Vignemale
Vignemale from Réfuge of Oulettes de Gaube: Piton Carré, Couloir de Gaube, Pique Longue
The Vignemale is one of around 200 over 3,000 m high mountain in the Pyrenees. The 3,298 m high summit of Pique Longue is located on the border ridge between the Spanish province of Huesca in the north of the Aragon region and the municipality of Cauterets in the French Hautes -Pyrenees.
Rise
Starting point for the normal route to climb the Vignemale is the Refuge de Bayssellance ( 2,651 m) 42.77942-0.1241582651. From there, the path leads first to the east slightly downhill, and branches in a hairpin (approx. 2,520 m) of the coextending here HRP and GR 10 to the south. The road is rapidly gaining along the glacial streams of Ossoue height and leads to the lower end of the Ossoue glacier. Depending on the state of the glacier can be the way here to continue it across the columns with glacier ( crampons and ice ax required) or go south to the Crête Montferrat at the bottom of the glacier to bypass first. After crossing the Ossoue glacier is still a slight climb to graduate to the summit ( about three hours from Réfuge de Bayssellance ).
The summit offers views to the east on the ridge of the Cirque de Gavarnie and the massif of Monte Perdido, west on the Balaïtous and the Pic du Midi d' Ossau, to the north of the massif of Néouvielle and to the vast plains of France into.
First ascent
On August 1, 1792, some shepherd noticed a signal from the summit of Pic de Montferrat, which was issued by a group of surveyors. The guided by the geodesics Louis -Philippe Reinhart Junker surveyor determined the course of the boundary and the height of the summit. The next day, August 2, 1792, the same shepherd noticed a signal from the summit of Pique Longue, the main peak of Vignemale. The names of the surveyors are not known.
The first recorded ascent was then carried out on October 8, 1837 by Henri Cazaux and Bernard Guillembet over the Ossouegletscher. Since the two had fallen several times in crevasses in the rise, they chose to descend the western route through the rock pillars down to the Spanish Ara Valley.
Then took place the following year the first tourist ascent by Miss Ann Lister (1791-1840), led by Henri Cazaux and Bernard Guillembet and Jean -Pierre Charles and Jean -Pierre Sajous.
On August 7, 1889, the first ascent of Vignemale by the Couloir de Gaube by Henri Brulle, Jean Bazillac, Célestin Passet, François Bernat - Salles and Roger de Monts followed.
First winter ascent
The first winter ascent was made on February 11, 1869 by the Pyrenäeisten Count Henry Russell ( 1834-1909 ) performed by the brothers Henri and Hyppolyte Passet from Gavarnie.