Holidays shots

[multiweb]

Spent a month in the Pyrenees catching up with family and loading up on foie gras, magrets, wine and cheese. Back in Oz now. The clock is still a bit offset so are the eating times but getting there slowly.

This is a serie from Gavarnie which is a great place to hike. The tip of the cirque is the border between Spain and France. The elevation from the top of the cascade to the ridge is ~1300m. The visible waterfall is a bit over 400m in height so the Eiffel tower would well fit under it with another 100m to go or so. The whole elevation to the top is a bit over 3000m from sea level.

It's hard to grasp the size of it until you see the long line of people walking up the rock face then you have a sense of scale.

Takes about 1h from Gavarnie to the hotel and another 40min to the cascade.

[RB]

What an amazing place!!
Can't comprehend the scale from the photo, must be an awesome sight.
Thanks for the photos Marc and good to have you back.

RB

:thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Stunning photos Marc, the scenery is quite breathtaking.

Did you stay overnight in any of the Refuges and do any big walks?

Seeing the closer shots with the hikers close up to those amazing rock walls really gives you an impression of the size of these mountains.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[leon]

Great photos Marc, wow what a place to be, glad you enjoyed yourself.

Leon

[FlashDrive]

What a place ...Stunning ...that would be a ' Bucket ' List item.

Col...

[REVEREND]

Spectacular..

[multiweb]

Thanks guy. It was a good break. :thumbsup:

Here's a small video. Bit shaky but some nice shots.
https://vimeo.com/369496395

[Sunfish]

Spectacular Marc. More dramatic and natural than the Roncevalles , St Jean Pied de port area. The people give some scale. A great height and falls location.

[Sunfish]

Video is very cool.

[Dennis]

Some good footage there Marc, really capturing the amphitheatre formation. Did you ride up on one of the horses?;)

The segment with the folks crab walking back down the scree slope was quite telling in terms of how steep the ascent/descent was.

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

Thanks Ray. The Basque country side is lower in overall elevation but there are heaps of extremely steep gradients. That's probably why the TDF doesn't go near it. They'd lose half the peloton in there. :lol:



Hi Dennis, when I was little they had donkeys and mules which I had fun with but I never rode the horses, no. If you get a horse to the hotel you can only stay 30min tops up there before the ride down or chose to walk.

It gets steeper as you get close to the rock face. So it just keeps going up and harder. By the time you're at the bottom of the fall it is a 45 degree angle down so you want to watch your step or you'll roll down the ebouli. My aunty is the one in the yellow hi-vis jersey. She's 73 and was showing us how to "jog" down hill at one stage.

Before we left the hotel I asked her if she would be ok to go up to the fall. She smiled and said "I don't walk fast but I don't stop either". When we were at the rock face I was 200m behind her and fell like I was missing a lung. I should know better than opening my mouth next time. :)

[multiweb]

Here's another shot from yesterday taken by my Aunty from a place called the Pic de Montaut. Top right in the distance you can see the pic du midi with its first snow and to the left l'Arbizon with a little snow as well. The village at the bottom in the valley is Sarrancolin.

[RB]

Oh wow Marc.
You have to enter that in this month's photo challenge !!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Here's a good pano for the scale taken from some distance at the end of the day on the way back. The right shows the cliffs and "the steps" in a more orthogonal projection so you can see the true height. The other shot is the same view from the bottom looking up.

[Dennis]

LOL - thanks for that Marc.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Sunfish]

Spectacular.

[multiweb]

Here's a couple of highres I got today.

[Sunfish]

Tall dramatic peaks . Is that the 3000m Néouvielle?

There is a town on the map there called Araganouet.

[multiweb]

Pic du Midi. Yes there is. It's a local name.

[h0ughy]

fantastique

[REVEREND]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.