GR10 Practicalities

Please find to follow a  few comments on practicalities.  They are, of course, all directed at doing GR10 in the way described (i.e. staying overnight in hotels or guarded refuges and having luggage moved on each day by road).                                                                             Return to front page

When to go
The best time to go is probably late June to early July.  Before mid-June (except at the two ends of GR10) there can be snow and some hotels may not be open.  It is best to go before mid-July, when the French have their annual holidays, as booking hotels and refuges will get very difficult.  Late June/early July is also an excellent time for wild flowers, particularly in high places where the snow will only recently have melted and alpine flowers are in bloom.  The scenery is of course particularly beautiful at that time with fresh new grass in the mountain pastures full of grazing horses and cattle.  There is also plenty of daylight and  the weather usually good - we had only one bad day (horizontal snow!) in the entire walk.  Towards the coasts, in lower altitudes it can of course get very hot, when drinking plenty of water is absolutely essential.

Mid-summer, in school holidays, also means hotel booking difficulties and the heat will also be much greater, so probably the next best time is  early September before the first snows start to fall. 

Please remember, if a length of GR10 including high passes such as Hourquette d'Arre (Gourette to Gabas) or the Col de Madamet (Barèges to Oredon/d'Oule) is being planned, that late snow can be a major difficulty.  For example, Hourquette d'Arre was impassible in late June in 2004 - though this did follow particularly heavy late snow falls in May.  In 2002, when we crossed this pass it was marginal at the same time.  

The Route
GR10 is of course a way-marked trail.    Almost invariably you will have  no difficulty  finding the next mark and the leading walker will need to ensure this is done (a glance backwards at the marks for walkers going in the opposite direction also comes in useful).  However  vigilance is definitely needed as there are certainly places where the marks have deteriorated or have been interfered with by things such as forestry work or growing vegetation. There are also places, such as grassed areas with no rocks, where there is simply nowhere to paint the red and white meaning long distances between marks.  In mist or fog animal tracks can also be misleading. Most walkers are therefore very careful to follow both the marks and also the route on a map. The latter is made much easier, in my view, with an altimeter as knowing one is on the trail marked on the map means one can double check  a contour (or spot height) with your known altitude.

While the walk can be done in either direction, the West to East route has the big advantage of shade in the mornings, when one is usually climbing.  Morning mists also keep the temperature down. 

Every walker on GR10 will appreciate the immense amount of work that has been done to paint and maintain the thousands of red and white way-marks one uses.  They are all done by volunteers and I am looking forward to actually meeting someone at work in order to express my gratitude!

GPS
My experience of using a Garmin GPS on the final ten days of GR10, means I recommend carrying one if possible. As preparation, I had made up a list of some 70 "waypoints" which were recognisable track junctions, cols, significant corners etc along the route by measuring their grid co-ordinates on the 25,000 maps (they were then uploaded onto Google Earth as a check).  These waypoints then became daily "routes" each of about seven waypoints.  This means one knows how far it is (as the crow flies) and the direction of the next waypoint.  One also knows ones altitude.  If the track is lost it is reassuring to know which direction to head off in to find it again.  There is a word of warning however: the GPS could not "see" the satellites sometimes because of steep-sided hills etc. and in such cases, which seemed to occur for short times each day, the instrument is useless.  Thus one still has to carry a normal compass, altimeter etc. as backup. 

If anyone would like a list of the waypoints used, from Mont Louis to the coast, please get in touch.  Likewise if anyone has points for other sections, please email them to me so I can pass them on.

Baggage Moves
These usually need to be sorted out with hoteliers or with local taxi firms all of whom we have found to be most helpful and reliable.  Hoteliers will sometimes do the moves for you themselves (or brothers/daughters etc or have a friend).  Local taxi firms can usually be located from the Internet before you go (Syndicat d'Initiative or Office de Tourisme sites are good for this and will e-mail details) or you can work this out as you go along.  Bear in mind that some road journeys are very long compared to the walking route and taxis usually have to come up to small villages from nearby larger towns.

Other than the above, we have not found the specialist baggage moving firms that one finds in some areas (but would like to hear of any if they exist!)

Costs
Arranging one’s own bookings, baggage, transport etc can seem quite costly as one pays bills (usually in cash) every day.  But we have found that when you add it all up it is actually very reasonable.  We reckon that the total cost per day is about half the usual costs for packaged hotel-to-hotel walking holidays.  This is based on staying at the best place available and not stinting on meals, drinks etc.  Overnight stay costs will of course vary a great deal (from refuges, at the lower end, to the occasional several star hotel) but most hotels on GR10 are quite modest and small.

Mobile Phones
Our experience was that we have found that reception on Orange is available every day but is quite often spasmodic, with occasional Spanish providers.  You can walk out of reception then walk round a corner and it all suddenly comes back to life.  Reception in the overnight stops in valleys is erratic.  Some are excellent but others have nothing.  All this means that texting is pretty good.  Voice may be tricky.

Access to the area
Low cost flights to Toulouse, Biarritz and Perpignan are all useful.  There are also flights to Lourdes and Pau.  Of these we have found Toulouse the most useful as it covers the whole central part of the range.  From Toulouse there are trains to Lourdes, St Girons, Bagnères-de-Luchon, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, Ax les Thermes and a few other places that get one within a taxi or bus ride of one’s destination on GR10.  Trains direct from London will also of course get one to main stations in the area.  When walking in the Ariège or Pyrénée Orientales one can also of course get to GR10 from Barcelona as the railway crosses the Pyrenees in this area.

Booking accommodation
In the case of popular hotels (or small hotels where there are no alternatives nearby) it is very important to book rooms in advance.  Accommodation in the few larger towns can be left until late in the day but on most holidays there are several critical places where things must be organised well in advance – up to three or four months before the trip.  If your party is large (over four) you will need to be particularly careful.  
Some hotels seem to need FAX bookings, rather than E-mail, and a few need deposits (cash in an envelope is about the only way unless you have use of a French/Euro bank account).  If you would like the hotel bookings to be done for you, PMT (see above) did ours over part of GR10 and may be able to offer others this service.
Because one may have booked accommodation well ahead, it is important to build in some flexibility in the itinerary to make up for any delays.  Scheduled rest days every three or four days are a good way to do this.  Both PMT and Bergtoppers, mentioned above, do local bookings.

Books, Maps, Pictures etc
There are a number of books describing GR10 in English (with personal opinions):-

"The GR10 Trail" by Paul Lucia  (Cicerone)  Excellent pictures and walk profiles/maps. Regrettably very lacking in details of hotels, refuges etc
"Trekking in the Pyrenees " by Douglas Streatfield-James  (Trailblazer) Useful diagrammatic maps.  Very good indeed on details of hotel phone numbers etc.  Covers Spain as well so quite bulky.
"The Pyrenean Trail GR10"  Alan Castle Previous Cicerone Guide.  In my view much the best at painting the picture.  Outdated in some respects. Out of print but well worth the effort of tracking an old copy down.  Inspirational book.
"Les Sentiers de Grand Rondonnee  FFRP Topo Guide for GR10".  In French.  This is the official guide in 4 volumes.  Very good maps.
"Walks and climbs in the Pyrenees "  by Kev Reynolds, Cicerone Press.

Note about all the above:  They give walk times which, as indeed they explain, generally do not allow for stops etc and also seem to be the standard for very fit walkers (or people with wings on their boots!).  Readers may appreciate knowing that we reckon on book walk times plus 50% to allow for stops, lunches, photos, straying off the trail etc. etc.

Also  "The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees"  Good for village details and side valleys etc

Maps are the IGN www.ign.fr Series at either 1:50,000 or 1:25,000 with both showing the line of GR10.  Personally, I think the 1:25,000 are the best to use - even though there are a lot more sheets to cover the whole route of GR10.   For a list of the maps needed for GR10 please click MapList.  
There is also a most impressive 3-D map showing the whole range and one can easily mark the line of GR10 on it. It has the mountains moulded so that they stand out and coloured for different heights These are also obtained from IGN but are expensive - so if you are wondering what you want for Christmas.....

Itineraries
If you would like a copy of our itinerary giving hotel details with phone numbers and internet links, walk times and mileages and road mileages for the luggage, please get in touch.  EMail