Pic des Trois Seigneurs - Hike
Despite the bear warnings I managed to convince Ellie we would be fine! The hiking trail we were taking to the Summit of Pic des Trois Seigneurs (The peak of the 3 Lords) is at an altitude of 2199m. The route is around 11km and just over 800m of elevation, it begins on Port de Lers at 1517m. Although to start the route you walk down the road around 250m to where the trail begins.
GPX for the route can be found here:
The weather was supposed to close in again that evening, although temperatures were also meant to be soring through the day, with predictions of 30+ degrees, so we set off early. After a good nights sleep and an alarm waking us up at 6am (probably the earliest we have been up since we arrived in France) we headed off down the road.
After around 2km we reached the start of our trail, a very thin path with over grown bushes, plants and trees caressing the mountain side.
We had walked around 3.5km now it was about 7.30 and the sun was already blistering, fortunately for me I had most of my skin covered and enough factor 50 to keep the ginger race from spontaneously combusting. We still hadn't gained any elevation and as the route was only around 11km we knew the steep incline was coming! Whilst we could see shade ahead, with the mountain side stopping the sun, some wild animals kept us occupied leading us in to the valley, fortunately these animals were not bears and were in fact DONKEYS!!
Once the Donkeys had kindly escorted us down the trail to the shade, we quickly started to gain elevation. The route wasn't technical but every step was different, some rocks to easily scramble over and some nice steps, this made the route interesting and didn't make it feel like a slog. Ellie was loving her new La Sportiva boots and I was loving this new pole cheat code that I had recently found on the Le Cabane trail.
After around 300m of elevation gain we had reached a lake, which looks like a possible spot for wild campers, a few 'Bonjours' later at fellow explorers and an admire of the green lake underneath the mountain side we started another steep climb up to the ridge before the summit of Pic des Trois Seigneurs.
We were now out of the shade, the sun was reaching the centre of the sky and it was getting HOT! We were looking for little rest spots and finding the tiniest spots of shade to grab a sip of water, a quick peach loop sweet and off we trotted!
We had the ridge in sight, a few more meters in elevation to gain and then its the final push the summit, I was hoping (and praying) that as we gained altitude we would start to feel a breeze...the breeze didn't come. It was completely still and as we approached mid-day the sun was getting hotter and hotter. With what we thought was the summit in sight, we found a spot of shade and decided to take a break, get some food and fluid in us before the final push.
After lunch we began the final climb to the summit, it didn't look far away so we scrambled over some rocks, followed some trails and scrambled over some more rocks, where we thought we had made it, we hadn't it was a false summit!!! Is there anything worse?
At least now, we could see the true summit and we made our way. It was probably only about 10 minutes away, the heat was getting too much now, but we pushed on! After the last push, we had made it, we were stood on the summit, 2199m in altitude and feeling tired and dehydrated.
Then for some reason, which a French girl said 'We thinks someone's dead' there were hundreds and hundreds of flies. We still hope she meant 'something' and not 'someone'.
So I took a few pictures of the amazing views over towards where the Pyrenees Ariege borders with Spain and started the descent.
On the way down we realised, in a morning daze, that we had both forgotten to fill our water bladders up and Ellie had ran out, I checked my bladder and thankfully I still had a litre left.
Absolute school boy/girl error on both our parts, but when hiking in the UK we both struggle to drink all our water, so becoming accustom to the higher temperatures in the south of France and making sure we have enough water is a VALUABLE lesson learnt. Due to the limited water, Ellie was no longer thinking about bears. Although I hadn't mentioned to her until after I did see bear poo and tracks on the route, but I thought if I mentioned it we will never make it up the mountain.
On the way down you ascend 2 more peaks, 'Pic de Barres' 2043m and 'Pic de Fontanette' 2002m, each one is only a short ascent and usually wouldn't feel to bad but as I have already mentioned and as the English speaking French girl behind us said 'Its baking hot'.
Following the last 2 peaks, we could finally see the van, only a short distance away but a very steep 400m descent approached us. I had just poured the last of the water in my bladder in Ellies mouth to keep her going and we made our way down. About 1/3 of the way down Ellie started to feel a bit dizzy and massively dehydrated, she said to me 'Run down, get the van open and get the water ready' and she reassured me she will be fine. So again, whilst in B2s boots, I ran down. As I approached the bottom, the path became slippery and I started to worry about Ellie. I knew there was a young French couple behind her that we had became friends to and they would look after her if needed but I knew she needed water. So I opened the van, re hydrated myself, grabbed an ice pop and a bottle of water and ran back up the mountain side to get her water. I ended up running up another 100m of elevations to her, but I'll take that as good training).
We got Ellie down safely and she was fine, just felt a bit funny from the high temperatures, this was a massive learning curve for the both of us, always fill your water bottles up and its definitely hotter in France than the UK haha!
(For Ellies sake I will refrain from putting a picture of her on here of her laying on the ground when she reached the van!!)
We did love the trail and would definitely recommend it to others but the end of it did become 'type 2 fun'.
