"Viajar a pie" is Spanish for "Travelling on foot"

Category: Pyrenees

Hecho Valley

The Hecho valley is on the Western Pyrenees. It’s the westernmost pyrenean area of consistently dramatic mountain scenery and some features make it special: there are no through roads across the range and there are no ski resorts. It is a wild and quiet place. What the mountains are meant to be.

Description

The Pyrenees stretch between Atlantic and Mediterranean. While the mountains create quite a weather of their own, the influence of the two seas clearly shows. The western Pyrenees are wetter and greener and since the atlantic weather systems usually approach from the northwest, the northern side is also damper than the south.

Pyrenean High Route

Camp below the Gran Astazu walls

WherePyrenees
WhenJuly/August
Distance800 km / 500 miles
Length29 days

The Pyrenees are a magnificent range and it’s been amazing to cover their length through all the varied landscapes and environments within. I could see the range develop and fade away, it was like traversing its life story more than its length.

The High Route is as wild as it gets. 29 days, a good ratio of glory vs. misery and a great feeling about the long distance hiking coming home

Background

If you don’t know about the Pyrenees but you do about the Alps, I can use that for an intro into the former. Compared to the Alps, the Pyrenees are not as high, not as wide, not that much in the middle of urban Europe but still high, rugged and, in a way, still wild. The Pyrenees are usually the destination of choice for those visitors who want to try something different from the Alps, who are tired of the overcrowded, overurbanised world of the Alps or who simply want to backpack without having to worry about crossing glaciers.

Plan

After four years in a row visiting North America, this summer the hiking’s coming home. It’ll be not a little bit less exciting while I’ll be tackling a solo traverse of the Pyrenees, sea to sea over the Haute Randonnée Pyrenéenne, the wildest and most rugged of the three routes that cover the distance from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. 4 weeks and a strong will to finish but above all a stronger will to have a good time so no marathons here… I’ll try my best but the goal is in the trip itself, not on the finish line.

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