The third map is the most useful; it is drawn by M. Schrader, and issued by the Club Alpin Français, in 6 sheets, and covers only the High Pyrenees. It is absolutely essential for the Spanish side, and it is best for the French side also. Its scale is only 1⁄100000, and it is not quite so detailed as we might wish. But it gives the contours, and it is clearly printed. Unfortunately most, if not all, of the sheets are out of print and difficult to obtain.
Finally, there is said to be a Spanish military map of the High Pyrenees; whether it exists or not, it is unobtainable by the public.
The defects of these maps are felt even more in the valleys than in the high mountains. In climbing a peak in good weather comparatively little help is needed from a map; but the configuration of the higher valleys and gorges is such that for them a really good detailed map would be invaluable. They are often narrow, steep and heavily wooded; paths are few and very hard to find, or to keep to when found, and the existing maps give little accurate indication of them. In consequence, it is here that a guideless party has special difficulties, and these are increased by the prevalence of the cirque formation. The upper valleys are often cut into two parts by a horseshoe wall of rock, extending right across them from one side to the other, and thus consist of an upper and lower plane with a precipice between. In ascending a valley it is usually not difficult to see an easy way up these cirques, but in descending, when nothing can be seen between the immediate foreground and the valley below, it is often hard to tell where the line of least resistance lies. The map as a rule gives no clue, and a guideless party may have to make several attempts to find a feasible route. Thus it is really in the valleys, and especially in the Spanish valleys, where all difficulties seem to be accentuated, that the lack of a good map is most felt.
There is, however, a prospect that soon we shall be better equipped in this respect, as the publication of the Pyrenean sheets of the new French 1⁄50000 map is expected in the course of the next few years, and there is also talk of the issue of a 1⁄20000 map of the Gavarnie peaks. The reproduction of the 1⁄40000 manuscript map, which forms the basis of the 1⁄80000 État-Major map (France only), has also been discussed.
Huts and Inns.
Another respect in which the Pyrenees will be found more primitive than the Alps is in the absence of climbing huts. There are, indeed, huts in the Pyrenees in certain numbers, but they are shepherds’ huts, built of uncemented stones with no flooring, and as a rule so filthy that no civilized person would use them unless driven to it by great stress of weather. The majority of the huts marked on the maps are of this nature, and as they are liable to fall to pieces from time to time, here also the maps may become untrustworthy. (A special instance of this is the Cabane de Turmes, under the Pic des Posets; this is marked in the Schrader map, but has for some time ceased to exist.) There are, however, a very few climbing huts proper, especially near Luchon and Gavarnie, either kept by private individuals for profit, or erected by the C.A.F. on alpine lines.
Inns also are rarely to be found high up in the mountains; on the French side they are more common than on the Spanish, and they are also more likely to be good; in Spain they are sometimes fairly clean, but always very primitive, with a peculiar style of cooking, involving a lavish use of oil, which is extremely unpalatable to most Englishmen.
Probably the best inn in the high valleys on the Spanish side, except at the Baths of Panticosa, which are on a high road, is at the thermal establishment and shrine of Caldas de Bolis. It may be useful to mention this for those who wish to explore the region east of the Maladetta, as it finds no place in Joanne’s guide.
Equipment.
In these circumstances, huts and inns being both few and bad, a tent or a sleeping-bag is an absolute necessity in the Pyrenees. The latter is preferable for a party which wishes to be as free as possible; a tent is, of course, more comfortable, but it almost necessarily involves the taking of a mule, and the party will be at once restricted in its movements; the mule will be unable to traverse peaks, and more especially it will be unable to cross a large number of low cols which involve no serious climbing, but which would be too difficult for four legs. This means that the party would be able to cross the main range only at a few points, and in moving along the range it would often be forced down into the lower valleys. Again, in bad weather sleeping-bags are not such a disadvantage in the Pyrenees as elsewhere, for their limestone and schist tend to weather into caves, and if a bivouac is made near a cave or an overhang or a shepherds’ hut (and there will generally be little difficulty about finding one of these), shelter can at once be found in the event of storm.