HRP Respomuso to Refuge Wallon - Aug 13, 2013

For details see ebook on 
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4998902-a-walk-on-the-haute-route-pyrenees

which can be purchased for £2.49 with the proceeds going to maintenance of mountain refuges.

I slept reasonably well and woke to my alarm at 06.30.  Breakfast was served on a tray, café con leche, one small roll, butter and jam plus a small cake and a packet of biscuits.  I packed up my rucksack after breakfast and left the refuge at 07.35.  The walk started quite easily walking due east to the unfinished Embalse (dam) de Campoplano (2140m).  There were two streams which were flowing quite heavily due to the previous night’s rain and these had to be crossed.  The first was easy enough although one of the two Spaniards got both feet wet.  They both took off their boots to cross the second stream whilst I walked upstream to find another crossing – I found it but had to jump the last section and only succeeded with one foot, the other went underwater!

After that it was a long climb to the Col de la Fache across boulders, some scree but mainly snow.  I wore my Yaktrax for the worst and steeper sections which proved very efficient and I never felt in danger of slipping.  Neither of the two Spaniards had anything but their boots but a Frenchman helped them by making tracks with his crampons.  It was about 11.00 by the time that we reached the Col de la Fache (2664m), a climb of over 500 metres from the refuge although it wasn’t the height that made it difficult but the snow.  A lone French girl was climbing up behind us without any crampons and seemed to manage reasonably well.  I stopped on the way down for a short rest and ate some bread, saucisson and chocolate.  I moved off after about 15 minutes on a long zig zagging descent to view the Refuge de Wallon (1866m) at about 12.30 after which it took me another hour to reach the refuge.  I saw someone packing up his rucksack beside the river who had what appeared to be a fishing rod of which more later.

I checked in at the refuge and had a beer before finding my bed, then washed some socks and shaved – no hot water for a shower.  My right shoulder had been hurting for a few days and for the first time, I took some Ibuprofen for the pain.  At about 15.00, I went outside to sit in the sun and write up my diary with another beer.  I saw an elderly Frenchman walking up to the refuge carrying a fishing rod and I stopped to speak to him in French, he was the fisherman that I had seen earlier who was staying in the refuge for a few days and fishing in the local rivers using a black gold headed nymph.  It started to cloud over later in the afternoon and I went inside to read when I heard someone speaking English.  It turned out to be a couple who had been canoeing in the Dordogne for a week and were now spending a few days walking in the mountains around Cauterets where they had walked from in about 3 hours.  Robert and Amelia, he was born in Australia but they both lived in England.  I chatted to them for a while before going to a different table for dinner at 19.00.  I sat with a French couple who had also been camping at Refuge d’Arlet, a couple of French girls from Montauban and a single (separated from a Spanish husband) French woman from outside Pau who taught Yoga.  We had an excellent dinner of potato and carrot soup (2 bowls), pasta and lamb, a very small piece of cheese and a large piece of cake all with ½ litre of red wine.

I went to bed at about 20.30 and read for a while disturbed by a Spaniard shouting loudly at his wife.  I slept well and was woken by others rising at about 06.45 having not set an alarm.  I had needed a second blanket during the night and luckily there were plenty of empty beds.

Total cost for dinner, bed and breakfast including beer and wine was €45.