Fabien snowshoeing near Astun

It’s been snowing heavily in the Pyrenees for over a week now but the weather cleared on Friday and Saturday and it was time to dig the snowshoes out of the back of the cupboard for the first snowshoe outing of the season.The ski resort of Astun was our destination on Friday afternoon and we walked up to Col de Moines on the French border. Great views over the resort to Pico Aspe with the sun setting behind.

The ski resort of Astun with Pico Aspe behind

On Saturday we visited Ibon de Estanés – an area I’d not visited before. It was an unexpectedly wild and beautiful area. Our route took us through woods to a wide plateau called Aguas Tuertas perfect for snowshoeing. Fabulous snow covered mountians rose above us.

Aguas Tuertas and the peak of Secús

As we passed over a low hill we disturbed a large herd of Sarrios (Pyrenean Chamois). There must have been 25 or even 30 grazing on a grassy patch. We were fairly close but they soon sped off at a pace that made us feel like snails!

Sarrios or Pyrenean Chamois

There was a fair amount of snow but wew were a bit lower than the day before and took our snowshoes on and off several times during the day. We took a circular route back past Ibones de Estanés nestled just on the Spanish side of the border. The route down was quite exciting and had there been much more snow would have been impassable. It started with a nice traverse on a narrow path across a cliff face.

Descending from Ibon de Estanés

For the final section there was a set of ‘escalera’ marked on the map – this translates to stairs but we weren’t quite sure what to expect. When we got there we found exactly that – a nice set of steps!

The 'escalera' at Ibones de Estanés

Great day – beautiful weather and whetted my appetite for more snow snowshoeing. The snow’s continuing this week and the mountains around Biescas all have white peaks. Formigal and Panticosa ski resorts are expecting to open on the 27th November and that looks possible with the good base of snow they’ve already got and the forecast for the next week. Can’t wait!

A Griffon Vulture (Gyps Fulvas) flying close overhead

March 8th is women´s day in Spain and we celebrated by taking a relaxing walk in the snow. Along our trail we saw Griffon Vultures, Great Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Red Kites and pine processionary caterpillar nests.

After all the wind and snow we´ve had recently here in the mountains we were happy to wake up on Sunday morning to bright sunshine. So Phil suggested we go snow shoeing.  We packed a small bag with a picnic, flask and plenty of suncream and jumped into our recently Spanish registered right-hand drive car. We put the cats out the window (it´s OK we live on the ground floor) and headed off up the small winding road towards Aso de Sobremonte a couple of kilometres from Biescas. Half way up the road the trail is marked to the right. 

The trail was blocked by snow so we tucked the car in off the road and headed off on our snow shoes. We walked along a wide sun-dappled, snow covered track lined with scots pine and beech trees. We found various tracks probably from deer, wild boar and fox. Overhead we stopped to watch a passing group of griffon vultures take advantage of today´s thermals and a large group of red kites circling high above us.  We were lucky enough to snap some rather energetic great tits and long-tailed tits flitting from tree to tree. Some reptiles were emerging from their slumber, warming themselves slowly under the suns rays.  

We had our lunch perched on a rock that had fallen into the path which gave us great views down the valley to the sierra de guarra in the south and over the tendeñera to the north.

Views of the Sierra de Tendenera

There were lots of great tits in the woods that we were walking through

Lunching (and drinking) on the summit of Pic l´Iou

Fantastic snow shoeing trip today with the Sabinanigo walking club to Pic l’Iou just over the border in France.

Hoy hemos hecho una excursion muy bonita con raquetas con el club de montaña Sabinanigo.

Beautiful weather again and being the first weekend the road from France has been open since the heavy snowfall a lot of folk were out snow shoeing and ski touring. A group of about 20 of us started from the border station and headed intitially towards Pic du Midi d’Ossau before skirting under Pic Peyregret and reaching the 2218m Pic l’Iou. As always with the walking club we had great fun with plenty of Spanish practise and of course the wine skin was passed around at lunchtime!

Y para nuestros amigos espanoles….  A la frontera hacia el sol y el cielo azul. Anduvimos hacia Pic Midi d’Ossau, y despues nos dirigimos a Pic l’Iou (2218m). El estado de la nieve estaba bien y fuimos rapido. Cuando subiamos hacia mucho calor. Cuando llegamos el pico tuvimos el almuerzo y tomamos un poco vino. Muchas gracias por un buen dia.

Detalles de la excursion
Time / Tiempo: 3h 40m
Distance / Distancia: 8.9km
Height gain / Disnivel: 605m

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On the way up...