CARROS DE FOC TRAIL, Aigüestortes i Llac de Sant Maurici National Park. PYREENES SPAIN
July 07, 2023
Backpacking and mountaineering is a journey where the destination is the present moment to moment embodiment of the now.
being in the alpine is a serenity that accentuates the trickle of water, the whistling
wind that blows through the grass, the chirping or a marmot, and the texture of the ground below my feet.
Everyone has a story, and you may never know the story they are writing or even be able to translate the language they choose to write their story in.
Why not make the story profound, full of curiosity, adventure, and discovery..
That is the story
that I like to tell.
in the Spanish Pyreenes there is a prolific section called the Carros De foc trail.
This 35-40 mile circumnavigating loop has a concentration of beautiful lakes, mountains, and some incredible scenery.
This region reminded me of the Sierras in a lot of ways
One of the main differences is that the carros de foc trail doesn't get higher than 8900 ft which is a lot lower than 14000
There are a few of non technical obstacles to overcome.
One obstacle is that you can take side trails and get a bit more into route finding your way to destinations.
If you want to cut down the trip or get
to a destination before a storm there are ways around
Another is that you want to make reservations for the refuges far in advance
camping within the national park is forbidden but if you are able to score some stays at refuges that that will be the way to go.
you can carry a lot less and not have as much to worry about.
there is also a high saddle that you have
to scale which can be a bit dangerous with snow and ice.
towards the end of June there was enough snow to posthole our way up the 35 degree slope.
people were using crampons and ice axes to get their way up but we made due.
This is such an incredible place to go but we cut the trip short due to storms and the desire to summit aneto
we had to get ready for the
summit which turned into a very interesting experience.
I recommend bringing micro spikes in the June timeframe in case you have to scale up snow,
I also recommend reserving the refuge 6 months in advance so you can bring a lot less on the hike
Espot is an excellent launch place to start the trip but you can start and stop at many of the cities around the trail. You can also take a bus back to your start point.
I would bring water drops to filter water
There is plenty of water on the hike which is a huge help.
I can see why this region was rated one of the best hikes in Europe. Have a blast on
this trail
please reach out if you have any questions on how to prepare for your trip.
Tythons gate cave is another new nevada cave that has a unique twist to its character.
what’s interesting about this 150 ft ((45,720,000 micrometers) I should be using the metric system.
is that you walk a ridge to a near knife edge into a breakdown shelter that continues into the mountain and back out to a
walking ridge, avoiding a cliff.
Reminded me a bit of the Zion mt. Carmel tunnel and highway in Utah.
I am sure past civilizations have used this cave to connect to
other areas of this range as an access point.
A few artifacts remains tell a story of this caves ancient use case.
Zion has always been a place where I keep gravitating towards..
I continuously find myself coming back to this beautiful canyon country.
World class narrows and beautiful, unprecedented scenery still make Zion on of the beautiful destinations of the southwest.
The main valley has been gathering more and more people throughout the years I have been going
Right fork has been on my radar for a very long time
now but rain and weather kept getting in the way.
this time around we were able to thread the needle and got into this overnight canyon
we set out at 9 am which was a bit later than I wanted but we were able to bushwhack from the west rim trail to hammerhead canyon.
The first rap is canyon right when you come down onto the canyon.
Inside the canyon we found a lot of ice and set up a counterweight system to ascend
to the top.
we worked ourselves out of hammerhead canyon and rappelled into right fork.
we found that the hike was a long day but it
was a beautiful canyon.
along the way we encountered some potholes that we had to negotiate out of in cold water as well as a long cold swim that was not as bad as I thought it would be.
The grand alcove was absolutely amazing, and I highly recommend camping there for the night.
the following day you will rappel through some waterfalls and a long hike out. The horse flies are pretty bad and the hike in the river is very slippery. but this canyon is a must do canyon to visit.