Pic d'Anie, le domaine de Jaunagorri

Lées-Athas

Seen from the cirque of Lescun, it is a grey, regular cone, the highest point of the Basque Pyrenees, set on a desert of stone split by chasms, the Arres d'Anie. The Basques call it Auñamendi, and this name once designated the whole range. In Basque mythology, the summit is the domain of Jaunagorri, the 'red lord', a spirit associated with Mari: tradition credits him with a wondrous garden, or a palace guarded by giants, where plants or fruits grow that confer immortality; whoever tries to climb up or to pick them unleashes storm and hail on the valleys. The Béarnais of Lescun put it in their own way: in 1816, Latapie and Flamichon are said, according to Wikipedia, to have reported that 'this mountain is the arsenal where the sorcerers, the magicians, the makers of storms gather', who hurl them on the plains 'to punish or favour whomever they please'. Taine, in 1855, places a 'giant clothed in fire' on the Pic d'Anie in his legend of Bos de Bénac. It is related that the fear was strong enough for the inhabitants of Lescun to forbid the mountain to a scholar who came to measure it, a surveyor around 1750 according to some, Borda shortly before the Revolution according to others; the first known ascent, by the engineer-geographer Flamichon, dates from 28 July 1771. According to Barandiaran, some at Lescun saw in Jaunagorri a figure of Mari; folklorists note that the palace of a spirit on a summit is a motif common to the whole of the Pyrenees.

Wikipédia — Pic d'Anie ↗

Getting there : From Lescun, road up to the Abérouat refuge (1,442 m), car park. The path follows the GR 10 through the Braca d'Azuns wood and the foot of the Camplong organ-pipes to the Cap de la Baitch hut, then climbs towards the Lac d'Anie and, by cairns, across the limestone pavement to the summit: about 3 h of ascent and 2 h 30 of descent for 1,060 m of climbing, a few easy scrambling moves. A summer outing, to be avoided in fog, as the track is lost in the karst. Other starting points: the La Pierre-Saint-Martin resort by the Arres d'Anie, or Belagua, on the Navarrese side.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound