The GR11 Trail. Brian Johnson
you make reservations in high summer and at weekends
Refuges offer a bar and snack service to walkers outside normal mealtimes
Refuges will normally have a room which can be used as a bothy when the refuge is closed
Camping is not permitted in the vicinity of most manned refuges
Many of the refuges don’t have their own website, but use a regional website which operates central booking (see Appendix D)
Camping
West summit, Tuca d’Angliós, from Estany Cap de Llauset (Stage 22)
In this guide the American term campground has been used for commercial or organised campsites, to distinguish them for wilderness campsites.
Car-camping used to be widespread alongside roads and dirt roads with visitors setting up camps, often for weeks at a time, in many of the most beautiful places in the mountains or around the coast. To prevent this, a law was passed to ban wild camping and this law is enforced by the police. As is often the case laws have unintended consequences and this law, intended to prevent car-camping and the setting up of long-term camps, also applied to backpackers.
The compromise, in practice, is that backpackers are allowed to bivouac for one night, with or without a small tent, well away from roads and habitation. This exception to the law has been defined in some areas such as in the ‘Parc Natural’ in Catalonia, where wild camping is permitted between 8pm and 8am.
You should ask permission if you want to camp near villages, in farmers’ fields, or close to a refuge. There is rarely any problem camping high in the mountains but discretion should be used when camping at lower levels. The daily stages given in this guide are intended for those using overnight accommodation. Those who are wild camping will want to ignore these stages and camp well away from the towns, villages and refuges.
If you are accustomed to always camping beside water, you will often have difficulty in finding a suitable campsite, especially in the Basque Country and eastern Catalonia. In the High Pyrenees camping beside streams often means you are sharing the grass with cows and mosquitoes. If you are prepared to camp away from water, you have much more flexibility and you can often find campsites with spectacular views.
Suggestions have been made in this guide as to the best campsites. These will normally be places where camping overnight is legal and with good grass which will take a tent peg. The experienced backpacker will find plenty of other places to camp.
The author tends to camp as high as possible. Not only is there magnificent scenery, it’s legal and there is less chance of being disturbed. What is more, there are likely to be fewer cows, better grass, and fewer mosquitos and biting insects.
The three types of camping gas commonly available are:
The ones you pierce, referred to in this guide as ‘original’ cylinders
‘Easy-clic’ resealable cylinders, the main resealable system used in Southern Europe
Screw-on resealable cylinders, such as manufactured by Coleman and Primus; these are the most widely used in Britain, Northern Europe and the USA, and in this guide have been called ‘Coleman-style’ gas cylinders
Where these are mentioned in the text they were in stock when the author passed through in 2013, but it cannot be guaranteed that they will be in stock when you pass through. ‘Coleman-style’ cylinders are becoming more readily available, but the locals mainly use the ‘original’ or ‘easy-clic’ cylinders and these still have greater availability. Liquid fuels are most likely to be available at the ferreteria (ironmongers), but make sure you know what you are buying!
Water
Swedish GR11 hiker collecting water from a stream (Stage 2)
Water can be a problem if the weather is hot. When walking in temperatures of 25–30°C, you will need at least ½ litre (1 pint) of water for each hour of walking, plus about 2 litres for a ‘dry’ camp, (ie one without a source of water). This is a guideline; actual needs will vary considerably from person to person and will depend on the temperature.
Most towns, villages and hamlets in the Pyrenees have fountains with untreated spring water. The locals and most walkers will drink the water without further treatment.
You will often find fountains or ‘piped’ water as you walk along the trail. It should be obvious whether this water comes from a spring or a surface stream. Spring water is usually of a high quality and can be drunk with confidence. You should be more cautious about surface streams, especially woodland streams or streams in areas which are well stocked with sheep or cattle.
Unless otherwise indicated, the streams, springs and water-points mentioned in the text were running in dry years, 2012 and 2017, and in 2013, a wet year, on through-hikes starting from Irún in mid-June. During snow melt and in a wet year there will be far more water sources, especially in the High Pyrenees.
Using this guide
The route has been split into stages with the walker who wants to use accommodation in mind. Those who are camping are advised to ignore these sections and to camp well away from towns and villages. Accommodation is limited at the endpoint of some sections so booking would be advisable in peak season. There are some sections where those requiring accommodation will have to follow the alternative route given rather than the ‘main’ route.
In good visibility, when the ground is free of snow, it is possible to follow the GR11 using the waymarking, route description and 1:100,000 maps in this guidebook, but we would always recommend carrying a map. You should certainly carry more detailed maps if you intend following the route in early season, when there could be extensive snowfields, or if you intend to cross high passes in bad weather.
GR11 waymarks
Most navigational mistakes occur because the walker does not look at the map or guidebook until they are lost! The route descriptions and maps in the guide are designed to prevent you getting lost and they will be of little use when you are already lost! Keep the guidebook handy, not buried in your rucksack.
Right or left side of streams always refers to right or left in the direction of travel.
Note on the maps
The base maps used in this guide were developed from publicly available information. The contours are generally very good, and other tracks and paths are taken from open source information and they are considered to give a reasonable representation of the area and features surrounding the route.
Water information has only been checked on the route of the GR11; streams shown on the route can be expected to run throughout the summer and the water-points marked on the map are likely to be reliable through the summer.
Not all tracks and paths are marked. This is particularly noticeable at the Atlantic and Mediterranean ends of the route where mapping the multitude of paths and tracks would have made the maps unreadable.
Timings
The timings given in this guide are the actual walking times recorded by the author when he backpacked the route in 2017. This does not include time for breaks or breathers and actual walking time will depend on other factors such as navigational ability, fitness, load and conditions. Times to climb peaks assume you are walking without a pack. The author typically allows nine hours for a six-hour walking day.
Distances, climb and height profiles
Distances don’t mean very much in the Pyrenees, where the steepness or roughness of the terrain can be a lot more important than the distance or the amount of climb. Distances and climb have been estimated