Ascent / descent: 1260m (4177m) / 1248m (4015m).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 150m / 162m / 1044m.
Weather: Fog and gloomy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, rain in the evening.
An absolutely fantastic day in the Pyrenees, but there was nothing indicating that in the morning hours. The sky above me is dark and gloomy when I wake up, and the Iparla-ridge is covered by clouds. Didier and Marie-Agnes has decided to skip todays stage and instead fetch their car and drive to St Etienne de Baïgorry, this stage is considered to be quite hard and Marie-Agnes has had problems with her back. Emilio has already left and is far away when I start to walk under the dark carpet of the clouds.
View down towards Bidarray under a dark and gloomy sky on the way up the steep ascent of the Iparla-ridge.
I walk fast up the steep climb from Bidarray and up towards the Iparla-ridge, covered by the gloomy weather. Contours of stones and trees appears and disappears again while I'm walking, In my mind I can see myself walking in eight hours or so in an endless fog. There are no views to be seen. I continue walking being a little bit disappointed to be doing this day in this weather, with the possibility of great views from the ridge a far-fetched fantasy, when I suddenly appear above the clouds. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Around me the landscape of the Pyrenees is covered by clouds, in front of me the Iparla-ridge is rising up from the layers of clouds and in the east the higher mountains of the range also juts up from the clouds. I get the sensation that I'm walking on top of the clouds, it is beautiful beyond description. In the west La Rhune is also a safe haven among the waves of clouds. The trail follows the edge of the ridge, further ahead I can see Emilio walking. On one side the mountainside is diving straight down into the sea of clouds, on the other side the green ridge is slowly rising up from the clouds.
A walk above the clouds. After walking in fog for the most part of the ascent up the ridge I suddenly appear above the layers of clouds.
Pic d'Iparla with the rest of the ridge rising up from the clouds.
Pic d'Iparla is with its 1044 meters the highest point of this day, but it isn't the last highlight on the walk. At Col d'Harrieta (808m) the path is going through a beech wood. Here I find a path that leads to a water source in the forest. After the ascent up through the forest the trail is continuing on a just as great walk as before over the two summits of Pic Astaté (1022m) and Pic de Buztanzelhay (1029m). Down the pass with the same name as the latter the route is going steeply down the mountainside. At this time the clouds has now disappeared and I can look out over the landscape below that was hidden from my sight earlier, it's a great view. A great tree below Col de Buztanzelhay (843m) is a nice spot for a lunch break.
Crête d'Iparla.
The nice walk on the ridge has made me forget the time and I've been walking quite fast (driven forward by the great landscape) so I arrive at St Etienne de Baïgorry a little bit too early, I really should have spent more time on the top of the magnificent ridge. In St Etienne de Baïgorry I get myself a bed at Gîte Gaineko Karrikan, a nice place where I get the whole dormitory for myself. The village is not that big, but it spans over a long stretch.
It's time for a beer so I sit down in one of the cafés in the center of the village when Didier and Marie-Agnes are driving by, with Dominique walking into the village just afterwards. He had dropped the walk to Espelette and had in fact also spent the night in Bidarray, at the camping site there. I eat dinner together with Didier and Marie-Agnes at the gîte, a good dinner with a nice company.
View from the Iparla ridge. The route is going down the ridge to the right in the picture.
At the end of the evening I relax with another beer in the nice backyard of the gîte. When they're closing the lights and I'm retreating to the dormitory (where I also had the kitchen and the living room for myself) the owner of the gîte comes and gives me a bottle of beer on the house. Apparently I'm the first Norwegian to be staying at the place. I didn't see anything of the announced thunderstorm.
The nice backyard of the Gîte Kaineka Karrikan.
<- BidarraySt Jean Pied de Port ->
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