Posets, Pic de los Gorgas Blancas

July 08, 2025

Posets, Pic de los Gorgas Blancas

Posets (Punta de Llardana) - 3369M

1131M Prominence

42.65466, 0.43521

July 8, 2025

Pic de los Gorgas Blancas - 3130M

222M Prominence

42.70000, 0.47780

July 8, 2025

HRP Day 18 stats

3758M ascent, 3080M descent

28.4 KM

Day 18 of the HRP was a massive day. 25KM is not a huge distance travelled, but I have never even come close to hitting 3758M of ascent in a day. This crazy stat was helped out by two big climbs at different ends of the day, spreading out the load. I woke up in Cabana de la Basa and got going quickly, knowing that this was going to be a big day. I stashed my gear by a nearby tree and started on the trail up Posets. The ascent started with a brief hike up through a forest. The forest eventually thinned out and brought me to a long approach on slabby rock covered in slippery pebbles. Soon enough I had a view of Glaciar de Llardana, but the route was still quite simple and I never had to cross any snow or glacier. I followed this big glacially formed berm of scree. I made my way to 3200 M and then I started ascending the North ridge. The ridge was mostly just hiking, and the terrain was all quite intuitive. There was one section nearing the summit where I was forced into a large and loose gulley. This gulley was actually quite dangerous due to it's exposure below, and I had a few holds crumble from underneath me. Thankfully I was by far the first one on the mountain of the day, so the risk of rockfall was void. The route after the gulley was simple again and I was able to basically just hike to the summit. The views from the top of Posets are probably some of my favorites of the traverse so far. I then descended back down to Cabana de la Basa and booked it for the day. I still had a long route ahead if I was going to make it to Lac du Portillon for the night. I hiked along a pretty chill trail for a bit, but was soon met with a bit of route finding. The hike from Cabana de Anes Cruces up to col d'Aygues Tortes was on a non existent trail. Crossing shrubs and tall grass and then hiking up the steep slope along the river was quite exhausting. From col d'Aygues Tortes I considered climbing Pic Bachimala, but I didn't have a route for an ascent from this direction, and it would have been too much for the day. Instead I set my sights on Pic de los Gorgas Blacas as a second 3000 M plus peak for the day, as it was much closer to my planned route. From the col I descended to the idyllic Refuge de Prat-Cazeneuve. After checking out the refuge, a normal HRP traverse would continue North West to Refuge de Soula, but I had other plans. I started hiking up a feint trail up to Lac des Pouchergues, and then up a steep trail with some switchbacks and hands on sections up to Lac de Clarabide. Lac de Clarabide was a lake with vivid blue colors contrasted with the bright white of permanent snow patches floating and the steep face of Tuca de Clarabida behind it. It was quite magnificent, so I stopped for a while before continuing my climb up to Puerto de Guias. From the col I had 200 meters of ascent to go up to Pic de los Gorgas Blancas. At this point the route on my basemap became a little useless as the faces were steep and full of inticate passages and huge boulders. I had to explore a bit and try to find the summit on my own. It was quite sketchy at times as there were large fridge size boulders that were loose, at one point I knocked one onto myself and got quite lucky to not get hurt. I am sure there was an easier way to ascend the peak, but the scrambling was fun in hindsight. I passed Torre Armengaud and Kept it on my left, then found the summit where there was a cross and a plaque. I then had to continue on for the day and figure out how I could get back to my route. The descent required yet more exploratory scrambling, and at one point I even passed by a rappel ring. I had to curve around the South side of Tuca de O, which was a bit deceiving as it was only 10 meters prominent on my map, but in reality it was much much larger. Getting around it and back to the trail took much longer than anticipated. I then passed by Col du Pluviometre where an old rain gauge stood. From there it was a descent in the fog on confusing scattered trails and slabby rocks down to Lac du Portillon. I celebrated with a beer at the refuge and then set up camp at 2560M some 13 hours after I took off in the morning.

Good information about this area here : GOURGS BLANCS (3.129 m). CRESTA JEAN ARLAUD - GOURGS BLANCS - TORRE ARMENGAUD - PUNTA LOURDE ROCHEBLAVE - PIC CAMBOUÉ - PIC SAINT SAUD - PICOS DE CLARABIDE - GÍAS (PD+/700 m/II+ máx) : BAILANDO CON SARRIOS