The central section of the Pyrenees around the Aneto and Maladeta is a scrambler's paradise. The peaks are mostly granite, highly featured and culminate in sharp pinnacled ridges, while the few glaciers are small and uncrevassed. They are becoming even smaller with climate change - the map I had in 2009 was surveyed in 2002 and the marked Glaciar de Russell had completely disappeared between those dates. It was obviously much bigger still when the name was given as it would need to come at least 200 metres lower to be anywhere near Pico de Russell. This rapid glacier recession has made the high Pyrenean corries much harder going than they would have been a century ago. What was then easy snow walking now involves clambering over acres of boulderfields. The bonus is that many of the corries now contain lovely mountain tarns (Ibons), highlights of any trip to the range.
Pico de Aneto from Ibons de Corones
Although the area is a National Park the vast majority of people don't go far from the road up the Esera Valley, and even on the hill people are concentrated into a few honeypots, much as in Britain. In my seven hill days it was only where I joined the standard route up Aneto that I met more than the occasional person, and on one of the days I met nobody. I based myself at the very friendly Hotel El Pilar in Benasque and they looked after my kit while I made a couple of three night forays up into the hills, the first one bivyying, the second with a tent.
Pico de Aneto is the highest peak in the Pyrenees so the normal route from the Renclusa Hut to the north is popular and I wanted to avoid it. Instead I took the minibus up the Vallibierna to around 1950m, from where the map confidently shows a "camino" leading all the way up the Vall de Corones to the summit. I had heard enough horror stories about Spanish maps to be suspicious of this though. To be fair to the map (bought in Benasque the day before) it was a huge improvement on the 1980's one I'd arrived with. The marked path did exist up through beautiful woodland to the Ibonet de Corones on the first level of the corrie, then up scraggier ground to reach a mountain wonderland at the Ibons de Corones.
Ibon Medio de Corones
A trio of deep blue tarns were surrounded by a mixture of bare granite slabs and swathes of tumbled boulders and backed by a chain of jagged rock spikes. Aneto itself looked much more impressive from here than in the usual view from the north. It was clear that any path from here was going to be completely notional. There was a trodden line up the crest of a moraine for the first 100m or so but after that it was boulder hopping and slabs until a short snowfield and an easy rock wall led to the wide saddle of the Collado de Corones.
Pico de Aneto from above Ibons de Corones
Here I met the main route, and people, although it wasn't exactly Snowdon numbers, just a couple of dozen people straggling up the slope. There were kicked steps up a brief plaque of steepish hard snow but as I had opted for trekking pole over ice axe I scrambled up rock steps on the crest instead. Scree then led to a narrow arete and the summit. The ascent had taken under 4 hours, which I was quite pleased with as half of it had been on pathless boulders. The spare time gave me the opportunity to take in a couple of rock spikes on the way down, including the very sharp Agulla de Creguena.
Crencha de Creguena, Agulla de Creguena on right
I was back down at the road end by 4.30, picked up my gear and took another path up the Vall de Llosars. There was a Cabana marked at 2200m and I was hoping that this would be a bivvy hut similar to one I had seen before. It turned out to be a walled cave under a boulder with just room to lay out a sleeping bag, but it made a reasonable base for the next three nights.
Pic de Vallibierna
The other side of the valley was dominated by the dramatic swirly patterns on Pic de Vallibierna and this was the obvious next objective. The swirls are limestone but the granite ridge curving round in front of them looked good and had no obvious 'stoppers'. It turned out to be about Moderate, with the crux being a thrutchy chimney to gain the ridge. The ridge itself stayed sharp for nearly a kilometre, giving exposed but never difficult scrambling all the way to the minor summit of Tuqueta de Muidors.
Pas del Cavall, Pic de Vallibierna
Above this an easier ridge of poorer rock led up to the twin summits of Pic de Vallibierna itself. The knife edge between these is the Pas del Cavall, an infamous 'bad step' amongst Spanish hillgoers. My Spanish is minimal but I could guess what "muy aérea e impresionante" meant 😯. It was too! It's only about Moderate but the drop on either side is quite something. The only people I met all day were debating over it – eventually one crossed, the others opted not to. The clouds were beginning to look a little purple so I had a rapid descent over the grassy Tuca Arnau, not quite making it to the bivvy before the afternoon thunderstorm arrived. Tea in a sleeping bag soon warmed me up though, and a sunny evening meant I could dry my things outside.
Ibon de Llosars
South-east of Aneto are a trio of rock summits and their associated minor spikes and I did a round of them the next day. The Ibon de Llosars on the way up was exquisite even by the standards of the High Pyrenees, an emerald tarn backed by slabby cliffs. There was a path to it but higher up it was the usual boulder hopping, a non-existent glacier and an easy scramble up the south-west arete of Pico de Tempestades. In keeping with the name big clouds were foaming up from the north side and Pico Margalida, my next objective, was being carved in half. The summit of this is the finish of the well known rock climb of the Sallanches Arete and is so sharp that it's painful to sit on!
Pico de Margalida
Descending its south-east ridge was excellent fun, then an obvious scree rake slanted up Pico de Russell. I wanted to take in the North-West Top so left it halfway to scramble up slabby grooves, rather Glyder-like. Pico de Russell itself is a stony plateau but the South-East Top is out along a sharp ridge and although bad weather was obviously arriving I couldn't resist scampering out and back before scuttling off down the rake. The band of rain turned out to be minor and it cleared by late afternoon. I even had a visitor at the bivvy, a rather gorgeous Park Ranger who had been considering using it herself. There wasn't room for two (resists sexist innuendo here 🙂) so after a chat she headed down to the hut at the road end. Presumably she stayed much drier than I did as it threw it down all night and the bivvy floor became a stream. I left at first light to get the bus down to Benasque and the the comforts of El Pilar.
Plleta de Llosars, view from bivvy
The afternoon and next morning were spent drying out, restocking and lazing, for which Benasque is an ideal spot, with loads of bars and outdoor shops (Barrabes has a superb book selection, featuring anything you ever wanted to know about the Pyrenees). Free community wifi all over town was a bonus. I have surreal memories of Benasque post office from another trip. I had lost my wallet and was arranging for money to be sent out and my cards to be cancelled and replaced. The teller was highly amused that I was carrying on a conversation in English in a Spanish village with a guy working for a Chinese Bank in India - globalisation in full swing! All got sorted and I disappeared off up the hill for three days until the money arrived – no need for cash up there!
Renclusa from La Besurta
The bus up to La Besurta was busy, but most people were just pottering for the day. I had taken a tent this time but was mountain fit by now so steady plodding and a bit of cunning route finding got me to the Renclusa Hut in 45 minutes. This was much to the annoyance of two Spanish lads who had obviously expected to burn off the old guy with the big sack – I was sitting outside with a beer by the time they arrived 🙂. Above the hut I left everyone else behind too as I headed off the main trail to camp by an out-of-the-way stream.
Pico de Paderna
The sunrise on the splendid tower of Pico de Paderna the next morning was glorious, calling for lots of photo stops as I rejoined the path to go over a notch and up to the edge of the Aneto Glacier. Here a Moderate chimney and some easy clambering led to Pico de la Maladeta. This is a much more complex mountain than Aneto, with four major summits and several minor ones. The complete traverse has a section graded IV (Severe) but over two days I managed to climb all the main peaks and most of the minor ones without doing anything above Diff. From the main peak I took the enjoyable south ridge over Pico Abadias, with tremendous views down to Lago Creguena and a very exposed descent to Collado Maldito at its end.
Pico de la Maladeta south ridge
Between Aneto and Maladeta there is an often forgotten peak called Pico Maldito. It's actually the third highest peak in the Pyrenees but gets few ascents, possibly because there isn't an easy route. From Collado Maldito a slabby ridge led to a steep chimney, then a thankfully short crossing of an appallingly loose gully above a big drop took me to a clean rib on the other side. It's about Diff and is the easiest line so I had to reverse it. Crossing the gully in descent was even scarier than when going up. I needed a beer at the Renclusa to recover 🙂.
Pico Maldito
The Pico de Paderna looked stunning again in the morning so I had to start with that, via the easy arete at the back. Then I had to climb Pico d'Alba of course 😁. The north ridge of this was the best scramble of the trip, given F+, a superb sustained Grade 3 arete. As a direct descent of the east face wasn't feasible I also had to descend it so I even got to do it twice!
Pico d'Alba, north ridge on right
A shattered gully/rake then took me up the Diente d'Alba next door, with a succession of crazily-angled tops. The three main peaks of the Cresta Maladeta were much easier, but still with lots of scrambling, then the minor Pico Le Bondidier was worth the detour for its bird's eye view of Lago Creguena.
Lago Creguena
After picking up my gear back below the Paderna I crossed the Collado de la Renclusa to camp at a tiny pool, with a view up the valley to the distinctive twin spikes of Pico Forcanada. The Pic d'Aiguallut looked rather good too. In the morning I paid the obligatory visit to the Trou de Toro, where the river disappears underground to cross right under the main Pyrenean spine and reappear in France as the source of the Garonne. The airy traverse round its south side was quite exciting. Then it was back to La Besurta, the bus to Benasque, a night in Barcelona and a very wet Scotland. It had been a great trip and I was still buzzing a week later.
On Pico Sayo, Maladeta
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