We woke up and got on trail pretty quick today, around 9am. The trail wound down the valley of the Aygues-Tortes, through grasslands, across streams, and on to a beautiful shephard’s hut, where we stopped to make coffee.
The official route drops down to the refuge La Soula before climbing back up to the Lake Caillous, but we decided to take a balcony trail that our friend Paul recommended, in order to keep our elevation, skip the needless 500m drop/climb, and enjoy sweeping views of the valley below.
The path began at the beautiful lac de Pouchergues, and was cut into the ridgeline of the mountainside, apparently as part of the big power station that seems to have commandeered this entire area of mountains.
We eventually came right up to the heart of the power station, complete with huge pipes to divert water from the two lakes, and old mine tracks used to transport some kind of minerals. It was quite an impressive operation, although it seemed to have been abandoned for some time.
Near the end, we rejoined the main trail for the last bit of climbing up to lake Caillous, a beautiful (although artificial) lake with a dilapidated structure where the barrage master must have lived so many years ago. We took it as a prime spot to have lunch.
Then, we carried on up the valley to the third lake of the day, Lake Isclots (lake of the tiny islands). It reminded me a lot of the Rock Island lakes of the CDT. Very picturesque setting.
We carried on up the mountain and came to the lake Millieu, where we took another break before coming to the really hard part of the day. After all, we had now passed into one of those days rated “E” (the hardest rating) for exceptional.
After crossing numerous snowfields, we came to a steep slope of scree (gravel and boulders) with a semblance of a path zigzagging up it. At least there were cairns, so someone must have been here before.
Once we reached the top of the scree slope, there was a long traverse along a snowfield, all the way up to the Col du Gourgs-Blanc.
Then came the really hard part! We had not anticipated the amount of snow that would stick around this late in the season. We made our way to the only bit of scree we could find, and made a steep, treacherous traverse down to the snowfield below.
Then, there were numerous snowfields and screefields to cross before climbing up to the last pass of the day. Once over that pass, we came to yet, another mountain side covered in snow and scree that we had to cross. What a test of endurance! It was a very challenging day indeed.
We just almost made it to the refuge down by the lake before dark, but we had to pitch our tents on a little patch of grass just half a kilometer before the refuge. I can’t say it was the most comfortable place to sleep, as it was on a bit of a slope and there were many rocks, but we made it work.
I woke up to the light of the full moon at some point, probably around 1am. It was probably the coldest night yet, because of the elevation of our camp. Ah, what a day! It was magnificent and beautiful despite all its danger and difficulty. Good night.