"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

"Tuesday 31st July 2018. An ascent of Crête de la Serre 1595m/52m, Pic de Cantau 1642m/109m and Pic de Berbeillet 1633m/58m, Val d’Azun, Hautes Pyrenées, France. 20.0km, with 490m of ascent and 950m of descent. 7hrs 20mins. The weather forecast for today was not the best, with hill-fog predicted to quite low levels. Nevertheless, no rain or thunder was forecast. I resolved to carry out my plan to complete all the remaining summits on the main ridge that runs north-east from Col de Soulor (1474m) for some 23 kilometres. I had three left to reach. ALT dropped me off at the Col de Soulor, where the cloud-base had lowered to around 1600 metres. It was to remain around this altitude all day. However, the mist was light and shifting, so I hoped for easy navigation and the occasional view. I headed north from the col on the GR 101 (see at https://www.gr-infos.com/en/gr101.htm) around the west flank of Cap d’Aout 1654m, the summit of which I had visited in August 2016. The trail then bent north-east to reach the reedy Lac de Soum, above which loomed in the mist Crête de la Serre, my first objective of the day. The path continued up its easy-angled ridge to a grassy summit..." — marktrengove • Jul 31, 2018

"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 decidu..." — marktrengove • Jul 30, 2018

"Sunday 29th July 2018. An ascent of Mont de Gez 1097m/163m, Val d’Azun, near Argelès-Gazost, Hautes Pyrénées, France. 11.0km, with 600m of ascent. 4hrs 5mins. My wife and I were staying, for the second time, at a beautiful gîte in the village of Gaillagos, in Val d’Azun, south-west of the famous town of Lourdes in the French Pyrenees. Our stay gave me the opportunity to complete what I had begun in August 2016 – to visit all the summits on the ridge that runs along the northern side of Val d’Azun. One of the main tributaries of the Gave d’Arrens river, which runs through this dramatic valley, has its source in the Balaïtous Massif (see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bala%C3%AFtous), one of the great three-thousand-metre peaks of the Pyrenees. The massif could be clearly seen from the veranda of our gîte. The Crête du Val d’Azun does not reach these heights (the highest mountain along the ridge is Pic de Bazes at 1804m/330m), but it is full of interest. There are limestone peaks and crests of the type often associated with the Pyrenees, but also heather-clad hills with acid soils reminiscent of some the hills of Mid Wales. Wildlife teems, with a wide variety of but..." — marktrengove • Jul 29, 2018