Pictures from my HRP trip: Picassa link
Video of HRP trip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21DkUnScqhw
I'm back! I finally took the time to update this blog (mostly because I have some usefull things to write about now). My big adventure for 2013 has been doing the HRP. It stands for Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne. It's an 850 km trip through the toughest landscape the Pyrenees mountains have to offer. There are 3 main hiking routes through the Pyrenees. On the french side you have the GR10, on the spanish side you have the much dryer GR11 and right in the middle is the HRP, it is considered the hardest trail in the area because of the number of peaks it goes over.
The main difference between it and the AT is that this is much more of an adventurous trail, with more dangers. Where on the AT you would see idiots hiking in flip flops and jeans who had no idea what they where doing, on the HRP it would be different. I mean you still see the same idiots (me included I guess), but on the AT you have the time to learn and adjust, on the HRP you don't. Of the small number of people I met doing the whole HRP about half did not make it through the first week. Now this did have something to do with the amount of snow there was. There was a lot of it! I was told by some locals that they had never seen so much snow at this time of year before, which kinda scared me at first because I had no experience with hiking on steep slopes covered in snow.
 |
| My gear |
I chose the HRP mainly because it seemed to fit my schedule and it was a good step up from the AT hiking wise. The HRP is not marked, it follows parts of other trails that are marked but not always. About 30 per cent of the trail is really hard to follow and requires map reading and use of compass. After 2 weeks of preparing and I was ready. I planned out the route, and figured it would take me no more then 2 months. I bought a ticket and before I knew it found myself standing on the beach in Hendaye, France.... see my next post for the report on the first part of my trip.
Continue to part 2 ->
No comments:
Post a Comment