The GR10 led us out of Bareges and onto a farm track on the west side of the river. It was fairly cloudy so nice and cool for walking. We reached the carpark at the foot of the Col de Tourmalet and turned right up the valley, leaving all the vehicles and bicycles behind. The path was fairly good as we made our way up the valley, though every so often there was a moraine that we had to climb up and through, with meadows in between each. We reached a newly built refuge and that was when the real climb began. We had to make our way up and over several areas of very large boulders. This meant stepping from top to top, while trying to spot the next cairn or paint mark, while at the same time not falling and breaking a leg. We passed a few lakes on the way up, finally reaching the col at a height of 2509m (8231ft). The track then descended through more boulders, before working its way round a lake, again across a massive boulder field. There was another descent, and we were finally on fairly flat ground. The path took us alongside a reservoir, before another climb started. It had already been a long day (we were averaging just over 2kph because of the terrain) but at least the end was starting to be in sight. We reached the col and a steep descent started. The path had lots of steps in it, and dropped over 200m. At the bottom of the descent was a reservoir and we had a nice, flat walk along it to the night’s refuge. We had walked over 22km, climbed 1405m, descended 850m and taken just over 8 hours (over 9 hours including rests). A very long, tough day, though not apparently for all the runners who passed us during the day. We don’t know whether it was a race or whether they were out training. We had our own room in the refuge and enjoyed (?) a cold shower to recover from the walk.
Max elevation: 2510 m
Total climbing: 1720 m
That looks like an amazingly tough day’s walking, good job it was not wet and slippery.
What was the rock? looks like granite.