Le Moulle de Jaüt

Nearing the summit

Le Moulle de Jaüt is one of the nearest and most easily recognizable biggish mountains around Pau and an obvious hiking target for me. Today, I got a chance to climb it on a beautiful fall day. The hike starts at the top of the Col d'Aubisque - a famous cycling col I've gone over several times this summer on my bike. The col allows you to start pretty high in the mountains but there was a catch - after some flattish walking, I had to descend around 300 meters before I could start climbing my mountain. 

The fall colors were spectacular and the weather ideal. I passed a couple of cow and horse herds still up in the mountains - they'll be going down soon - with bells clanking away. The climb up went well and I was soon climbing along a narrow ridge to the summit at 2050 meters. Great views in all directions with clouds on the Spanish side of the mountains just spilling over some of the higher hills. 

Clouds on the Pic du Midi d'Ossau

One of the things I'm finding at Pau is that I feel the altitude on hikes; it's not that it slows me much, but my breathing is a bit more labored and I don't feel as good as normal. At St Andre I lived at 900 meters and started most hikes at that altitude and never really felt any effects of altitude. Here, I live at essentially sea level and many hikes start around 1600 meters and I can feel the difference, even on a relatively low mountain like Le Moulle de Jaüt. Maybe part of the problem is I haven't been hiking very much over the summer months? Anyway, I headed back down again and had the pleasure of reclimbing the 300 meters to get back to my car...

Some pics.