Hiking in the clouds

Into the clouds...

I set off for a shortish day hike on Le Layens, a 1625 m high mountain in the Pyrénées that is used as a paraglider launch. Everything went very well until I joined the final ridge, and saw that clouds were moving in from the North. Hmmm, this wasn't in the forecast I saw. Very quickly I found myself in the clouds hiking along a long, indistinct ridge without any real paths. Finding the summit wasn't that hard (just keep going up) but after that navigation became more difficult. For the next hour or so I spent most of my time looking at my compass and peering into the mist, hoping to recognize the few landmarks on the map. Even as a hiker, the mist can be very disorienting - at one point, I thought there were a group of sheep 200 m away, only to realize it was a bunch of daffodils about 15 m away!

Anyway, I followed the intended route, even if it was a little more stressful than I expected. Near the end of the hike, I popped out of the clouds and pretty much the first thing I saw was my car, 750 meters directly below. Maybe next time I'll pack a GPS for my hikes...

Some pics.