{"id":40055,"date":"2024-02-27T13:46:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travesiapirenaica.com\/?p=40055"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:28:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T12:28:06","slug":"mahomet-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travesiapirenaica.com\/en\/mahomet-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Muhammad Pass or Muhammad Bridge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohammed Pass, Mohammed Bridge... is it one, is it the other, is it the same? Well, the correct answer is Mohammed Bridge<\/strong> and no, it doesn't matter what you call it, don't make that mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mohammed Bridge<\/strong> is a narrow horizontal ridge of about 40 metres in distance separating the top of the Anet<\/strong>or from the summit itself. It is a narrow stretch of ridge on granite blocks, which, although not difficult, is a bit of a challenge for people unaccustomed to this type of passages due to the drop on both sides. A frequent occurrence, on the other hand, on the crowded roof of the Pyrenees, which has recently left us with viral images of long queues to cross it (nothing new, as in 1857, L\u00e9zat and five other companions led 22 tourists to the summit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is that from the middle of the 20th century, probably due to the great affluence of this place and because in the mountains we usually use the word \"paso\" to designate an isolated climbing difficulty, \"Puente\" began to be replaced by \"Paso\", and used interchangeably. The repeated repetition of the error made it become part of our vocabulary and today there are those who knowingly do not give up and even justify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let's go back to the origin. To find out why the correct designation is Mohammed Bridge<\/strong> and not Mohammed Pass<\/strong>We have to go back to the year 1842, to the first ascent of Aneto by a Russian soldier, Platon de Tchihatcheff, his local guide Jean-Pierre Sanyou (Pierre Sanio) and the porters Bernard Arrazu \"Ursule\" and Pierre Redonnet \"Nate\", who were joined almost by chance by a Norman botanist called Albert de Franqueville and his guide Jean Sors \"Aragot\", the latter being a fighter of Spanish origin. A first ascent that fortunately left us two written testimonies for history and where, precisely, in the one published by the botanist Albert de Franqueville, we find the reason for the denomination of Mohammed Bridge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the original text published by Franqueville three years after the first ascent and of which there is a booklet in French (First ascent of N\u00e9thou<\/a>) which contains it, we have not had access to it, however, from very early on various authors collected extensive extracts and today we can find it in numerous publications translated into Spanish, such as in The Conquest of the Pyrenees<\/a> by Marcos Feli\u00fa (Sua edizioak), in Pyrenean summits<\/a> by Claude Dendaletche (Sua edizioak) or in the monographic issue of the Aneto: The Monarch of the Pyrenees<\/a> by Alberto Martinez Embid (Ediciones Desnivel).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the latter text we reproduce an excerpt from Franqueville's original:<\/p>\n\n\n