The conquest of the Posets

ByEnrique López Mondragón

Conquering the summit, attacking the summit... the mountaineers simply prefer to talk about trying or similar expressions, but I have always been fascinated by the somewhat warlike aura, somewhere between heroic and romantic, that surrounds the literature of the first ascents to the great summits, of extraordinary mountaineers and better human beings.

The year is 1856, most of the great Pyrenean mountains have been "conquered", Monte Perdido in 1791*, Vignemale in 1798**, Aneto in 1842 and so on, one after the other, but the Posets, the second highest mountain in the Pyrenees, a mountain with almost perfect lines, still remains virgin. However, the Posets, the second highest peak in the Pyrenees, a mountain with almost perfect lines, still remains virgin. Was it considered an impossible undertaking? Perhaps its isolated, huge position, with its sharp, kilometric edges and cracked glaciers (at that time), managed to repel any attempt by its pretenders? (Russel compared it to the Himalayas in 1875).

In reality, there was nothing epic about the Viceroy's conquest. Despite the presentation, the Llardana, whose meaning in the local language is "burnt" due to its unique ochre tones, failed to impress any of the travellers who managed to see it at that time, nor did it attract any adventurous aristocrats. And so, with a few mentions here and there, the Posets went largely unnoticed until 1856, even though in 1832, Coraboeuf had already estimated its height at 3,363 m, which made it the second highest peak in the Pyrenees, as it is, but not even then. In that year, the guides Pierre Redonnet Nate and Pierre Barrau managed to identify an easy ascent route. A summit to offer to the wealthy tourists who visited the Pyrenean resorts at that time. The "chosen one" to go down in the history of the Pyrenean giant was an Englishman, Henry Halkett. There was no heroic tale of that ascent, nor dragons, nor Mohammed BridgeIt was simply that on 6 August 1856, probably via Batisielles and the Col de la Paul, that our three protagonists climbed up and down.

*Although Ramond de Carbonnières is "officially" credited with the first ascent of Monte Perdido in 1802, it is very likely that Vicente de Heredia and his team climbed it in 1791 during the topographical work to delimit the border.

** The same is true of the Vignemale, which, although the first ascent of the Vignemale has officially gone down in history as the first ascent of Lady Lister in 1838It is quite likely that shepherds commissioned by Junker (a colleague of V. de Heredia on the French side) went up in 1798 to erect an aiming turret.

If you want to know more about the history of the Posets you may be interested: