On the first day on the area I climbed Hautacam. Unfortunately in the morning the cloud was low and although it was dry but grey at the valley floor I soon found that about 200m higher it was full-on cloud, so much so that at times visibility was less than 100m or so. The cloud also meant that I could not decide whether it was "warm" or "cold". For the first time in France I had looked at the weather and put on my gilet and arm warmers. At times it was cold enough for this full on gear, at others I had the arms rolled down and the gilet open and flapping. I was pretty wet after 20 minutes or sp of climbing and it was a 50-50 mix of sweat and cloud.
I ran my Garmin Virb for the climb - see here:
However after 10 minutes or so the lens just got covered in moisture and I have a climb of vague grey blurry shapes - hence the highly shortened video
An upside of the gloom was that I could not actually see where I needed to climb to and so was in happy ignorance. In reality it was unhappy ignorance as it was a beast of a climb. There was a point perhaps 3-4km from the summit when you cross a cattle grid and the trees start to disappear. The gradient also eases a bit and this signifies that you really are near the top. A little further on the cloud started to lift (or as I found out I climbed above the cloud) and the sun came up.
After a few more hairpins you "seem" to be at the top. I say seem as in reality the top of Hautacam is just a big car park. With a bit of searching you can see some painting on the road marking a previous Tour de France finish. I didn't realise this at the time and carried on up the road. This was a series of switchbacks for about 1.5km and another 150m or so to climb to another smaller car park with a small cafe (closed) and an observatory. This is the summit of the Col de Tramassel. That is the actual top. Its a col that goes nowhere - the only way from the top by road is the way that you came up unless you use a mountain bike.
I stopped to take some photos:
After the short photography session I set off back down the road. Needless to say the first few km were still above the cloud and in the sun but the vast majority of the descent was in the same overcast and wet cloud. Visibility of 100m is significantly worse at 30mph than 5mph so it was a very slow and tentative descent indeed. Cold enough as well that I needed the jersey, arm warmers and gilet of the ascent but I needed my Pocket Rocket waterproof on as well!. It was just about warm enough by the time I got back to the campsite and an hour later was blazing sunshine!
I'd climbed my first Pyrenean Col but saw virtually nothing of it except the very summit.
Here's the Strava data:
You can see that the damp got in the Garmin pressure port and screwed up the barometric elevation
Basic data: 1hr 11min, 7.9miles at average gradient of 8% - 3362feet
The weather forecast was not at all great for the rest of the week so with the good weather from lunchtime I decided to climb Col Du Soulor.
The start of this climb is hidden round the back of the town of Argeles Gazost and sign posted for Col d'Aubisque. I had a half thought that as this 2nd col was about 7-8km further from Soulor I might do that as well. However I soon scotched that idea within the first 4-5km of the climb as the temperature difference could not be more different from the morning. The heat was high and immediately the climb difficult (for me).
Its an odd climb - 4-5 km of typical 6-8% followed by 4-5km or almost flat followed by another 5-6km of 7-9% climb. To be honest I struggled most of the way and was glad to get to the top. There was actually a couple of cafes at the top but I don't stop for anything other than a few photos and came back down again.
A good descent with a good road surface, sweeping bends and long straights.
All told for the day over 7000ft of ascent.
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