Pyrenees Day 6: Via Viados
We left Benasque a little after 8am, just late enough to snag a fresh baguette from the bakery and secure it like an antenna to the side of Mark´s pack. We followed the LP guide westward along a forest track, which probably was not the shortest route because we passed the same old man 3 times along the way. After navigating our way through a large cow herd, which made me a bit hungry (don´t know about Mark, he´s vegetarian), we broke for lunch next to a large hiker hut.
The lady at the hut informed us that the pass we were about to cross had sustained winds of 80 km per hour on the prior two days, forcing hikers to turn back (fortunately the wind had died down almost completely by the day we got there). The lady was also kind enough to sell Mark a 2 EUR soft drink, but steadfastly refused to accept any of our trash (including the empty can).
From the hut, our path climbed steeply to the pass and descended gently along the right side of a stream towards the next hut (the Viadós refugio) about 5 hours away. During the entire day the Posets massif, the second tallest in the Pyrenees after Aneto, loomed impressively to our left.
As we approached our destination for the day, we had to race a large flock of sheep headed in the same direction. The sheep were on the slope above us and would occasionally let loose some rocks, which hurtled down uncomfortably close by. Finally, we managed to gain on the animals, which glared at us as menacingly as sheep possibly can.
We entered the hamlet of Viados only to discover that it was only a collection of barns, and that its human population consisted of the husband and wife running our refuge and a shepherd, who appeared to be unemployed since the sheep knew their home from the pastures.
At first we took the scattered barns for boarded-up houses and wandered from one to another in search of our refugio. When we finally came upon the right building we found our elderly hostess sitting on the porch with a set of binoculars. She had apparently been following our approach for some time, and now returned to scanning hte horizon for anything else of interest. We paused for a few minutes to take in the spectacular mountain views and then proceeded to claim our beds upstairs, which was not difficult since there were only two other guests at the refugio.
The lady at the hut informed us that the pass we were about to cross had sustained winds of 80 km per hour on the prior two days, forcing hikers to turn back (fortunately the wind had died down almost completely by the day we got there). The lady was also kind enough to sell Mark a 2 EUR soft drink, but steadfastly refused to accept any of our trash (including the empty can).
From the hut, our path climbed steeply to the pass and descended gently along the right side of a stream towards the next hut (the Viadós refugio) about 5 hours away. During the entire day the Posets massif, the second tallest in the Pyrenees after Aneto, loomed impressively to our left.
As we approached our destination for the day, we had to race a large flock of sheep headed in the same direction. The sheep were on the slope above us and would occasionally let loose some rocks, which hurtled down uncomfortably close by. Finally, we managed to gain on the animals, which glared at us as menacingly as sheep possibly can.
We entered the hamlet of Viados only to discover that it was only a collection of barns, and that its human population consisted of the husband and wife running our refuge and a shepherd, who appeared to be unemployed since the sheep knew their home from the pastures.
At first we took the scattered barns for boarded-up houses and wandered from one to another in search of our refugio. When we finally came upon the right building we found our elderly hostess sitting on the porch with a set of binoculars. She had apparently been following our approach for some time, and now returned to scanning hte horizon for anything else of interest. We paused for a few minutes to take in the spectacular mountain views and then proceeded to claim our beds upstairs, which was not difficult since there were only two other guests at the refugio.
posted by Dmitri Evseev at 9:26 PM
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