The accounts of Carlos & Conchita of this trip are on this webpage and this one and this one.The accounts of Carlos & Conchita of this trip are on this webpage and this one and this one.
The bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- saturday 5 september 2020 -
Doing 262-266 and 270 with Carlos & Conchita

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Summary: part of a series of 6 daytrips and 1 multiday trip in september 2020 in the Pyrénées Atlantiques. This is trip 2.

Today: together with Carlos & Conchita Roca a tough trip on the barren karstic plateau between Arette La Pierre St-Martin and Pic d'Anie from bm262 to bm270. Despite our early departure, bm271 turned to be out of our reach.
Basecamp = the camping in Larrau.

The account of Carlos & Conchita of this trip is on this webpage.


Weather: splendid, clouds drifting in in the afternoon.

track-20200905.kml
(click to open this trip in Google Earth or copy link to Google Maps; click right on this link to download gpx-version). The gps-track has not been manually  corrected which explains the inaccuracy and misalignment at some points. For cartographic backgrounds: see the cartography-page

Gps-waypoints of all bordermarkers (most recent version):
kml:  esfr-bordermarkers-all-waypoints.kml
gpx:  esfr-bordermarkers-all-waypoints.gpx (with elevation added by gpsvisualizer.com)
According to Garmin Basecamp (uncorrected track):

Distance: 13,8km
Max-height: 2283m
Min-height: 1761m
Elevation: +777m -784m
Total elevation: 1561m

Start 8:01  Finish 17:21
Total time: 9:20

We meet at 8am at the Col de la Pierre St-Martin and


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start right-a-way.

The first part is easy.


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It's a bright morning, our first goal - bm271 - can already be discerned at the horizon.

But that's still a long way. Our plan is to first cover bm271 and do bm270 to 263 on our way back.


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Zoom-in: bm272 is on the Añelarra-ridge.


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Underneath the Pic d'Arlas we pass the only water source available on the vast karst plateau.


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Last chance to fill your water bottles.


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This sign tells us that the Pic d'Anie is only 2 hours away. Far too optimistic for us.


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Looking back at Pic d'Arlas.


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But so far, the progress is smooth on the grassy terrain and wornout trails.


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A waysign telling us that there are 2 routes to Pic d'Anie: we take the 'short' one via Le Pourtet. Le Pourtet is a hilltop.

One might wonder if our 'short' route is also shorter in time given the rough & rocky terrain ahead.




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Short break to drink water, the Pic d'Aras still in sight.


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Red waymarks appear and will guide us further on.


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This is the bifurcation for the 2 routes.


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The route via the Col des Anies is a HRP-trail.


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As you can see, the terrain gets rougher.


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From a certain point, you can spot


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(zoom-in) bm268.


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Now the progress is slowing down.


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An impression of the karst wilderness, the Pic d'Arlas in the background.


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An easy stretch in between.

The mountainside at the right is Le Pourtet (I think).


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Now we are just beyond Le Pourtet and we can see the route ahead.

We are not going to climb the Pic d'Anie but use the trail to it up to the ridge. Then we have to traverse along the ridge to bm271.




Let's show that on Google Earth:

We continue slow but steadily.


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If you know the terrain, the position of bm270 is well to distinguish.


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Another zoom-in to bm270.


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Bm270


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But we want to cover first bm271. There are a lot of daytrippers on their way to Pic d'Anie.


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Now we are leaving the trail up to Pic d'Anie, heading SE to the ridge.


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But it's getting later and later and bm271 is still ± 1 hour to go.


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So we decide to stop and go back and do bm270-263 on our return.

This picture: on our way back and looking back.


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Bm270 is not easy to reach in the middle of the karst-plateau.

This is a crucial spot: you have to climb here to the right. Note the cairn.

The trail you see is parallel to the trail which leads to Pic d'Anie.


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Let's show that in detail on Google Earth:

This picture shows this better.
We are now finding our way on the rocky plateau which




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is parallel to the ridge of bm270.

There are some cairns to help us.


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Zoom-in to bm270.


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Between the plateau and the ridge of bm270, there is a deep gap.

So we have to circumvent the gap at it's south side to get on the ridge of bm270.

This picture: at the end of the plateau. We have to descend


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and then climb to the parallel plateau cq ridge.


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A last scramble


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and then easily proceeding to


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bm270.


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Bm270, time for a late lunch break.


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Bm270


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Bm270.

Bm271 is on the ridge in the background at a straight line from bm270.


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Bm270


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Bm270


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Bm270


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We return on a slightly different route.


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Back at the south side of the plateau.

Returning to the trail takes some wayfinding and then


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we continue on our way back.

Conchita already spotted clouds drifting in in the far distance and they rapidly reach us.

We skip bm269-267 because of the time and the fog.


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But bm266 is along the trail.


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Bm266


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Also bm265 is along the trail, it has started to drizzle.


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Bm265


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Bm264 is not far away from the trail.

The solitary tree - a landmark nearby of my trips of 10 years ago still exists.


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Bm264


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Bm264


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Bm264


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Bm264


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Bm263 requires a detour and is not that easy to find between the rocks.

Conchita spots it first.


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Bm263


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Bm263


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Bm263

Then we descend into a sort of valley and pick up a direct trail to


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Col de la Pierre St-Martin with bm262.

End of our trip. A bit disappointed that we didn't reach bm271 but so be it.

I drive back to the camping in Larrau. In the beginning it's very foggy on the road and I almost crash into a .... cow.


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