A mini guide to go hiking in the wild Pyrenees

How to get to the high Pyrenees

You will find this wonderful hiking area inside the box on the following map from the online IGN Geoportail. A wonderful portal for hiking maps and trails in France.

Driving from Northern Europe will take you through the same towns as the airports Pau, Tarbes, Lourdes or Toulouse. From the east you will arrive via the Mediterranean motorway and from the south typically via Zaragoza from Madrid or Valencia.

On the next map you will see that access is good from Pau straigt down to the Spanish border where you will find the wonderful Pic du Midi d'Ossau that is worth the easy climb. You will also have access to the traversing High route, GR 10 and GR 11 as well as Balaitous - another wonderful peak. Pau in itself is certainly worth a visit for its Henry IV castle, great restaurants and panoramic views of the mountains on clear days.

From Tarbes Lourdes you go straight south to either Cauterets or Gavarnie, where you find the Cirque de Gavarnie, Vignemale, Breche de Roland and Monte Perdido. If you turn left at Luz-St-Sauveur you arrive at Pic du Midi de Bigorre, Col du Tourmalet famous from Le Tour de France cycling race and the exciting Néouvielle mountain area.

Further East take the N125 down to Bagnères de Luchon from where you have access to the highest peak in the Pyrenees Pic d'Aneto on the other side of the border. You can also drive to Auberge Refuge du Lac d'Oô, which gives you access to wonderful hikes and round-trips including the 3.000 meter Pic de Perdiguere right on the French-Spanish border via the refuge du Portillon.

The 11 highest Pyrenean peaks

The highest mountains of the Pyrenees are all in this area:

1. Aneto, 3.404 m (Aragon, Spain)

2. Posets, 3.375 m (Aragon, Spain)

3. Monte Perdido, 3.355 m (Aragon, Spain)

4. Punta de Astorg, 3.355 m (Aragon, Spain)

5. Pico Maldito, 3.350 m (Aragon, Spain)

6. Espalda del Aneto, 3.350 m (Aragon, Spain)

7. Pico del Medio, 3.346 m (Aragon, Spain)

8. Espadas Peak, 3.332 m (Aragon, Spain)

9. Cilindro de Marboré, 3.325 m (Aragon, Spain)

10. Maladeta, 3.312 m (Aragon, Spain)

11. Vignemale

I have higlighted the four peaks that I recommend to ascend. All of them worth a trip in their own right. But they can all be done in one amazing trip that I call the Pyrenean Hike Royale that I will cover in a future blog post.

National Parks and Cirque de Gavarnie

On the Spanish side you will find 2 amazing natural parks Posets-Maladeta with the 2 highest Pyrenean Peaks Aneto and Posets and Ordesa Y Monte Perdido with the 3rd highest peak Monte Perdido and the amazing Ordesa Valley. Both parks boast many beautiful hiking opportunities, but also very challenging ones.

Both can be accessed from France by foot. Actually Monte Perdido can be reached from Gavarnie, so that you over a few days can visit the UNESCO World Heritage site Cirque de Gavarnie, cross over to the Spanish National Park via La Brèche de Roland to climb Monte Perdido directly or via a night at the Göriz hut.