The Enchanted Mountains

Robin Fedden's journeys and climbs in the Pyrenees with his companions in the late 1950s evoke the wonder and magnetism of mountains. Our wanderings had something of the idyllic and pastoral. With our contented camps set in the borderland between adundance below and bareness above, we knew no reason to shift them but such as we ourselves suggested: curiosity for a fresh valley, or the impulsion towards a peak whose very shape was unknown to us.;A chance meeting with the enigmatic Don Miguel steers them towards Los Encantados - the Enchanted Mountains. Don Miguel, powerless to accompany them himself, guides them from afar. He tells them of the hidden valleys, of small landmarks to be etched in their memories, of overhangs easily turned by ledges known to shepherds, of false cols, and of beguiling tracks leading nowhere. When they leave the sleeping village of Les before daybreak, headed for the Pic d'Aneto, they are setting out on a quest which will open up to each of them the marvels of the inspiring mountains.;
The crumbling palaces of Benasque, the bees and card-players in the Fonda del Sago, the headwaters of the Esero, the mountain inns, the never failing flowers and the new route up the Gran Pic de Colomes, all play their part in this account of exploring in the Pyrenees.