Introduction
This is an account of a winter crossing of the Pyrenees by David Hamilton and Steve Kentish in 2020. The journey started on the Mediterranean coast on 15th January and should have ended at the Atlantic in late March. The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in Europe and resulting travel restrictions caused the trip to end at Iraty on 17th March. This was 5 stages short of the intended endpoint. The journey of 44 stages was completed over 63 days, covering 724 km with 54,000 meters of ascent. The entire distance was covered by ski or foot and no vehicle travel was used.
The journey was split into 9 sections: an initial walking section from the Mediterranean coast, 7 ski sections in the high mountains, and a final walking section to reach the Atlantic coast. Supply drops of food, fuel, maps, batteries etc was prepared in advance for each section. Most of these were delivered in person by friends living in the Pyrenees, and some were sent by post to hotels or Tourist offices.
The total number of overnight stops was 47. This includes 2 ‘bad weather’ days spent in the mountains but excludes 17 ‘bad weather’ days spent in valley accommodation.
18 nights were spent in valley accommodation, comprising of hotels, gîtes, hostels and one private house. 5 nights were spent in staffed mountain huts. 14 nights were spent in winter rooms of well-maintained mountain huts (some with mattresses and blankets). 10 nights were spent in basic mountain shelters with few facilities.
Summary report
In addition to the detailed information contained in these pages there is a short report covering the entire journey on the main High Adventure website:
https://highadventure.org.uk/transpyrenees-ski-2020.html
Warning: GPS tracks
The daily tracks logged by GPS during this project are available for download on this site. These show the actual route taken each day including errors of judgement and diversions caused by weather or terrain. Do not assume that these GPS tracks always offer the best or safest route. Where necessary important additional information about the optimum route is included in the text.
References
Jean-René Minelli - La traversée des Pyrénées à skis en 66 jours
Editions du Belvedere, October 2014, ISBN 978-2884-19339-9
La Travesìa de los Pirineos en Esquìs – Marc Breuil
Desnivel, November 2005, ISBN 84-9829-007-4