HRP Thru-hike 2016.

[Roope U]

Hi, BPL folks with experience in the Pyrenees!

Me and my buddy are hiking the HRP, following Joosten’s route starting in early July, and I thought I’d set up a thread to ask some questions to help us and future people looking to hike the HRP.

We are using a bounce box to send some food, gear, and equipment forward. We are filming our hike to make a documentary, so we’ll need to make stops to make backups of our material and send memory cards home on the way.

Snow:

Anyone know how this year’s snow levels differ from a regular year? Are crampons & ice axe absolutely necessary and any suggestion where we should pick them up at? We would like to summit Pico de Aneto.

Gear list:

https://lighterpack.com/r/bqsczq

Any comments/suggestions on the gear? Anything missing, anything I should leave home? I know the camera gear weighs a ton, but we gotta live with it. Everything marked with a red star is going to be shared. Not every single thing is weighed yet, but all the bigger stuff is.

Language:

Do locals (hotel, restaurant, post office employees and refuge caretakers) speak English at all? I know a bit of French and Spanish, but my skills are very limited.

Water:

As far as I’ve read, clean water should be available pretty much everywhere, so having water purification tablets just in case should be enough?

Please tell me if there is something that I should know about the hike/pyrenees in general, that I might have missed!

Thanks so much already for the help! I might add some more questions as they come to mind.

[Lawrence A]

Hey there,

I am also thru-hiking the HRP in a couple days. I am with a friend in France right now and his friend works for the weather service here and just got back from backpacking in the Pyrenees this past weekend. He said all the south facing slopes have melted off and I wouldn’t need an ice axe or microspikes. I do think regardless you will need it for Pico de Aneto. I am sending my spikes to Lescun and my axe to Gavarnie just in case, as I will be summiting as many peaks as I like.

As far as languages go, there will definitely be times where you’ll need to speak French and Spanish (I know very little of each so I’ll be in the same boat as you guys).

Hopefully I’ll see you guys, but I plan on moving pretty quickly, so I don’t know if I’ll see you so good luck!

Bon voyage!

 

[Ivo Vanmontfort]

You will have snowfields after refuge de larribet I think.
Have seen some photo’s from a week ago in that regio
(J35/36)
https://bernard64000.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/j-35-pont-despagne-respomuso-plafond-bas-neige-en-quantite-solitude-totale/
web cam from refugio respomuso
http://www.alberguesyrefugiosdearagon.com/webcam.php?id=9
Top on the left is the grande fache

“I am sending my spikes to Lescun and my axe to Gavarnie just in case, as I will be summiting as many peaks as I like.” OK I think

[Ken Thompson]

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/37414/

[backpackerchick]

@radut Did you end up using a “bounce box”? Can you share the locations you used? Did you make a video? Is it available?

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