Each year I look for a new country to visit, and two years back, Andorra cropped up in my list. Covered entirely by the Pyrenees Mountains, despite the highest peak being less than 3000 m, Andorra seemed my kind of place. It’s rar … Read more
Each year I look for a new country to visit, and two years back, Andorra cropped up in my list. Covered entirely by the Pyrenees Mountains, despite the highest peak being less than 3000 m, Andorra seemed my kind of place. It’s rare that I do not have a friend in a country, and soon I realised I had one of the best Andorra guides as a dear friend so I dropped her a mail and the rest happened like magic.
Andorra can only be entered by road from France or Spain, so I flew from Geneva to Barcelona and caught the Andorra shuttle bus from the airport. The three-hour journey was uneventful but too picturesque. My friend picked me up at the bus stand and dropped me at the trailhead of an alpine lake. From the word go, the beauty of the valleys and forests struck my senses. I was all alone on a trail through a forest of flowers and willow trees with birds chattering away to glory. What it lacked in altitude, Andorra more than covered in sheer pristine nature. I jaunted up steep rock gullies and through the forest terrain to soon reach the ridge above from where I descended to the lake that shone like an emerald amidst the lush green. The upper ridges still had some amount of snow and hard ice. It took me less than an hour to jog down the trail back to the car park by the waterfall, where I had my picnic.
Next day, my friend took me along for a guided trip to climb the second highest peak of Andorra. Her client group counted 13 of which one Spanish couple seemed the fittest and totally ready for adventure. My friend asked if I would mind to guide the Spanish couple through a more arduous route while she would shepherd the rest through a less demanding trail. I was totally up for it, so we parted company and I led the two up through a much steeper and ill-defined path. It was pure eyeball navigation since I had no idea or no knowledge of the trails or of the mountains in Andorra. I hadn’t even seen a map or GPS. All I knew that the mountain rising in the horizon was our objective and I figured a more or less straight path up should lead us there.
While I set the pace, the Spanish couple kept along, though I could see the man falling behind. The sky was dark and windy so walking fast we still felt the chill. After few false twists and turns, and many unexpected intermediate hills, we finally emerged at the final ascent to the top, much to my relief. For once, I hadn’t lost my way. I suggested we climb to the top in one single push. The zigzag path led steeply through a black rocky field while the lake below fell sharply away. Around 2,800 m, it was a tiny hill yet the climb was enjoyable. The wind kept picking up and it was raging when we touched the top. The view all around was amazing, and far off into the distance, we could see my friend leading her group. We estimated they would take at least three more hours to arrive.
We munched some food and caught up with small talks. The woman aspired to become a mountain guide so I gave her some suggestions and pep talk. The day passed by, but soon we had to get down as the wind was getting too cold for comfort as our bodies were cooling down. The descent was easy though we had to brake frequently upon the steep path. We sheltered behind a rock and dozed off waiting for the rest of the group to catch up, which they finally did.
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Publish date : 2022-05-17 15:41:39
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