"From the car park at Cap de la Serre, by the GR101 as far as Col du Prat du Rey; first 2km by grit road, then a rough overgrown path up to the col. Louise stayed at the refuge while I climbed up steep grass to a damp beech wood, keeping close to the ridge line to the summit. Tiring return much the same way, in increasing sunshine as clouds broke and the mist cleared. SW breeze." — marktrengove • Jul 27, 2022

"From the car park at 43.07372°N, 000.06425°W, we followed a track that contoured north-east above fields. After a gate the trail headed more steeply up the side of a coombe until it joined the east ridge just below a pylon and disused cable car station on Pt. 719m. After a short descent, the trail wound up onto a limestone crest littered with granite erratic boulders. Another brief descent followed, before the trail headed up through bracken to the summit cross on a bouldery granite summit. Fine views, especially of Lourdes below, as four lammergeiers wheeled above us. Our descent was by our outward route to just below the ruined cable station. We then followed the ridge around the head of the coombe to Pt. 669m, descending to rejoin our outward route again back to the car park. With ALT. Mainly grey cloudy weather, but with the sun attempting to break through. Fresh NNW wind on the summit." — marktrengove • Jul 25, 2022

"Spain and France border. This is the third day of a four day trek. The past two days we have followed Rio Ara to its source and made a loop around the Vignemale group. It is misty this morning and we get lost because the track is destroyed by cows. We push up a hill until we finally reach a path. To our frustration it stops a little further in a small valley. I push hard until a peaky ridge and find the path again. Because we only see one of two lakes we assume incorrectly that this peak is "Pic entre les Ports" which we have to climb to continue our trek. As a result we climb this very windy white granite rock. The correct name of this peak is "Soum Blanc des Espécières"." — Pieter • Jul 30, 2019

"Friday 3rd August 2018. An ascent of Pic de Tentes 2322m/114m, from Col de Tentes, Hautes Pyrénées, France. 1.4km, with 120m of ascent. 40mins. The ridge of Pic de Tentes forms the northern flank of Vallée des Pouey Aspé, a side valley of the famous Cirque de Gavarnie (see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_de_Gavarnie) in the High Pyrenees, close to the Spanish border. From the Cirque, it appears as an elegant crest, defended by limestone crags. From the Col de Tentes, the 2208m col that connects the peak to the main ridge, it has a quite different aspect – a grassy and easily accessible hill. This col is easily reached by a high mountain road which now ends at the col. A track continues south-west to the Port de Boucharo on the French-Spanish frontier, a route originally accessible to road vehicles, but no longer so. I had considered scaling this peak at the end of a long hike I had done up the nearby frontier peak of le Taillon (3144m/337m) in August 2016 (see at https://peakery.com/le-taillon-france/summits/121044/), but it was too late and I had too little energy left to make the short ascent to its summit on that occasion. After a walk below the peak earl..." — marktrengove • Aug 3, 2018

"Thursday 2nd August 2018. An ascent of Pic du Midi de Bigorre 2877m/757m, from Col du Tourmalet, Hautes Pyrénées, France. 14.3km, with 770m of ascent. 4hrs 30mins. Pic du Midi de Bigorre (see at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pic_du_Midi_de_Bigorre) is one of the most notable of the peaks in the Pyrenees, for a number of reasons. It sits on the northern extremity of the range, close to the low-lying plain to the north, and therefore dominates the view from that direction. In the days before the techniques for mountain surveying were developed in the 18th Century it was considered to be one of the highest peaks in the range. The true highest mountain is, of course, Aneto (in Spain) at 3,404m – considerably higher. The Pic du Midi is further notable for the large meteorological and astronomical observatory that sits on the summit, vying for space with the tourist facilities created following the building of a two-stage cable car route to the summit in the 1950s. This makes the summit rather a built-up area, resembling, when seen from below, one of the settlements pictured on other worlds in science fiction stories. After spending the last few days hiking on and below the..." — marktrengove • Aug 2, 2018