The bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- sunday 8 september 2019 -
Redoing 322

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Summary: part of a series of 11 trips in august-september 2019 in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Andorra and the Hautes-Pyrénées. This is trip 11.

Today: from the Spanish side - north of Bielsa - a roundtrip to redo bm322. My basecamp is the camping in Vignec in France.

Weather: splendid, however chilly on the ridge

track-20190908.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
According to Garmin Basecamp (uncorrected track):

Distance: 20,0 km
Max-height: 2270m
Min-height: 1391m
Elevation: +1375m -1372m
Total elevation: 2747m

Start 7:52  Finish 16:53
Total time: 9:01
Early start in Spain, 3km beyond the Bielsa-tunnel.

That's where a yellow-white trail starts to Port de Barroude.

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Some information about Port de Barroude and its ascent.

It says that the ascent is 3 hours but it will take me 4 hours to climb to the Port.



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And some information about the former mines of Bielsa.


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And about the trails connecting the mines with France.


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The mountain road is broad and easy.


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Relicts of the mining era.


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Note the yellow-white trailmarks.


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Later on the trail/path/dirtroad climbs steadily along a stream.

Here and there nice opportunities for a bivouac.


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Then the cirque of Barroude comes in sight


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Looking back, an easy trail to follow


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The path/dirtroad has become a
trail

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which arrives at the bottom of the cirque. Still a long way to go & climb to Port de Barroude.


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In general, the waymarks are sufficient though sometimes missing in the transfer from the cirque-bottom to where the real climbing starts.


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A cabane in between,


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the Refugio de Barrosa which


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is clean.


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Looking back at the refugio.


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Then the trails climbs with many lacelets towards the Port de Barroude. The waymarks get sometimes sparse but in general, wayfinding uphill is easy.

On this picture, I can already spot


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the Port with the rocky outcrop which is 200m left (west) to the actual pass and where bm322 is to be found.


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Looking back


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The passing of a little stream, one of few


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The Port gets nearer


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Another view back into the valley.


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This crippled waymark


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points to the Puerto de Barrosa.


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Another time viewing back, I'm almost


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at the Port and


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there we are. The Port is a broad saddle.


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Wayfinding is not difficult here.


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At the port itself, there's no bordermarker 322. It's located 200m to the west of the actual pass.


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Zoom-in: the rocky outcrop where you can find bm322


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The easiest access is going straight over the first top and then there's another small peak


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and there you will spot


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bm322


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Bm322


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Bm322


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From there (between the two peaks) you can descend slippery


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to the south-side of the rocky outcrop


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with this zoom-in back to the second peak with bm322.


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I return to the actual Port de Barroude with this view down the cirque de Barroude.


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There's another signpost, more at the saddle itself

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At the French side, we see a few lakes (Lacs de Barroude) with bivouac-spots. There used to be a guarded refuge besides them but that one got lost in a fire, some years ago.


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View of the lakes at the French side.


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This panorama shows the broad saddle of Port de Barroude - looking west - with the location of bm322.


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I continue E -> NE along the broad ridge on a well trail.


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The trail heads to the Pic de Port Vieux. In between there's a sort of pass


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where you have this view ahead. Descending here towards Port Vieux is not possible: it is too steep.


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Zoom-in to Port Vieux


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Zoom-in to Porte de Bielsa (bm323)


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I have to climb further to Pic de Port Vieux before I can descend to Port Vieux


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Looking back to Port de Barroude


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Having arrived at Pic de Port Vieux. From here the descent to Port Vieux is steep.


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Lookin forward with


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a zoom-in to Port Vieux


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and to Porte de Bielsa


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A view of the mountainside


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with (zoom-in) the trail that descends into the valley and the branch which climbs to Porte de Bielsa.


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Another view of ridge and valley


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Getting close to Port Vieux


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with its old cabin for the custom officers, too small to sleep in.


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It took me 1:30h to get from Port de Barroude to Port Vieux.

Time for a lunch-break, 6 hours after I left.


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It's already too late to include bm323 (Porte de Bielsa) and its more practical to do the range bm323-325 in a separate trip.

Thus: I start descending along a fine and waymarked trail down the valley. It will take me 2 hours to reach the entrance of the Bielsa-tunnel.


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This seems a first branch towards Porte de Bielsa.


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A yellow cross on a rock to indicate that you should follow the trail downhill


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Passing a stream, one of few


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And here I'm close to the bifork


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with a signpost


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indicating the trail to Porte de Bielsa (Puerto de la Forqueta) and the trail to Port Vieux.


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A bit further I can spot uphill


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Porte de Bielsa


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A cabane on my way downhill


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which is not very inviting


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I continue downhill


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and the building at the entrance of the Bielsa-tunnel gets in sight


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And having arrived at the beginning of the trail, behind the building at the entrance of the Bielsa-tunnel


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Information-panel


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with information about the trail to Porte de Bielsa: it will take 2 hours from here, it says.


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The entrance of the Bielsa-tunnel


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Now I have to return to my car, about 3km along the road.

In general there's space enough at the roadside for a safe walk. It helps that the traffic through the tunnel is alternating, changing every 10 or so minutes in the other direction). So the traffic coming from the tunnel passes in 'caravanes'.


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I pass along the information board about the


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trail to Port de Héchempy (Puerto de Salcorz, bm324) which


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starts and ends here, just before this tunnel. It should take 2:30h to get there from here.


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Close-up.

Is this trail useful? Well, it might be when you get trapped at the ridge by bad weather. At the Port de Héchempy (bm324), one could descend along this trail to safer grounds (or descend on the french side)


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After arriving at my car, I drive south to this parking lot.

That is where the trail to/from Port de Moudang (bm325) starts or ends.


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With the inevitable information board


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on the trail to Port de Moudang (Puerto de Trigoniero, bm325). It's a climb of 3h.


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This trail is important. Yesterday I discovered that 'my' trail from bm325 to Hospice de Rioumajou had vanished. That is to say: the orange painted waysigns along the mountainside were largely gone or faded away.

Moreover, the long exposed main trail over the high mountainridge between bm322 and 325, I consider now as too vulnerable for the main grpdesbf- route. That part is more suitable for a variant. Let's show my old and new design.

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The old routes.

My new route: more easy with mostly waymarked trails but more elevation meters by its descent to the road and ascent to bm326. Involves 3,5 kilometers along the tarmac road. Has to be worked out in the grpdesbf-stages.

Note: the Topopirineos-map shows a trail (roughly 6km) along the mountainridge from bm325 to 326, potentially a great shortcut in good weather. But a route on Topopirineos doesn't necessarily imply a physical trail let alone easy to do.
The next stop is where the trail to Port d'Ourdissétou (Puerto de Urdiceto, bm326) starts. That's a dirtroad for almost its entire length

This is the parking, off the main road.


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and this is the main road from Tunnel de Bielsa where you got to leave the main road.


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You can read that is will take almost 4 hours to get to Port d'Ourdissétou (bm326)


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It is red-white waysigned.

Enough for today. I drive back to France, to Vignec, to the camping. I'm content with this reconnaissance.

This is my last trip, the next day I will drive to Lourdes for a day of rest and some devotion. Then back home via a camping & hikingstop in Northern France.


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