Monday 30th July 2018. An ascent of Pic du Grand Jer 948m/373m, near Lourdes, Hautes Pyrénées, France. 5.8km, with 505m of ascent and 60m of descent. 1hrs 55mins.

In order to make a day of visiting the nearby town of Lourdes, ALT and I decided to scale this peak, which dominates the view south-east from the town. By the standards of Pyrenean mountains it is merely a foothill, but it rises some 550 metres from the plain below on which Lourdes is located. Its east face is rugged and precipitous. It is only ‘grand’ in relation to its subsidiary top to the north – the Petit Jer 709m/c.44m. The Grand Jer is a small peak indeed, but with pretensions to be a mountain.

The weather was cloudy, humid and sultry, but no thunderstorms were forecast, so we decided to go ahead with our hike. We parked in a car park opposite the funicular station, where a signpost marked the start. At first the trail was steep, until it joined a wide track through the fir forest. At the connecting col with the Petit Jer the track turned south, ascending the north ridge in a series of zig-zags. Narrower paths made steeper shortcuts between the track bends.

On one of these paths through deciduous forest the trail was overhung for a considerable distance with small caterpillars hanging on silken threads. They were there in thousands, and, as we ascended, we were soon covered in these silk threads. Our clothes, hair and skin were crawling with the moth larvae. It was a most unpleasant experience. I conceived a plan to go in front of ALT, slicing the threads with one of my walking poles. This eased the journey somewhat. Eventually we entered fir forest again and the torture ended, though it was some time before we had removed the last of the larvae. I learnt later that this forest had become infested with the larvae of the Boxwood Borer Moth (on which, see at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydalima_perspectalis). It even made the local newspapers – see at https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2018/08/21/2854654-hautes-pyrenees-pyrale-buis-fait-ravages.html. Why so many of them were hanging on threads at the same time is a mystery to me. Normally such larvae use this behaviour as a means of escape from predators, or to reach ground to head to another tree, but this was happening at the same time over such a large area that these explanations do not quite fit.

Our ascent continued up the zig-zags, mercifully now free of the caterpillars. It was not a trail with much of interest, as most of the time the view was obscured by trees. Eventually we reached the building complex around the top funicular station, from where a nature trail continued up to the summit through a stand of dwarf pine.

The summit was a disappointing place, cluttered with the ruins of a disused weather station, a metal cross (lit up at night) and a high radio mast. It was an unsightly place badly in need of a makeover. Things would have been better if there had been a view, but mist and cloud obscured in most directions.

We headed back to the top funicular station. We had originally intended to walk down, but the prospect of confronting the caterpillars again, and the boring nature of the trail, made us decide to take the funicular down, at the cost of 10 Euros each. It was worth it.

We headed into Lourdes for lunch, and to visit the famous shrine.