Our first real day of section hiking the GR10, was a fairly big day. The cicerone guide we’d been using as the basis for the trip had listed the section as Etsaut to Gabas – a 14-15 mile, 5,000 feet of elevation gain, monster of a hike. Daunting on any day, more so because we’d be with full packs.
GR10 Etsaut – our way is clear!
Fortunately, we discovered and were able to secure beds at the Refuge D’Ayous – a mountain hut staffed by (what seemed to be a family). More on that later.
This GR10 section is also famed for passing through Chemin de la Mature – a trail section carved into the rock, used in the late 1700’s to move tree timbers from the forest to the coast to be used as ship masts.
It was set to be a big day all around… We were up early and after a relatively quick petit dejeuner said our goodbyes to Celine and L’Espiatet and headed out to retrace our path to Etsaut and the valley floor.
Rather than try to describe the day in words, we’ll just let the pictures do the talking…
GR10 Etsaut to Col D’Ayous – where we’re headed for the day
Leaving Etsaut, a quick view back toward Vallee D’Aspe – with L’Espiatet a dot on the shoulder emerging in the sunshine
Fort du Portalet – at the head of the Chemin de la Mature, guarding the way through the Pyrenees into Spain
Along the Chemin de la Mature – looking back into Vallee D’Aspe
Up close with Jeanne on Chemin de la Mature
Emerging from the Chemin de la Mature – moving into the higher elevations toward Col D’Ayous
Nearing the Col D’Ayous – looking back on the pastureland and our trail
Our first view of Pic du Midi – from Col D’Ayous
Our attempt at a selfie on Col D’Ayous, at 7000ft elevation. Pic du Midi in the background, looking very volcano like!
Beginning our descent to the Refuge D’Ayous – the refuge in the lower right of the photo
Bunk room in the Refuge D’Ayous – another 8 spaces on the other side of the room
Dinner at the Refuge D’Ayous – and hardly any English to be heard
Pic du Midi at sunset – taken from the deck at Refuge D’Ayous
It all started with a conversation with some Brits while we were on our first multi-day trek in Alpiglen, Switzerland in 2012. They talked about the GR10 as a long distance hiking trail between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast paralleling the Pyrenean/Spanish border in France. What’s a GR? France is virtually blanketed with long distance hiking trails – Grande Randonnée – with the GR10 stretching from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, covering a distance of roughly 540 miles and typically taking 50+days to traverse. Fast forward six years…
We’d planned to be on the trail on the day after arriving in France. Always a bit risky in the event our backpacks got lost in transit – but we arrived in Paris as did our backpacks, and transferred to our Paris-Pau flight without incident. Arriving in Pau, we were easily able to get on the P20 bus to take us into downtown Pau – location of Hotel D’Adour, the hotel we were using to bookend our hiking. Only a few days
We’ve stayed at Refuges on some of our other trekking experiences – we’re really not backpackers/campers – most often, you can find us at one of the Appalachian Mountain Club huts in the white mountains of New Hampshire, and we’ve also stayed at Refugios in Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia (such as Refugio Grey), and the Berghaus’ which dot the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps (see our blog on the Jungfrau). Staying at the Refuge D’Ayous hut would be yet
The Gabas to Gourette section of the GR10 probably falls into the category of “what were we thinking!”. On paper, it was big, over 13 miles, with an elevation gain of 5300 feet, and an elevation loss of 4600 feet. A mile up, a mile down! Book time was 8-9 hours, but the GR10 signs were saying nearly 10 hours. We’d already learned to respect the signs. Reflecting back, this hike was epic all around. Besides the numbers, it had
We’d finished up our GR10 section hiking in the village of Gourette – a ski resort nestled in the Pyrenees about 30 miles south of Pau – our starting and ending point for our adventure in the Pyrenees. In the high season, one can catch a bus from Gourette to Pau, but in the shoulder season, the Pau bus leave from Laruns – a nearby town. We’d planned to walk from Gourette to Laruns for the bus, but arriving in
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