The ski station Port Aine is a well know road
biking climb. The base of the ski station is practically at
2000 meters. It is a kind of island of a mountain -
still far away from the rugged main wall of the Pyrenees, with
realtively gentle slopes on all sides. With a mountain bike
(or even my touring bike with 35mm tires) you can get to
the top of the ski area and pick your way down, through the
plethera of good unpaved roads on the other side, making this
a loop over a two-way summit.
As you can see from the profile the workout to get to Port
Aine is a long steep climb. Even if it is steep, the road seems
to contour along the hill to no end. The high snow covered peaks
are very far away. But I have a picture perfectly clear day, and
with a zoom lens they can be made to appear in map like clarity.
This is one day where I have even clearer light than most all of
the pictures that people have shared on the web. At the
westernmost point of the road, a marked trailhead shows a trail
connection to La Baseta, another MTB route, that is however much
lower than this one. The deep forested hills last till within a couple of hundred
meters below the ski area hotel. Approching the top of the paved
section, the road crosses some elaborate drainage channels.
Surprisingly the luxurious hotel with ample parking lots
overlooking the mountain panorama is a busy place. Not so much
with people, even though there are a couple of them doing spring
maintanance on the ski slopes. It's the animal scene that is
really happening here. The parking lot is filled with heavy
draft horses. I almost cause a stampede with my bicycle. After
the initial excitement is over they pose for pictures. Further
up, the ski area is also used as pasture for cows and llamas. I
take plenty of picture of this curious interdenominational zoo
between the mothballed ski lifts. All the creatures, including
myself, appear to be quite happy to be here. The objective can be clearly seen ahead, and it really does
not look that high. It's the transmission tower on the
relatively gently ski mountain ahead. I pick my way up under the
ski lift and walk much of it, talking to the animals. When it
gets to steep I detour to the west, and see that apparently
there is a fairly good dirt road that can be followed all the
way from the ski lodge on a western detour loop. The profile
above is an approximate reconstruction of my route below the ski
lifts. Approaching the top ridge the viewshed now also includes the
south side and its snowcapped walls, receeding into the haze of
the foothills and flatlands. The top is a gently rounded knoll
with remnants of snowdrifts on this June day.
From South. (described downwards).
Even if my map material is a little inconclusive. From the top
the way down can be pieced together. You can clearly see a good
unpaved road that follows a gentle ridge to the west. All I have
to do is walk and ride down to it over a short, and not very
steep ski slope. The lower part of this is the area, that is
photographically the most interesting, because of its many
distinct "isles" of pine trees, dotting the tundra.
From the top further road cuts can be seen below. A few minutes and several thousand degrees of curvature later
I am looking up at the transmission facility far above on the
perfectly cone shaped mountain, providing a sense of direction.
As it turns out there is a whole network of fairly good roads on
this side of the hills, and a gps is necessary to make sense of
the turns. Some intersections have signs, but the destinations
don't match anything on my map. I only see one car back here, an
adventurous looking 4 wheel drive camper of some sort. But he
doesn't stop to compare notes. With the help of my gps I
negotiate several cryptic intersections. My original notes were
more detailed. At point 6 stands a stone house and a regular
parked car is evidence, that the road is about to improve even
more. Eventually the wide roadbed of the Port de Canto road
shows up cutting through the green hills not far below, cutting
a monumental V into the mountain side. The last part to get down to it is unexpectedly rough. My day
ride turns right here, to return over paved Port
de Canto. But in order to show a strictly increasing
profile, and of course you could climb the summit from this side
too - I finished the profile down the south side to Adral. The
map shows that there are several other options to meet the Port
de Canto road, either further up or down its path.
A Dayride with this point as highest summit: PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED ( < Collado de la Creu de Perves | Port de Bonaigua > ) Pic d'Orri s(u) , Port de Canto: Sort > Rialp > Port de Aine ski station > various paths and dirt roads with detours > Pic d'Orri s(u) > down various dirt roads > Port de Canto > Sort: r5:16.4,5 Notes: gps data and distances are on stolen computer |
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