We’ve had a wonderful trip with our friends Gill and Den in L’Escala escaping the winds, wet and snow of a Cumbrian February.
I drove down to El Bruc, the village to the West of Montserrat to meet up with my good friend Xavier Perez who looks after Berghaus in Spain, on left, his friend Jose in the centre and Mike Rhodes, who was with me on the Soputh West Face of Everest in 1975 and now lives in Les Angles a lovely ski resort on the French side of the Pyrenees. |
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We climbed a route named Diedre Bonington, first climbed by a Catalan friend, Isabel Notivoli who very kindly named it after me. It’s on the West side, on El Clot de La Monica and is graded V with 3 stars. It was a really nice route. |
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Later on in the week I drove up to Les Angles to join Mike on one of his guided snow shoe treks. They were a great bunch, it’s lovely country and a perfect day. |
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It’s lovely, wild country. |
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Mike proved to be the perfect guide, producing a bottle of fortified wine and chocolates at the half way point on the way out for his clients. |
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We had a light lunch washed down with wine at a refuge and then staggered back to our cars at the road side. |
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That night I stayed with Mike, his wife Jenny and daughter Rebecca plus Pyrenean Mountain Dog, Lilli. He has two delightful self catering ‘gites’ and conducts guided walks and snow shoe adventures both of which I can strongly recommend. |
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This is the view from their yard and the following day I went skiing – didn’t take any pictures – but it’s delightful open fairly easy skiing, with good lifts and no queues. You can learn more about the resort from: www.lesangles.com and about Mikes gites and guided walks from: www.pyrenean-trails.com |
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