Val d’Aran by Pol Tarrés, TwoNav ambassador
The Val d’Aran is located in the heart of the Pyrenees, bordering France, Aragon, Alta Ribagorza, Pallars Sobirà and Aragon. The mountains that surround the Val d’Aran form a natural barrier, a fact that determines its history, culture and climate.
Our ambassador, Pol Tarrés, explains to us how this fantastic route has been carried out with our LAND software and accompanied by the GPS Cross.
DAY 1: ENDUROMIES
The first day we went to the Enduromies area. Located in the Sierra de Monte Romies. The first descent we did was that of Pruedo. It is a very long lift of more than an hour and a half although it is worth it for the views when you get to the top.
The first part of the descent are old trails adapted for the bike where you have to be very careful since at some points there are stones and it becomes a bit complicated. Even so, it is a joy since you have good views all the time and you go through a couple of tunnels that if they were a couple of meters longer, light would be needed. From there, you arrive at a little house and the Pruedo descent begins. At the beginning it is a little broken, with a lot of stone, then it already has more flow until it reaches the bottom.
In the afternoon we stay in the area of the most worked trails. The ski lift begins to go up a dirt track in the town of Gessa, it takes about 25 minutes with electric bikes. When we get to the top there are 3 original trails (Pruedo, Eth Sanglier and Eth Taro) that cross in some parts, although the guys from Aran Bike Parks are opening more trails and we also go down the Sanglier 2.0 and the Green Line. We were lucky and the terrain was spectacular, with a lot of grip, being the north face of the mountain the conditions are much better. Faster chunks, more technical chunks and in general a lot of flow on any trail in the area.
DAY 2: VAL D’ARAN BIKE PARK
The second day we went to Val d’Aran Bike Park, located in the Baricauba forest (Guasach), about 5 minutes by car from Vielha. With just over 400 meters of unevenness, there are several trails (the blue, the green, the FiveTen, the Catalan cup …) that cross between them.
There is a lot of variety on the trails and you can find everything; more open and straight pieces where you stop and you can go very fast, more broken pieces with stones and roots, very twisty pieces with “S” shaped curves and quite technical pieces with a lot of inclination.
Even though it rained a lot throughout the day, the forest is very dense and very rainy, making it a good place to ride if bad weather catches you. What we really appreciated is the lift, which is done by road and takes about 20 minutes by e-bike, until you get to the “Bassa d’Oles”, a lake of natural formation, from where all the bikepark trails start.
It is an area of fir forest that, mixed with the rain that fell all day, left a mist that seemed to be in a mystical place more typical of a story.
DAY 3: ENTENCADA ROUTE + SAUT DETH PISH
The third day we wanted to do something different, we wanted a route that would take us through the mountains of the Val d’Aran and the locals recommended the Entecada route about 40km with 1800m of unevenness. We start from Bossost and go up the famous “Còth Deth Portilhon” that has been in some stage of the Tour de France in 18 editions. Before reaching the top of the port we turn off along a dirt track that runs through a forest of centuries-old birds where we continue climbing zigzag until we reach the “Coth de Baretja” where we could not see the Luchón Valley since the fog It covered everything.
From there, the route continued on a downhill singletrack that was quite broken with stones and a lot of mud from the rain of the previous days. At the end of the singletrack the last climb of the day begins. It is a track that goes through a small valley with views of Era Entecada, Tuc Roi, Tuc de Ribassetes and Tuc dera Monjòia. It was at this time that Ernest ran out of battery on the bike. Luckily Andreu had just over 25% and good legs and we improvised a zincha with a couple of spare cameras that we carried. He towed it about 20 minutes before reaching the top. Comment that the last part is the hardest with the steepest ramps of the entire route.
The beginning of the descent is a steep sigletrack and some quite technical sections where you cannot make any mistakes since at some points it would be quite dangerous. Even so, the views of the mountains in front were worth it, they were spectacular until reaching the entrance of the lush forest, very humid, where the trail changes completely, it becomes a trail with a lot of flow, quite clean of stones, with curves closed sections and open brakes.
It is one of the funniest trails we did. It was quite muddy from the rain from the previous days so we had to be careful in the fast corners.
We finished the trail in the town of Es Bordes and as it was already a bit late we decided to go to where we had parked the car by road, 6km down to Bossòst.
In the afternoon we were quite tired and wanted to rest, so we went to see the waterfall “Saut deth Pish”. There are no bike trails in the area but you can park at about 300m and we took the opportunity to take some photos and some videos at the spectacular waterfall.
Don’t forget to follow Pol Tarrés (@ pol.tarres), Ernest Adalid (@ernestadalid) and his friends in the next adventures !!
