Cap De La Cometa Del Forn

Ski Areas > Pyrénées > Andorra > Cap de la Cometa del Forn

Andorra, with its large resort developments, may not be known for its ski touring but there are still some wild pockets on the borders with France and Spain. On such is the trilogy of the Cabaneta, Roc Mélé and Cap de la Cometa del Forn (2691 meters). Approached from the east the three summits can be linked in rapid succession once you've climbed as far as the ridge.

Pas de la Casa

We intended to go as far as the Roc Mélé as I had a Five o'clock train to catch at Toulouse. Even this, around 1200 meters of vertical, looked like being a tall order after our skiing at Porté Puymorens the day before. We parked the car on the Pas de la Casa road on a hairpin at 1725 meters altitude. From here we would have to climb up the gentle Ariège valley for a couple of kilometres. I'd spoken with some Spaniards the day before and they'd mentioned a footbridge. We found one to cross the Baladrar torrent about 100 meters up the valley. This was very useful as the hot weather meant that there was a lot of water in the stream. The Ariège forms the frontier between France and Andorra and it looked to be a more formidable barrier. In the early morning the rocks were glistening with ice. Ian attempted to ford at a likely spot only to end up with a boot full of water. I had more luck but then had to climb a 3-meter vertical snow bank while trying not to loose my skis and poles. Finally we made it across only to be confronted with a tributary, the St Joseph. We realised it would have been wiser to cross lower down.

L'Hospitalet

The St Joseph proved more problematic. Although narrower it was protected by high snowbanks on our side of the river. We walked up a few hundred meters in deep snow until we finally saw a spot on the opposite bank that might offer a suitable landing pad. As Ian had already suffered a wet foot I figured it was my turn to take a risk. I jumped onto some bushes on the other bank, quite tricky but a softer landing than expected. Ian then relayed the gear across and then jumped himself.

Spring Snow

From here we started to climb a steepish south-facing slope. Early going was good but it was now after 10 o'clock and the sun was getting hot. We soon stripped to t-shirts. At around 2200 meters a large rock outcrop was visible and the slope steepened, perhaps to 35 degrees. We skirted around to the left of this into a wide valley. The Cap was dead ahead and the Roc Mélé to our left. The snow started to get hard and we realised that we would have to stop and fit harsheisen (crampons) to our ski bindings if we wanted to avoid a nasty slip. The slope to our right opened up and we climbed this in a series of zig-zags to a ridge and a cairn, this just before the summit of the Cap, around 2690 meters. From here we had a good view of the Pic du Nerasol, Andorra and Porte Puymorens. We would have liked to have gone higher but the Roc Mélé was a good half an hour along the ridge.

Skiing down the snow was initially quite well frozen. Hurrying too fast I dug my toes in, cartwheeled and ended up with the tails of my skis buried almost vertically up to the bindings. It turned out to be quite tricky to extricate myself from this position. I decided to take things easier and ski more conservatively until we reached better snow. Always a good plan when off piste. Reaching the rock outcrop the conditions turned to perfect spring snow. A real joy to ski in the midday sun. We had to watch our tracks carefully as there was only one exit onto the snow below and this was hidden from direct view by the slightly convex slope. We now tracked horizontally above the stream looking for a better fording place. The snow vanished in one or two places but the grassy surface could still be crossed on ski. Finally we found an almost ideal spot to regain the home bank.

Footbridge

The final kilometre passed quickly. Ian remarked that as we'd had to push up the valley we should really just be able to slide down the valley. It wasn't to be quite so easy as we had to dodge in between some stands of trees in places.

Note: The Cabaneta can also be reached from the West.

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