PMA Website Is Live

The Pyrenes Mountain Adventure website went live last week. The site showcases the environmentally friendly holidays that PMA offers and highlights PMA's commitment to sustainability.

The environmentally friendly holidays that PMA offers take place in the sunny Catalan Pyrenees Regional Nature Park in the Eastern Pyrenees. Why are the holidays environmentally friendly?

• The summer walking or winter snowshoeing holidays involve no motorised transport, unless there is a vehicle transfer at the start and end of the walk.
• As several of the walks during the week start from the accommodation, vehicle transfers are reduced.
• If there is a vehicle transfer it is by public transport or local taxi firm.
• The accommodation is a trailside eco lodge with solar water heating, photo voltaic panels to generate electricity, underfloor heating, recycling, organic and/or locally produced food etc
• The owners of the lodge, have a strong commitment to sustainable practices.
• The accommodation has won awards for its environmentally friendly initiatives.
• Minimum Impact Trekking guidelines are followed when walking.
• A £100 Greener Travel Cashback is paid to those clients that travel to the Eastern Pyrenees using a method of transport that creates half or less of the CO2 emmisions a plane would creat making the equivalent journey.
• PMA's commitment to reducing its environmental footprint is a core principal. Whenever there is a choice  to be made (clothing, banking, printing, office hardware, business travel, publicity etc) it is the option that minimises the environmental footprint of the business most that is chosen. Always!

Take a look at the site here.

Enjoy your visit. I look forward to seeing you in the mountains!

The Little Yellow Train

2010 is an important anniversary for the Little Yellow Train which crosses the Catalan Pyrenees Regional National Park in the Eastern Pyrenees. It is 100 years since the first section of the line, between Villefranche and Mont-Louis, was opened to the public. The line was subsequently extended, reaching  Bourg-Madame in 1911 and Latour de Carol in 1927. Latour de Carol on the French - Spanish border is of interest because there are three different gauges found at the station. Those of the main French railway from Toulouse/Paris, the Spanish railway from Barcelona and the Little Yellow Train.

The 63km, single track line, starts at 400m above sea level and follows the Têt river valley. As it climbs higher, the landscape opens out and there are great views of the Canigou, Cambre-d'Aze, Carlit and Puigmal massifs. The bright yellow train with cherry red trim, the Catalan colours, reaches its highest point at Bolquère. At 1952 m above sea level, this is the highest railway station in France.

 

There are 19 tunnels and among the many bridges and viaducts, there are two that stand out which have Historic Monument status. The  Séjourné viaduct  (217 m  long  65 m above  the River Têt) and the Gisclard bridge (222 m  long and 80 m above the river.) The Gisclard bridge is the only railway suspension bridge still in service in France. The bridge has been repainted twice: in 1960 and again in 2009.

The Little Yellow Train crossing the Gisclard suspension bridge with the first snows of winter.

While testing the line in Oct 1909, an accident led to the train careering out of control, leaving the track on a bend and the deaths of 6 people. Among those that died that day was Albert Gisclard the engineer responsible for the Gisclard bridge. This accident led to the addition of a third braking system.

Today 200 000 people a year are transported by ‘The Canary’ at an average speed of 35km/h reaching a top speed in places of 55km/h. The train is electric, as it was in 1910, and recieves power at 850 volts, from a third rail. The dam at Lake Bouillouses was originally built to provide a resevoir of water for one of several hydro electric generating plants along the valley that generated the electricity for the line.

22 stations are still served served by the line as in 1927, although 14 stops have become request stops.  If you want to leave the train at a station that doesn't have a permenant stop, you have to tell the driver when you join the train. If you want to join the train at a station that  is a request stop, you have to stand in a prominant postion on the platform and indicate for the train to stop.

The train runs all year round. An engine with a snow plough clears the line of snow in the winter months.

Timetables until 3rd March 2011 can be found here.

There is a collection of old postcard images of The Little Yellow Train here.

Avalanche Risk

The first snow has fallen on the Pyrenees and it will not be long before the winter season starts.

I like to attend this annual training day on avalanche risk. The event put on in Toulouse, is at the start of November and I find the day a great way to prepare before the start of the winter season proper. This year, the day was hosted by the FFME, the French Mountain and Climbing Federation, in Toulouse. Last year the event was also in Toulouse but hosted by Meteo France.

The main speaker was Francois Sivardière, technical consultant on avalanches to the FFME and a former director of ANENA, Association National pour l'Etude de la Neige et des Avalanche (1994 - 2007).

The talks, including some more practical sessions about route choice, covered skills and knowledge familiar to me from my training as an International Mountain Leader, but were a valuable refresher about a subject which is crucial when looking after groups in the winter environment.

Other venues for this traing day: Chambéry/Aix les Bains (20 November), Paris (4 December) and Munster (11 December 2010). Further details here.

ANENA also run Avalanche Risk Training days. Grenoble (4 December) and Paris (11 December). Further details here.

Soulcem Valley

The Soulcem Valley, in the Ariege, is an impressive 'U' shaped valley carved by a glacier during the last ice age 10,000 years ago. The flat, fertile valley floor has been the high, summer pasture for sheep, cattle and Merens horses for centuries.

 The yearly movement of animals to the higher, richer pasture in summer, is called 'la transhumance' in French. The term derives from the Latin trans 'across' and humus 'ground'. Although less important now than in the past with the decline of agriculture, there are farmers who still move their animals to the higher Soulcem Valley each June, the animals staying until October .

The large number (15 or so) of dry stone shelters with a turf roof, or orris, is evidence of the importance of the valley as summer pasture in the past.

It is in these very simple shelters that the shepherds would have stayed, amongst the animals, to watch over them. The Orris de Carla, just above the lake created by the Soulcem dam, were used as recently as 1968. Two modern shelters have been built for the use of the shepherds now.

My last visit to the valley was at the height of summer and it was crowded with people. This time there was no one and I had the whole valley to myself. I made my way up the valley on one side of the river, ascended to the Médécourbe Lake and then returned the other side of the river.

High above the lake is the Pic Médécourbe which is unusual in that it is where the borders of  France, Spain and Andorra meet. On the summit it would be possible to hop in and out of the three countries. Today the summit  was out of the question with the snow cover. An idea for next summer!     

1% for the Planet

This week Pyrenees Mountain Adventure became a proud member of 1% for the Planet.

This not for profit organistion was started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder and Managing Director of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies. It is a growing, global movement of companies that donate 1% of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide.

By 2009 the 1% for the Planet community numbered 1200 members in 38 countries. In total, over $50 million of critically needed funds has been given to non – profit environmental groups.

Members contribute one percent of revenues directly to any of the approved non-profit environmental organisations in 1%’s network. Non-profits are chosen based on referrals, track record and environmental focus. Over 1,600 non-profits worldwide are included in the 1% program.

“The shared belief that you can do well as a business by doing the right thing with respect to the environment is clearly apparent.” Terry Kellogg, Managing Director, 1% for the Planet.

To learn more about 1% for the Planet visit www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

"The idea of wilderness needs no defence, it only needs defenders" Edward Abbey

"Do something for wild places and wild creatures" John Muir

Autumn Colours

During a recent autumn walk in the Galbe Valley, there were the yellows, golds and browns of the tree leaves, but it was not the only colour I found.

Autumn Croci (Crocus nudiflorus)

Browning grass

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum)

Snow Gentian (Gentiana nivalis)

There are more photos of autumn colours here.

Megalithic Art and a Mouflon!

In late October, I revisited a favourite valley of mine - the Galbe Valley, which begins near the village of Espousouille or Espolla. There are several small lakes at the end of the valley which is dominated by the Pic Baxouillade (2546m).

Pic Baxouillade

Having seen a fox near to one of the lakes, I made my way out of the valley towards the Camporells Lakes and the refuge there. On route, I wanted to find the Engraved Stones (Peyra Escrita in Catalan.) Some say that there are engravings on the rocks that date from the Magalithic Period (4000 BC)

I found 2 large blocks of stone with  flat tops. They appeared like large stone tables. I could have sat down by either stone and eaten from it.  Unusually, they were not covered with lichen as were other rocks nearby. The smooth surfaces of both the rectangular blocks were indeed engraved.

There were many names and dates that were very modern, but some of the names and particularly some of the shapes looked much older.

Perhaps the older engraved names are those of shepherds who would have spent the summer months in the area tending their flocks. As for the shapes and signs?

The cold night was spent camped by the Estany del Mig. In the morning I could see ice had begun to form on the lake.

Estany del Mig. The view from the Refuge des Camporells

I returned to Esposolla by a path that allowed me to look down on the valley where I had been the day before. While descending I saw some prints in the snow on the path. Shortly afterwards I came across a mouflon - a type of wild sheep. It was a male with the characteristic horns. The thick horns curl almost in one complete revolution.

Galbe Valley

Mouflon prints

 There are more photos of the rock engravings here.