I did feel the speed-hiking of yesterday in my legs this morning. And starting with a straight 400m climb didn’t help. At least most of it was in the forest and therefore in the shade.
Bridge building in Spanish:
And they made it a serious climb out of the valley.
But the view of the firs real lake made up for the early morning pain.
I was still not rolling. And now just 600m down again eating up all of the work from the last hour. When I arrived in Candanchú it was time for… Yes, Second Breakfast again!
And the scenery would stop anymore. Of course there was a constant climbing a descending. I think I covered around 32km again and probably 3.500-4.000m in elevation change. The only new thing today – add more lakes to the scenery.
In the background you can see Pic du Midi d’Ossau. It is 2.884m high, can be climbed from the other side and is the only volcano in the Pyrenees. My target was to pass him on the south side today.
What they can do…
…can I do better! My favorite hiking position captured by a fairy. I found the perfect spot in the shade on a nearly flat ground with some wind. Perfect. After I stuffed another 1000 calories into the system I went for a short nap. Can’t help it 🤷♂️
There he is again from the bottom.
To get over the Col it was scrambling-time. There was an official detour described in the guide book to “avoid the unpleasant rock part”. Unpleasant? That’s the fun stuff!
And when I got over the Col the next amazing view just waited. On this side of the valley the Refugio and on the other side – guess what, the next valley to climb up again.
A nice French couple offered to take a picture of me so I saved some time setting up the selfie stuff.
The Refugio was inviting but since it was only 6.30 I had to continue a bit further. Down the valley and up on the other side. The climb did get really steep again, around 25%. I started sweating again to close the day. And to find a camp spot in the steep valley was going to be a challenge. So I packed water a bit further down already to be flexible to stop right at the next spot. But it took a while. At the end the dream spot. Flat grass next to the river with a beautiful sunset and two packs of ramen (or 600 calories 😉)
