Day 15: 26 August: Lac d’Arratille to Gavarnie

We went up pretty early, started our climb around 7, when it started to get lighter. It is fantastic to se the colour change on the mountains when climbing up. And the air is still cool and crispy. I just love these mornings.

Looking down at the Lac d’Arratille and our campsite

I enjoyed the climb up to Col d’Arratille (2528m), challenging but exciting. Before reaching the col we passed the Lac du Col d’Arratille.

Col d’Arratille (2528m) facing the slop to Col du Mulets

After the col we followed a trail on the slop and we looked down to a valley that I after a while recognise that me and Yrr walked when we where following the GR 11, in 2010.

Col du Mulets looking down to . Almost the same view from our hike in 2010, where me and Yrr was having a break, this time no snow.
Looking up at Col du Mulets

At the Col du Mulets we rejoined GR11 and we started to decend to Vallée de Gaube. Nice to revisit these beautiful place, at the refuge we just took a short break. But long enough to have some delicous blueberry cake.

Refuge des Oulettes de Gaube (2151m)
Vallée de Gaube facing the Vignermale (3298m, highest summit of the Pyrenees)
Fearless Marmot close to Refuge des Oulettes de Gaube

We continued with our second ascent for the day up to Hourquette d’Ossoue (2734m). It was a step and very rocky. Demanding but doable, the trail was hard to find but the man-made cairns was very useful. I loved the climb, I felt stronger than any other day so far. Happy that my body started to adapt to the mountain. Jerome, was faster going up, but when he took a break I rejoined with him and on the downhill we had more or less the same speed.

We had some short lunch break at Refuge Bayssellance (2651m), it was too early for getting lunch from the refuge so we just ate our own. Quickly before continue on Day 16 in the guidbook, we dried our tents in the sun.

The view at Refuge Bayssellance

From now on it was downhill all the way to Gavarnie. Lovely but step decent in the beginning.

Jerome on his way down
Barrage d’Ossoue (1843m)

From the valley Barrage d’Ossoue (1843m) we followed the road as we wanted to get quicker to Gavarnie to be able to visit the outdoor shop. I also wanted to visit the post office to pick-up my parcel. But when we finally after 2-3 days without any internet connection had connection, I found out they where already closed. Damn.

We arrived to Gavarnie around 17:30, I bought some long pants at the outdoor store as I lost my merino pants. On our way to the camping we bought some food at the small supermarket, quite well equipped. They had nice cheese and sausages.

The camping in Gavarnie facing the famous Cirque de Gavarnie

The camping is nicely located at the end of the village facing the beautiful Cirque de Gavarnie. We had some drinks and took farewell, Jerome plan was to continue the next morning. Mine was to have a rest day or two, and rejoin with Anika, Eli and girls.