A change in the weather

 At last the temperatures have dipped and some rainfall has brought a dusting of snow to the mountains.

Pic de Certescan, Flavisella, Pic de Turguilla depuis Gerac par l'arête de Rabassère

Ben dropped in for a visit from Andalucia and he was keen to get into the mountains. 20 years ago I climbed Pic de Certescan from the path between Etang Hillette and Etang Alet and 16 years ago Ben and I looked at climbing to the summit from the long ridge starting at Point de Rabassere. We turned back because of poor weather. It seemed the perfect objective.

We started from Gerac at 9.00am and made quick progress to the Etang Reglisse, crossed the breche in the north ridge of Point de Rabassere to reach the Port de Colatx in 2 hours 10. Here we were on the frontier ridge between france and Spain which we would follow for the next 4 hours.

The breche

Our objective from was to follow the ridge on the left all the way to the dark peaks on the skyline in the centre of the photo - taken from the breche.

The first part of the ridge over Pic de Colatx, Point 2434m, Pic de Couillac and Pic de Soune starts as easy walking but gets progressively narrower and more rocky. After col beyond Pic de Soune the climbing starts and we put away our walking poles and put on our climbing harnesses.

Looking down on Lac de Certescan from the first part of the ridge. Our overnight at the lefthand edge of the lake and our objective the dark peaks in the clouds.

Arriving at the col, Pic de Soune in the background

The long dragon back ridge to the summit of Certescan Nord alternates between narrow sections of climbing at II and III and easier sections of scrambling. There's a short section 'au cheval' with one leg either side of the narrow ridge, and several hand traverses all on good granite. The crux is a breche with a short 15m abseil from a spike followed by a cracked slab III.

The pinnacle we abseiled

Ben about to abseil

Finishing the cracked slab

The we moved together for a short section then for the rest of the ridge dispensed with the rope and climbed separately. It is a long and exposed ridge, but never technically difficult, with great views. The weather stayed perfect and most the day we were in shirt sleeves.

About halfway to the summit (pyramid on the left) looking across to Montabone

After 6 hours we finally reached the summit of Certescan Nord 2840m and had a late lunch. The views were immense in all directions! 

success!

From the summit looking towards Flamisella (2800m) and Lasaugède (2728m) over Lac Gueroso

Retrospective of the ridge from summit of Certescan Nord (2840m)

Panorama from the summit of Certescan Nord

Next we had to leave the solid granite of Certescan Nord and cross onto the loose red gneiss. A down climb to a col then a reascent to the slightly higher summit of Certescan Sud also called "Flavisella" (2853m) located in Spain.

Downclimbing the loose gneiss rock

We had to check every hold on the gneiss as many were loose, but we quickly reached the summit and highest point of the day. Here we were met by a small group of Iberian Ibex.

From Certescan Sud looking to Certescan Nord and the long ridge of our ascent to its right.

Now at last we could start the descent to the Lac de Certescan and on its shore the Refuge de Certescan.

The overnight was comfortable and there were only 8 of us in the refuge for the night. 

The following morning there was a marked change in the weather. We left at 8.00 into low cloud, drizzle and cold. We climbed higher and higher passing the lakes of Estany de Romado de Dalt, Estany de Seno and Estany de Colatx.

Estany de Romedo de Dalt

The higher we got, the stronger the wind became, the heavier the rain, the colder the temperature and the poorer the visibility. With numb hands and about 50m visibility we had to resort to GPS and compass to eventually find the Port de Sounou (2371m). From here and to the north at 2527m was Pic de Turguilla which we had to attain to find out descent into France. We climbed up steeply through granite slabs, gispet and bilberries  buffetted by strong gusts which sometimes had us holding onto to anything solid, to eventually land on the summit in the driving rain. 

We were a little more sheltered on the Franch side and the visilibility improved as we descended but occassional strong gusts continued and I was blown off my feet at one point. We were happy to finally reach the Cabane de Turguilla where we stopped for lunch out of the weather.

The descent from here we've done many times and we were soon ascending the ladders and back at the car in Gerac.

It had been a grand adventure! Amazingly at home, an hours drive away it was 28 degrees and sunny.

Mulch

With the branches from the first hedgelaying chipped, there's been plenty to mulch the gardens. Now all we need is rain. We've had two days with rain in about three and a half months! They say rain will start on Wednesday, but it's always rain tomorrow.

Tomorrow I m heading off with Ben to do a two hike picking up Pic de Certescan, then dropping into Spain to stay in a refuge.

Autumn jobs

It certainly doesn't feel like autumn, but there are jobs that need doing on the turning of the seasons.

The pressing mammoth task this year is hedge laying, which has to be done every 4-5 years. Some of the hedges are already done and I've just finished the one between the house and the gite, which we can see for the first time in years. The hedges on the left which border the chemin are next. They're currently about 4-5m high and all the the thinnings of which there are mountains have to go through the chipper on the back of the tractor...I'm waiting for cooler weather to attack those.

The hedges either side of he chemin form a tunnel at present and need to laid before the winter

The autumn crocii are out in the fields and that's the signal to bring the firewood that been drying for two years (already cut, split and stacked) up into the woodshed for the winter. 

It's a strangely comforting feeling to have the woodshed full with the wood for the coming winter. Last year there was plenty of old oak beams, flooring and roof timbers to burn from the barn conversion. This year 80% of it it oak from a single tree that fell in a storm. The rest is birch and poplar which we'll burn first, saving the high calorific oak for colder weather mid winter - though it's been a while since we've had a really cold winter.

There's still a couple of stère of oak left as reserve.

 

Jasper and Chloe

Time flies! Already it's Jasper's 30th birthday. He visited for a few days with his girlfriend Chloe. We took them on the Cabanatous circuit as it's only 30 minutes from the house and a nice length for the exceptionally hot weather that we've had this summer.

We saw some ptarmigan on the ridge, still in their summer plumage, and from the summit a female hen harrier with her characteristic white rump, flying low and fast over the hillside.

 

Birdies

Some very high flying bee-eaters through the telephoto lens

A male pied flycatcher in front of the house

 

Breakdown disaster!

Our recent guests Miriam and Santiago were due to return home to Valencia on Saturday, but late Friday evening their car broke down in Saint Girons. They called their insurers in Spain who would normally arrange for the car to be picked up by a local garage and repaired and pay for necessary expenses of Miriam and Santiago (accommodation etc). They let me know what had happened, but I'd just shared some wine with Susie so I couldn't offer to collect them.

Things don't always run smoothly and after many calls and promises that the recovery truck was coming they eventually came back to the gite at 2.30 in the morning in a taxi! The next day after more calls to the insurance company they were told that the recovery vehicle would be collecting their car immediately and they must get to St Girons asap with the keys. It was 10am. We jumped in my car and the recovery lorry was already waiting when we got there 30 mins later. He took the car to the local peugeot garage but explained that they could not repair the car as it was a honda, so we would need to find another garage to carry out the repair on Monday and arrange with the insurers for the car to be moved again. The peugeot garage were open for just another 30 mins but they allowed me to look under the bonnet and try to find out what was wrong until they closed. I searched everywhere for the OBD2 socket without luck (I later discovered this particular 1996 model of Honda Civic did not have one). The engine was turning there was a spark but there was no ignition, so the likely culprit was a fuel problem. The fuse for the fuel pump was OK, so either the fuel pump was dead or the relay was dead or there was a blockage/air lock or another electrical problem. 

At noon a taxi turned up at the house to take Santiago and Miriam to meet the tow truck....ordered by the insurers from a town over an hour's drive away it had arrived 2 hours too late, without any message it was coming.

On Monday we found a nearby garage (1 km from peugeot) that sold and repaired secondhand cars of all marks and they agreed to take the car and look at it. The car didn't arrive there until 4.30pm. On Tuesday after several calls to the garage they eventually looked at the car at 5.00pm, confirmed that there was a fuel problem, but said it was very difficult to say much else as the car was 30 years old, they had no electrical diagrams for the car and didn't know when or if they could fix it.

Miriam and Santiago both of whom were teachers and should have started back at work on Monday were getting pretty desperate. The insurance would only cover three night accommodation at 60 euros a night and it was difficult to get a straight answer as to whether the insurers would pay to get them and/or their car home. They decided they had no alternative but to try to get home and then possibly come back to collect their car, fixed or not, in a few weeks time.

I decided to take control!! I did some more research on their vehicle and armed with some tools we headed over to the garage on Wednesday morning. On turning the key the fuel pump wasn't turning, so I found the fuel pump relay removed it and connected the battery directly to the fuel pump. It ran. The relay was probably bad. With the pump connected to the battery the car would still not start, but with 7 terminals on the relay I guessed it also operated the fuel injectors, ECU, etc. I gave the garage the relay and asked how quickly they could get a replacement part. 20 minutes later his supplier returned his call and sais it was unavailable.

"Never give up" is my motto. We headed home, relay in hand, and I started searching on line for the part. There were many different fuel pumps for this year and model depending on the type of engine. This particular car had an early 1.5iVTEC engine and the relay had been discontinued the same year. However, several secondhand parts came up on ebay and even a new part from the Netherlands which would take 7 days to arrive. Santiago and Miriam decided they could not wait any longer (plus we had new guests arriving in the gite the following day) so they had to get home straight away. We agreed to take them to Saint Girons where they could eventually get transport to Toulouse and from there a train home to Valencia or at least Barcelona that night. Meanwhile I took the relay apart and inspected the circuit board inside. There were a couple of terminals on the back of the board that had hairline cracks around the solder. I got out my soldering iron and reheated them adding a little extra solder to each connection...could this fix the fault?

We had 20 minutes before their bus would leave so we headed straight to the garage and I put in the repaired relay....turned the key....hey presto it started first time!!

Port de Lers, Trois Seigneurs, Goutets, Col de Rose boucle

A long walk in the searing heat with Al and Breezy which became quite debilitating as we ran out of water after Goutets! We ve climbed Pic de Trois Seigneurs from the Port de Lers and from Goutets many times but the path from Goutets over the Col de Rose and back to the Port de Lers was new to us. At first glance it looks like it contours the mountain, but on the ground there is lot of up and down and after the Col de Rose the track is lost among a thousand cattle tracks. There are many ways to loop over the summit of Trois Seigneurs but this would not be one to do again.

At Goutets they are rebuilding many of the ancient estive buildings in the traditional way with stone roofs.

In the end the day took about 7 hours excluding lunch breaks. 1200m height gain and around 16km.

 

Tuc de la Messe 2443m

It seems like half a lifetime since we've been in the mountains. Heat, drought, mountain fires, caring for the sheep, and FCO have all intervened. Finally we decided to get out and up. Tristan and Agi were going to join us but their dog injured it"s paw. We too have more sheep ill with FCO, but finally we decided to go.

Not too early a start but quickly up the climb from Col de la Core

Amazing light pinpointing a fisherman at the Etang d'Eychelle

Col de le Crouzette - hardcore

Pressing onto the summit 

still pressing on! 

Almost there... 

On the top....good going

We were caught up and over taken by a couple of runners just below the col de la Crouzette, but changed places several times during the day. Below are some photos for you.