The bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- 8 september 2012 -
A Swiss in the Pyrenees

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 esfr-trip-track-20120908.kml
(click to open this trip in Google Earth or copy link to Google Maps; click right on this link to download gpx-version)

Summary: part of a 2½-weeks-trip to the Pyrenees with a lot of targets, most of them reconnaisances of routes for the GRPdesBF.

Day 13: the last part of the Col de Clarabide to Col de la Glère survey: crossing Col de la Glère and finishing in Bagnères-de-Luchon.


Weather: sunny, warm
For explanation of the gps-coordinates and other cartographic backgrounds:
cartography page

Start: 8.00, no break, finish: 15.45, net walking time: 7.45
 
According to the gp-tripteller:
Distance: 22,3 km
In total: 7.43h
Total ascent: 965m
Maximum height: 2353m

According to visugpx
- distance : 20,9 km
- cum. elevation gain :  1221m
- cum. elevation loss :  1638m
- total elevation:  2859m

- altitude maxi :  2376m
- altitude mini :  957m
- altitude average :  1811m
From my camping it’s a quiet walk along a dirtroad (partly paved) to Llanos de Venasque (or Baños de Benasque). Half of it is red/white waymarked.
From a very large grey building, the red/white waymarking goes another direction and I continue on the dirtroad,
a signpost directing me.

The red/white trail seems to take a higher route to Llanos de Venasque but the dirtroad is OK for my purpose.
The last part is a concrete road and I arrive at a lager parking.
From the far end of that parking, I climb along a trail to the road higher up. A bit further, the road ends.
From there a green/white trail starts that leads underneath the lake ‘Ibon de Gorgutas’ and to Port de la Glère.
At the road’s end I’ve met Ewald Iseli, a 62 years old Swiss. He walks - as a sort of ‘rite de passage’ after his retirement - a 10-weeks Pyrenean coast-to-coast route.

He uses this german-language guidebook: "Zu Fuss durch die Pyrenäen" by François Meienberg

It’s a combination of the various GR-trails along the Pyrenees, including some summit-climbs and is surpringly comprehensive in data on lodging, transport etcetera.
With his shoulder surgery and artificial hip, he’s amazingly energetic and fast. We’ll walk together for the rest of the day until we part in Luchon.
We have arrived at Lac des Gourgoutes, just before the borderpass of Port de la Glère.
At the borderpass, it's a bit climbing to bm331.
Bm331
Bm331, as seen from the pass.
A zoom-in from previous picture.
Then it’s a long, long descent N to the road.

We get a hitch to Bagnères-de-Luchon and after a ‘panaché’ (beer with lemonade) we say goodbye.

I take the train back to Lannemezan and drive to St-Lary-Soulan to the camping municipal.
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