Pic de la Calabasse

A lovely day in the mountains today with Ian, Ben and Sandrine. A fairly relaxed start at 10.15 from the ancient slate mine (1000m) above Ruech. It was freezing in the deep sunless valley but we followed the Besset stream and soon emerged into glorious sun and summer temperatures.

After the little cabane we skipped the Col de l'Herbe Soulette and climbed the snowy ridge to the summit of Pic de la Calabasse (2210m). Crampons were necessary for much of the ascent.

The ridge to the summit

The views from the summit are immense and we lay in the sun eating lunch for an hour.

Panorama to the east

Panorama to the west

The onward route took us down to the Col de la Calabasse.

Pic de la Calabasse from the Col de la Calabasse, Sandrine in the distance

Then along the snowy ridge over Roche des Gours, Pic de Paumaude, Tuc des Pans and finally the Col de Lourech from where we cut across to the Col de Quimes. Here we quit the ridge to descend steeply past numerous barns to eventually reach the forest track and then the car. 7hrs and 1200m height gain.

We returned to news that a mini bus had crashed off the road at the Col du Pause and 3 people are dead, 2 seriously injured and another 4 also injured.