2106m N42.42109 E1.21234. Equally arbitrarily, I wandered up one way and came down another, through the clutter you get on ski slopes. 

 

Lorry escape lane

The summit is dominated by two large communication masts and marked by a raised trigpoint at N42.40870 E1.21485. The view north was great, though

4.81km, 488m total ascent

Overnight at La Molinassa car park, Areu (1804m)

To seek Turbon

28-07-2013

They were delicious

El (Castillo de) Turbon – a Major, P1022, 2492m high, JMH Iberian prominence number 28.

I had read in a couple of places that the start from La Muria to seek Turbon is hard to find. Not sure why, the village is signposted from the main N260 road. When you reach the village there is a left turn just before it which leads to a carpark and what looks like an abandoned picnic site (1397m) N42.44994 E0.53685. However, there is a definite sense that the area around it is GOML country.

A signboard shows two routes to the summit and I  decided not to drive any further up the pista as the two routes diverge quite soon. There is a chain on this first stretch that looks like it may sometimes be padlocked. If you are going to go and return by the same route it is possible to drive as far as Partida de Selvaplana (1488m) N42.44157 E0.54076 and take the risk that the chain is not locked on your return. The marked path enters the trees and then rises steeply to a meadow and then it looks like everyone makes their own way as the path disappears.

Collado de San Adria

At the top of the meadow the two routes meet up in the Collado de San Adria (1898m) N42.43907 E0.51751 where there is a fingerpost and a fine view of Turbon. And it is clear from here why the ascent route does not continue up this end of the ridge.

North ridge of Turbon

The path drops for a while into the Coma de Sant Adrian – although it is probably feasible to walk the ridge on the left instead. The coma offers a range of landscapes including meadows of Edelweiss, stony paths, walking between huge boulders that have fallen in geological terms quite recently from the neighbouring mountains (you can still see the scars in the rockface), and scree. 

Between the boulders

At La Portella (2253m) N42.41453 E0.51276 the path meets a route that starts at Vilas de Turbon – this is probably a much shorter and possibly easier route, but would have involved a lot of extra driving to get to the start. The path then rises relatively gently around the head of the valley and on to the summit ridge to end at the trigpoint at N42.41692 E0.50533 and a fine view of the high Pyrenees to the north.

On the descent I cut the corner a bit and missed out La Portella. When I reached the Collado de San Adria I decided to have a go at the alternative route. Initially, there wasn't much evidence of the path and I think I didn’t follow the main path even when I was following a line of cairns. The solution is to find the border stones that look like mini trigpoints and follow them. 

Puerto de la Muria

Anyway, by a mixture of skill and luck I managed to get to the Puerto de la Muria (1602m) 42.45016 E0.51085 where there was another fingerpost. And a path marked with yellow/white dashes. 

Beware – the yellow/white dashes become misleading further along the path. There was a junction at about 1560m N42.45300 E0.52000 where the yellow/white marks quite definitely indicate take a left turn which, I eventually began to realise, takes you away from the carpark. Keep right and follow what looks like a dry stream bed – however, cannot be as it sometimes goes uphill – after a while I concluded that it is/was probably a canyada/ cattle drove road. When it reaches the valley near the pista the path virtually disappears – I could not work out how the start could be found if ascending this way.

23.27km, 1770m total ascent

Overnight at La Muria carpark (1397m)