Walking in the Pyrenees

PYRENEES 8th edition, 2018 (Updated 01/06/19)

Updates for walks and car tours (drives) in in the Pyrenees given below supplement those provided in the guidebook. It is vital that this Update is read in conjunction with the text of the book, but note that the Update applies only to the edition stated and not to any earlier editions. (If you have an older edition of this book you can “upgrade” to the latest edition at half price.)

Information has been forwarded to us by users of the book, and Sunflower Books offers the data in good faith but cannot be held responsible for any misleading or inaccurate content in the Update. Unless indicated otherwise, what appears here has not been verified by the author or publisher, so please allow due caution when new or amended routes are suggested. Each piece of information is dated; bear in mind that some of the older observations may have since been overtaken by events or further changes.

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Walk 7: There’s been a major change to restrict access and the information in the book seems no longer to be correct. You may want to consider rewriting the walk to use a different (and longer) approach route. At the very least I think you need to revise the ‘How to get there’ instructions. As you can see from the website below, you can no longer drive your own vehicle along the Llech forest road to Prat Cabrera and a pre-booked jeep transfer is the only option for getting up that far, other than walking. The website says you can only get as far as “L’esquena d’Ase (1386 m), about two hours walk from the refuge des Cortalets”, though I wasn’t able to verify this and couldn’t work out where L’esquena d’Ase was – it might correspond to the picnic table sign on the map near the 1400 m contour, but reading between the lines, it’s possible that this car park is only now under construction.

tourism-canigo.com/discovering/mount-canigou/access-canigou-summit

To add to the confusion, the French text version of the site (which one would presume is more accurate) is rather different to the English one. It was also clear that the forest roads would be closed altogether from late Autumn until roughly mid-May, which would mean jeep transfers would not be available. The French version has a recent update:

translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tourisme-canigou.com%2Fdecouvrez%2Fle-mont-canigo%2Facceder-au-sommet-du-canigo

Translated excerpt from the above:

From May 25, 2019 inclusive, and until new prefectural decree, the circulation and the parking of motor vehicles are authorised for all their sections located in the forest of Canigou, private forest domain of the State, subject to compliance with the provisions of this decree, on the Llech forest track and the Mariailles forest track.

Specific provisions for the Llech Forest Trail:

• Circulation prohibited during rainy weather and for 24 hours after a rainy episode of exceptional intensity.
• Prohibited traffic between the Esquene d’Ase car park and the Cortalets pass.

I suspect it will be closed again in the Autumn by a further decree.

I believe the route from Valmanya is unaffected by this (judging by Google street-view it’s tarmac all the way to the parking at the end of the road) and so is still a viable option. One web comment suggested c.10hours return  for this route, which seemed plausible. Our hosts reckoned the route from Mariailles would be shorter than the Valmanya one and some of their guests had done this earlier in October, though the Canigo website describes this as “the most breathtaking route, ending with a stone staircase called the ‘Chimney’”, so some degree of scrambling would be needed I imagine.

From Google searching around this at the time, the gist of the change seemed to be that access restrictions were being put in place because the popularity of the mountain was causing wear and tear on the forest roads that the local authority couldn’t afford to pay for. Also they wanted to reduce numbers doing the climb for the usual sorts of reasons and to encourage walkers to take two days for the trek, overnighting at the refuge– all fair enough, but due to difficulty of working out what would be possible, we ended up not bothering, and did the excellent Caranca gorge walk instead, which hasn’t changed! (User, 5/19)

Walk 8: There is now a proper 3-way signpost at the 3h point, instead of a cairn; so there’s no danger of missing it. Otherwise the description is still fully accurate – we did the full walk to the refuge and then back via Dona Pa. (User, 6/19)

Walk suggestions (these are not corrections to the text)

Walk 11: You describe only one walk in Andorra, the Madriu walk. I would like to suggest two other candidates:
1) La Massana – Riu de Montaner to Collada de Montaner. Thereafter up to Pic d’Enclar, and walk along the crest to Pic de Carroi. Descend along the track back to La Massana. Easy to access with public transport. This walk is quite long and strenuous with parts between Enclar and Carroi quite vertiginous. It is excellent if you are interested in an adventure. It also gives wonderful views. It is possible to shorten it by walking up to the Pal ski station from the Collada, where you will soon have contact with roads. I also think that this variant will turn the walk into an easy one, though herein I am only relying on my map. It is also possible to cut the distance by going in taxi from La Massana up the Montaner valley to the end of the road. Might even be recommendable since this part is really not that interesting. The descent is also a prime candidate for a taxi ride since it is all on road and about 1000 meters in one go.
2) Follow the GR7 from Andorra la Vella to Certes, northeast of Sant Julia. An easy walk climaxing in a fantastic view of Andorra and Spain. (User, 2007)

Walk 25: There is a new-looking circuit de San Urbez from the car park, which is an ideal short walk, or one can use one half out-bound and the other return. (User, 9/12)

Walk 26: I think it’s a better idea to start with the ascent to the Faja de Pelay and return via the valley. The ascent was lung-busting and steep, but I would have hated to do it as a descent with all those kilometres of walking in my legs. I would also suggest the views are better walking towards the head of the valley from up high. (User, 9/12)