Manddale, La Rhune

June 22, 2025

Manddale, La Rhune

Manddale - 573M

283M Prominence

43.30919, -1.70346

June 22, 2025

La Rhune - 905M

683M Prominence

43.30912, -1.63518

June 22, 2025

HRP Day 2 stats

1768M Ascent, 1415M Descent

28.37 KM

Last night I made my start on the HRP. The HRP is the Haute Route of the Pyrenees, traversing the Pyrenees mountain range that separates France and Spain. I started hiking a beach in the town of Hendaye on the Atlantic ocean. Later that night after a few kilometers of hiking, I found a spot to set up camp just outside of town. On day 2 I woke up for my first full day of hiking and started making my way to summit number 1. Manddale is the first summit that is close enough to the trail to justify tagging. This summit is quite uninteresting, but it is so close to the route that I could not turn it down, despite being just a small coastal bump. I had the chance to bag one more small bump before this, but was too unenthused by it and the damp and grey weather. I ended up taking a lower route on that mountain which ended up being a catastrophe of a soaking wet bushwhack on a goat trail, avoiding the peak probably even ended up adding time. As I made my way to Manddale though, the trail re appeared through the thick fog. The area is mostly grazing land for the sheep and horses that live all around this area of bushy shrubs. On the summit there was a small monument, but that is about all I could see as it was a complete white out and foggy all day. I descended the East side of the mountain after having come up the West side, on a sort of dirt road/trail that passed over the hill. I then descended into the village of Eltzaurdia and continued along my HRP trek. As I kept hiking and making progress on my route, I made my way towards La Rhune. La Rhune is a bit of a tourist summit as there is a gondola and some restaurants/bars up at the summit. It is however 905 Meters tall and has 683 Meters of prominence, so it is taller than all the other bumps in the area. I ascended along my HRP route which cuts up and across the South side of the peak. The route follows a road which is part paved and part gravel. The road then cuts North West close to the summit and basically is paved to the summit. I hung out on the summit for a bit and ate my soggy baguette and cheese while I watched the sophisticated tourists laugh and eat at the restaurant. I then descended 300 meters back down the stone path before going down the East side of the mountain to continue along my HRP trek. The East side of the mountain was bouldery and quite a steep trail compared to the rest of what I had seen so far today. After the moderately steep descent I made it to Col de Lizuniaga, where I met up with a French hiker by the name of Malo, who i would hike a bit with over the next few coming days. We then continued on to an old cabin by the name of "Cabane d'Usategieta", which we would bivouac outside of after seeing the condition of the inside of.