Roundtrip Pic de Comapedrosa-Pic de Médécourbe-Pla de l'Estany 16 km

Strenuous but very rewarding circular hike to the highest peak in Andorra Pic de Comapedrosa at 2943 meters, and the Pic de Médécourbe at the tripoint Andorra-France-Spain at 2914 meters. The hike includes about 1800 meters ascent and descent on mostly narrow mountain trails, sometimes across scree, and especially on the last part of the ascent and descent of Pic de Médécourbe, some scrambling. The latter peak is on a narrow ledge. There are no facilities on the way apart from some shelters/mountain huts. The hike is in the nature park Parc Natural Comunal de les Valls del Comapedrosa, and you will find an abundance of mountain flowers. I also saw among others groups of griffon vultures and mostly heard Alpine marmots. There were still some small snow fields at the end of July. At the start, there is paid parking at the end of the Carretera de Prat Sobirans.
From the start you either follow the forest track or the small path besides Torrent Ribal to get to the forest. From here you follow the forest track a while until you get to the turn-off for the path to Refugi de Comapedrosa. This path first crosses two streams before it starts rising more steeply on the south side of the Riu de Comapedrosa valley. The path is largely through forest until you get to a small and beautiful valley where you cross a stream coming from Estany de les Truites. From the valley the path climbs further to Collet de Comapedrosa, not any longer in the forest. Here you have a great view along the valley of the Riu de Comapedrosa towards the ridges on the Spanish border. The Refugi de Comapedrosa is a bit south from here. You descend towards the stream and follow it upstream until you cross it and the path steeply ascends to the Estany de Comapedrosa lake. The path continues in a narrow valley, and shortly afterwards the path bifurcates and you take the steep path up to the summit of Pic de Comapedrosa indicated with yellow dots. Soon the Estany Negra (Black Lake) comes into view and you climb further to the ridge with views left of the lake and right towards the valley of the Riu de Comapedrosa you just traversed. The narrow path takes you across the ridge to the summit. The views are great here in all directions. From here, you sharply descend on a not so stable path, partly across scree to the Portella de Baiau, a pass on the Spanish border. You cross into Spain and descend on path with scree and debris down to the Estany de Baiau lake. The descent on scree is quite long before you continue on a normal mountain trail down to the lake. Just north of the lake you take a path up towards Coll dels Estanys Forcats back on the Andorran border. Initially the path is difficult to find, but you can just traverse the mountain meadows. From the pass Coll dels Estanys Forcats, a path left takes you up to the Pic de Médécourbe on the French-Spanish-Andorran tripoint. You follow yellow dots on this path which involves quite some scrambling to get to a narrow ridge where you have great views all around, including into France. You scramble the same way back to the pass Coll dels Estanys Forcats, and then follow the path down to the Estany Forcat, partly on scree. From the lake (nearby is another refuge) you descend on a mountain trail towards the Pla de l’Estany, a plain surrounded by mountains on all sides. The descent crosses two streams and passes another refuge near the Pla. You cross the Pla and then first follow a broad but steep forest track down through the forest, but then take a smaller path crossing pasture past some farm buildings, and then continuing largely through forest. You follow this path and another one all the way down to the forest track close to where you started the ascent. From here, it is only a short way down to the start.