Portarro de Espot, 2450m ...solo exploring around Lac Sant Maurici May, 1st 14

I couldnt let this year goes away without going to this area of the National Park. Its in my opinion one of the most beautiful spots in the Pyrenees. Although I had planned to make a visit to Amitges in real winter, I fear that will have to wait until next winter. Nevertheless in the north side of the lake there are 3 valleys: Monestero, Subeneix and Portarro. These 3 valleys keep the snow until May, and despite the 1h trek up to the point the snow starts, they are totally worth doing.

That strange man walking through the forest is me.

Lake, falls, trees...gorgeous  place to skin up. I went over the summer track which luckily had snow except for some sections right before turning left to Portarro.

At some point the track messed up but still good enough.

I decided to go to the furthest valley: Portarro. Maybe not the clevest option given that I was going with an splitboard but on the other hand was the only valley which had a coll in which I could stop if I didnt want to go higher (the other ones reach the Monestero peak with almost 2900m and the other one the Subeneix almost the 3000m). 

I went on with my splitboard over the vally slittle by little. 

The coll at the background.

Once here I could have gone on and hike the Pic de Portarro but to be honest I wasnt unwilling to go up on foot just to get to the summit as the last weekend. And the other thing was I was totally alone and 3h from the nearest place I could find someone. And another one was that from 13pm there were chances of storms. Anyways, I really stop and think about these things. Coming here alone is already taking risk. Coming alone is algo a reason why I am so demanding with weather conditions.

Soo after some meters above the coll I started the descent.

Good spring snow unlike that snow in Soum des Salettes.

Beautiful tube. I  was really enjoying this descent.

At 2100 I made the decision of going down and complete the tube given its great conditions. The downside was that I couldnt take track of the ascent, because the tube ended in a forest very close to the shore of the lake.

And I got here at 1950m. For the next 30min I was trying to find a way to the shore, since I couldnt go down ad much as I though. It was a combination of crossing streams, orienting myself with the map and walking. The forest was so close than even bein so near to the shore it was impossible to see it.

As a explorer in the Far West I managed to get out of the forest and suddenly my view opened up.

I chilled out by the shore with the amazing views. Then I took the summer path that surrounds the lake, but in this case in the opposite side so it was with no snow.

So beautiful this place is!

And after around 7.5h I got the car again. What an adventure in a gorgeous scnenary! It was just what I was looking for! If I had wanted just a great descent I would have gone elsewhere. In numbers was slightly more of +1000m and I covered quite a large distance.