Gavarnie - Èchelle des Sarradets - Brèche de Roland - le Taillon - Gabiétous Oriental - Gabiétous Occidental

Start: Gavarnie tourism office
End: Go back the same way or continue to other peaks. Several bivi options are given in the route description.
Alpine grade: Le Taillon F+, Gabiétous PD
Recommended months: July - September
Recommended gear: early in the season crampons may be handy below the Brèche de Roland, but usually there's a good path in the snow.

An long, exciting and varied hike with some of the best views the Pyrenees have to offer. A walk from the French Parc National des Pyrénées to the Spanish Parc Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, Including the beautiful Gabiétous peaks, which are often overlooked. The Échelle des Sarradets allows you to climb out of the Cirque de Gavarnie from the most scenic place. The views from the path leading to Refuge de Sarradets are great, both towards the Cirque and to the Brèche. On the Spanish side there's a new world of grey, yellow, brown and orange limestone waiting to be explored. Four peaks are reached relatively easily.

0.00 Gavarnie. Walk all the way towards the cirque until Hotellerie du Cirque. Go slightly down when the path forks a little past the caféteria and cross a bridge. Continue SW on a cairned path until you reach the start of the
1.30 Échelle des Sarradets at the foot of the cirque. Large red-and-yellow marks show that you're on the right track. Climb and scramble up steeply and around 2000m the path bends sharply to the left and you continue climbing steeply SW. Reach Balcon des Sarradets at 2300m where the route continues to climb more gradually at the foot of the south slopes of Pic des Sarradets and you climb W through a choatic landscape full of rocky terraces. Follow cairns to
4.00 Refuge des Sarradets (2587m) Climb on an obvious path to the
4.45 Brèche de Roland (2807m). Don't go down on the Spanish side, but follow a path W along the vertical walls of the Cirque de Gavarnie. There are several good places for a bivi here, and a tent may not be needed under the overhanging rocks. Soon Le Doigt (the finger), a rock pilar, comes in view. Walk around it on it north (French) side and follow an obvious path W to
5.45 Le Taillon (3144m, fantastics views over the Spanish national park). There are several stone windbreaks allowing for a bivi. Continue SW going down, ignore a very steep path on your right and continue until
6.00 Pico Royo (3051m), hard to recognise as a peak but it meets the requirements. Here a clear, less steep path leads you down N and then NW to Col des Gabiétous (2938m, easy to find). There are cairns to guide you. Climb up from the pass and a surprisingly easy climb brings you to
6.45 Pic Oriental de Gabiétous (3031m). Continue SW over the sometimes exposed ridge, reach the so-called Côte intermédiare (3021, marked with a cairn) and reach
7.10 Pic Occidental de Gabiétous (3034m).