Three days of hiking in the countryside to discover this oh-so-wild park. We slept in two of the many cabins in the area. They are rustic but fulfill their role well... Let's go for three days of snowshoeing in the Catalan Pyrenees!
From the station to Serrat del Freser
Freshly off the night train, we begin the climb directly in front of the station. The path passes not far from the hamlet of Bena, then goes up a stream in a pretty isolated valley. At the top of this valley, we lose track of the path. It must be said that it is really not big and the snow is covering it more and more! No matter, we put on our snowshoes and cut straight into the slope.
We arrive quite early at the Serrat del Freser cabin where we plan to sleep. Surprise: after unblocking the door blocked by ice, we discover that the cabin is full of 20cm of snow! How she got in remains a mystery, since the door was closed. It must have passed through the tiny gaps between the ceiling and the wall, but how much of it! A good problem to think about for the group of physicists that we are.
However, there is no need to think too long, because evening is falling and the temperature is dropping. We take our shovels and clear the cabin. After an hour of effort, the snow is outside but remains on the ground a thick layer of ice that our efforts are unable to clear! So we will sleep on this slightly chilly mattress. No way to melt it since the stove doesn't have a chimney, so we can't get warm without smoking ourselves at the same time. You will have understood, it is not the most comfortable cabin I have slept in! However, the view of the Latour-de-Carol valley is perfect.
Snowshoeing in the Catalan Pyrenees
We leave well warmed by the morning sun, which allowed us to have a solid breakfast in front of the cabin. We go directly up the slope to go towards the ridge line, without following a path. There are none in the area anyway!
Unfortunately the weather deteriorates before we reach the ridge. We orient ourselves using GPS, but it could become complicated without it because the landscape becomes a white mist where everything is unrecognizable! We don't even know if the terrain rises or falls in front of us.
We therefore go back down from the ridge quite quickly since there is nothing to see. We slowly cover the slopes in the mist to finally arrive at the place called “els Passavets” on the IGN, where the weather clears up a little. Finally, we arrive at the Mata Negra hut in front of a sort of small canal. It has a good fireplace and is not filled with snow, happiness!
Descent to Angoustrine
It snowed all night and continued in the morning with large flakes. Nearly 40cm fell... We happily trace our path in this beautiful thickness of fresh snow. Besides, we sank up to our waists into the bottom of the little valleys!
We pass through a very pretty coniferous forest under the storm. Then we join a road which allows us to descend quietly towards the village of Angoustrine. In the distance we see the Themis solar power plant emerging: we can say that it didn't produce much that day!
Once in Angoutrine, we hitchhiked back to the station but it would also have been possible to do it on foot by road. The snowfall having been particularly heavy, the night train did not run to Latour-de-Carol that day! Fortunately the SNCF chartered a taxi for us to take us to Mérens station on time. And there you have it, already the end of the route... We didn't come across a cat on the trails for three days... Long live snowshoes in the Catalan Pyrenees!
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