Lane de Formente to Pic Montaud

First big stomp in a while and a re-visit to the ridge between Lane de Formente and Pic Montaud (2496m).  This time in the reverse direction to last time (Lane de Formente first). Breezy wanted to try to find the long traversing path from Cabane de Pouil which goes to south of Serre de Bougnos before climbing to Lane de Formente. We missed the left fork (or it didn't exist) and we ended up passing the pylons, when we realised our mistake. We scrambled very steeply up the next drainage line and with the path not really evident, we clawed our way up steep gispet in full sun to reach the summit of Serre de Bougnos and then follow the ridge northwards over point 1946m to the summit of Lane de Formente. A hot tiring slog of an ascent.

The last part of the slog upto Serre de Bougnos

Serre de Bourgnos

Susie was struggling with heat so we took a long lunch just before Escale de Saint Girons. The views from the ridge are superb in all directs and it's airy without ever being difficult. The rest of the walk was a joy and the only people we saw all day were 2 parapentistes overhead who flew from Mont Valier and the berger at Cabane Pouil.

1500m of height gain and 16km in a liesurely 9 hours.

Escale de St girons and point 2460m

Encantats and the Aigues Tortes

Al sporting some of the vulture feathers found on the ridge

Last part of the ridge to Pic Montaud

Pic Montaud summit

The descent to the Port de Salau then back to Al and Breezy's above Salau

 

Rainy stomp

 

Sometimes the weather forecast isn't right...a planned trip to Pic de Lasirouge with Sheri and Michiel ended up being a rainy stomp in low cloud to the Cabane Subera. Glad for a dry place for a lunch and some Polish vodka left by visitors on the Chemin de Liberté. Sheep were being kept in...mist gives bears the element of surprise!

Just waiting for oil

 

First seat

 

Seat had to be in two parts and little smaller than originally planned because of shortage of remaining wood, but so far so good!

Gluing up

 

All day, splitting the tenons, making tiny wedges and gluing up. Cleaning up the tenon ends next then seats.

Dining chairs - first dry assembly

After a few days of toil in the workshop the first new chair is dry assembled and three others are almost ready. Some finishing to edges and then the the tenons to split and wedges to make before gluing up. I'm hoping to have enough walnut left to make the seats, but we'll have to wait and see!

 

4 chairs = a lot of wood! 

64 pieces to be rough sawn, then planed to produce a flat face and square edge, sawn to dimension on the table saw, then planed to remove the saw marks...and is if that wasn't enough the chair members are hexagonal so then they each have to be planed four times more!

 

Dining chairs project

In 2008 my neighbour felled a walnut tree and I salvaged two sections of trunk and had it planked for drying. Some I used for a gun stock I made for a friend, the rest has been in storage (for 12 years!) with a plan to eventually make some dining chairs for Quélébu.

The time has finally come and I've started work on some chairs (4 probably) which will be inspired by some of the furniture made by Richard La Trobe-Bateman in the early 1980's like the one below.

Pic du Midi de bordes to Col de Lazies and Etang d'Ayes

The hot and often stormy weather continues with some huge thunderstorms, but the following days these sometimes bring fantastic hauls of mushrooms!

A splendid meal and soirée at Al and Breezy's during which another storm allowed us to witness incredible scenes of spate high in the mountains with the Cascade Léziou and surround streams absolutely full to overflow with chocolate brown turbulent waters.

Today a return to the Cirque de Campuls to complete the walk we had originally planned to do with Sophie and Sue. Very hot and humid weather made for a tough and sweaty walk despite the modest height gain. 

Cabin Salvadore

The ridge is an interesting walk with great views but at this time of year a bit overgrown. Quite a bit of bilberry bashing and stinging nettles to be negotiated. A good path leads to the Cabane Lee before climbing steeply to the Cabane Salvadore.  The path to the col (with great views to the West) and then Pic du Midi de Bordes was a bit overgrown and the summit mostly nettles. After retracing our steps to the col we followed the ridge, sometimes steep, occasionally narrow, but never difficult, over the next 6 or so tops. 

Great views towards Balonguère and Mail de Bulard

Griffon vultures everywhere today...

and spiders...

...and choughs

Mont Valier

A snake eagle also called a short-toed eagle

Susie, Sheri and Michiel

Retrospective of the ridge we traversed from right to left - Pic du Midi de bordes, Tuc des Camaus, Pic de la Gerbe,Tuc de Corocle, Tuc de Baumage, Tuc de Lazies.

More vultures on the Col de Lazies

It was too hot and humid to continue to the final peak of the day we had planned, Pic de Crabere, so we descended from the Col de Lazies to the Etang d'Ayes where Susie and Michiel took a dip.

The hot and humid weather followed by storms is continuing with some great skies.
We also have a new visitor, a spotted flycatcher - first time I ve seen one. It's quite a shy bird but I'm hoping to get close enough to take a better picture than this one!

Etang d'Ayes et Col d'Auèdole

Since the hay making, the weather has remained remarkably unsettled. A few hot sunny days are followed by storms, then cloud and rain and more cloud....then it repeats. Good for most the vegetables but not the tomatoes plants which are outside (fortunately most of ours are in the poly tunnel this year).

Sophie is here with a friend from Paris (Sue) and as the weather looked OK on Tuesday we decided to show Sue the mountains with an easy walk. We drove up to the parking at Mont Ner above the Etang Bethmale and had originally planned to go to the Col de Laziès, but with it being July 14 (Bastille day) everywhere was crowded (by Couserans standards), so decided to go to the Refuge Salvadore then follow the ridge from Pic de Midi de Bordes back to the col picking up 4 or 5 modest pics on the way.

It quickly became apparent that we had over-estimated Sue's abilities when reaching Lee Cabane proved difficult for her. A quick lunch and some re-planning changed our objective to the Etang d'Ayes. We retraced our steps and climbed up through the Cirque de Campuls to join the GR10 and the Etang.

We stayed on the GR10 to descend via the Col d'Auèdole. 11km and a very modest 350m of ascent...but a first introduction to the mountains for Sue.