UKC

Looking to walk the Chemin de la Liberte/The Freedom Trail from France to Spain in late June.

Firstly does anyone have the book by Steve Goodall that they are willing to sell? Amazon/Waterstones/Abebooks dont have any copies remaining.

Secondly can anyone offer any advice on routes/accomodation/any general advice?

Much appreciated!

In reply to jackdimples1:
Hi Jack,

Quickly as I'm just scoffin pre-work porridge and I'll reply properly later.

Yes I did it in Aug 2013 and can help you with everything you need to know. I do have the book but really don't want to sell it as it's my record of the walk. I ordered my copy from the website directly.

As background reading I highly recommend The Cruel Crossing by Edward Sturton of Radio 4 Today program fame which explains the World War II history surrounding the route and other escape lines.

It's a lovely walk and I'll give you a better reply this evening.

Regards,
Sam

In reply to jackdimples1:

if you drop John Howie an email at warthog Mountaineering
warthogmtn (at) gmail (dot) com he will answer all your Q's.
John lives in the Pyrenees and leads the Chemin multiple times every year for a broad range of clients and groups. he is massively knowledgeable about it. hope that helps.

In reply to tpltravelled:
An even better reply! But do feel free to contact me through here if you need any further info. We stayed 2 nights at the Refuge Estagnous to include a trip up Mont Valier. As John will probably tell you you do need to consider snow at that time of year more particularly on the col de Crabeous and on the final couloir to the col over into Spain as it is east facing and caused us a minor amount of bother

In reply to jackdimples1:

I help support it many times each summer for my wife Anne's groups, which cover everything from biggish charity groups through to self-guided trips wanting some logistics support. Worth contacting Anne on anne@spa-treks.com for advice if you have specific questions.
The walk itself is stunning, certainly the higher days anyway, and quite a challenge for a lot of people. Most groups finish at the trailhead in Spain at the first vehicular access but the 'official' route continues a long way down a road to Alos. This bit is logistically the hardest because even at Alos the accommodation and public transport options are all but non-existent, so having something arranged in advance can help a lot.
Also as above, late June is early season, so expect some snow banks to cross. Crampons pretty much obligatory at that time of year but depending on your experience and competence you may be OK with walking poles rather than an axe.

In reply to john arran:
We ended up hitching a lift at the road head down into Esterri D'Aneu where we managed to find a very tidy 2* hotel (there is a camp site).
We had arranged a lift back from Bagneres du Luchon to Foix and the taxi from Esterri back to Bagneres was 100 euros - we initially baulked at that especially when the taxi driver turned up in a very old short wheel based Landrover belching fumes however it was worth every penny for the stunning scenery and fabulous commentary from him in a mix of Catalan, French, English and Castillian!

In reply to john arran:

Just to point out that Anne's spa-treks email address seems to be having problems right now. I'm working on getting it sorted out but if anyone has emailed in the last few days it may not have arrived. Forwarding it to or contacting her instead on anne@chezarran.com should be much better for now. Thanks.