If you like your ridge paths to be verdant and dramatic – and free of rocks and obstacles to allow unencumbered strides – then this is the walk for you.
It comes after the ascent to the Palo pass (Puerto de Palo, or Col de Pau in French), which is at the Spain-France border. The path follows the grassy frontier ridge for several kilometres to the Arlet glacial lake and mountain refuge. The views from the wide ridge over the French Pyrenees are all-encompassing.
Including the Palo, the route crosses no fewer than five mountain passes, although three of them are ‘minor’ and barely detectable as such. Much of the route to Arlet follows a stage of the HRP (Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne), the long-distance footpath which traverses the whole of the Pyrenees mountain chain. Unlike the GR-11 and GR-10, it crosses from country to country and is described by the French ramblers’ federation (FFRandonnée) as ‘permanently oscillating between France and Spain’.
The walk also follows part of the ‘Camino de la Libertad’, the route taken by Republicans fleeing Franco’s troops at the end of the Spanish Civil War, who were seeking refuge in France.
It can be started from the campsite at Selva de Oza (in the Hecho valley, Huesca province), or drive approximately 2km further on to park up at the Guarrinza picnic area, next to the Aragón Subordán river.
The only downside to the route is that it is only advisable for experienced mountain walkers – and with 1,750 metres of ascent, it means you need a good level of fitness to take it on. The walk measures around 30km in length.
Read about the route at the Facebook page, Jones’s Jaunts – walks in Spain
