Pic Carlit 2025

Meet the patients we climbed for in France on Pic Carlit!

Climb of the Pic Carlit, Pyenees, France 2025

This was our fist visit to the Pyrenees Mountains to climb 4 kidney cancer. This range forms the border between France and Spain with the country of Andorra nestled in the middle. Pic Carlit, 2,921 m (9,583 ft) is the highest mountain in the French Pyrenees.

We had a difficult time getting accurate mountain conditions, i.e. if there was snow yet and what gear we might need. Our team was in Spain for a meeting to talk about some of the latest developments in cancer treatment and we identified Pic Carlit as a good objective to climb for the following patients : XXX,XXX

We started in Barcelona, about three plus hours away from the base of Pic Carlit. We stopped to see a friend in Platja d’Aro along the golden coast. Then we wound through the mountains through small towns, over mountain passes. We followed rivers, crossed bridges and eventually made it to a small Medieval town of Cerdayna. We stayed in a 9th century building converted to a bed and breakfast. This small town is just a few kilometers from the border of France. There are no border guards or border stations. The people of this community have been here for centuries, speaking a combination of Spanish, French or Catalan or all three!

We got some dinner and got to bed. We wanted an early start, not knowing the conditions on the mountain. You can usually see well enough about 30 minutes before sunrise. So we wanted to start our ~40 minute drive to the trailhead about an hour before sunrise!

The car was covered in ice! It had been a cold night. We scraped the windows and then got on the winding country roads leading to the trailhead.

Since we were in the off season, we weren’t sure if the road would be open. When we had about 5 kms to go to get to the trailhead, we some some light on the road. It appeared to be about 50 members of the French military doing a training run. At around 6:30 am we made it to the trailhead and caught the dawn’s early light.

We began our climb, unable to see Pic Carlit, but had a beautiful view of the first of 12 high mountain lakes. We moved along quickly in the brisk pre-daybreak cold. Where we started there was no snow or ice, but within just a kilometer and up about 200 meters, we came to the second lake. This alpine lake had a layer of ice and we threw some rocks to break the ice.

We continued along the trail, over roots, and began to encounter snow in the shady patches. The air temperature was below freezing, but when you are hiking uphill, even with a fairly light coat, you stay quite comfortable.

We continued upward and encountered lake after lake and could see and hear small trickles of water as the mountains wake up, warm up and begin to move. The ‘sleepers’ of ice start to shed and suddenly you notice you can see everything clearly.

After hiking 4-5 kilometers, we finally can see Pic Carlit. At this point, we are a little discouraged because we can see that it is covered with snow. Much more than anticipated and we felt frustrated that we may not have the right mountain gear. We needed to get closer to assess the conditions.

As we got nearer to the upper mountain, we could see that we’d have to cross a pretty steep snow slope. In crampons and with an ice ax, and a rope, this crossing could be really quite safe and enjoyable. In tennis shoes, it could be lethal. We started up to check out the conditions. Once we were up about 60 feet, we could see that while the footing was possible, it was pretty icy and one slip could start a slide that could not be arrested with the gear we have. So we made the hard decision to turn around. We were 9/10ths of the way to the top!

We decided to climb around a little on a sub-peak, and make the dedications to the patients. The climb was actually a loop, so we came back a different way and saw another handful of lakes. It was an incredibly beautiful experience and we thought of all the cancer patients on their journeys and wish them the best.

Many frozen lakes with Pic Carlit in the background

The streams were cold and created fantastic ice cicles