Starting again from the Refuge Pyrénéa Sports, the walk up to the Lacs d'Ayous is another classic, in some ways more impressive than circling the Pic du Midi d'Ossau itself, especially if you spend the night by the lakes to get the quintessential dawn view of the peak silhouetted against the rising sun and reflected in the slaty waters of Lac Gentau.It's a steady but manageable climb south, then west from Pyrénéa Sports, which will take around two hours in all. Instead of crossing the Pont de Bious, which you'll reach after 30 minutes, turn up the GR10 to the right – a sign says "Lacs d'Ayous 1hr 30min" – through woods of pine and beech, with ever-widening views of the valley scattered with herds of horses and cows and flocks of sheep. In early summer the meadows are full of orchids and the stream banks thick with azalea-like alpenrose. Near the top, you reach three small lakes, the third and largest of which is Lac Gentau, whose reddish shallows are full of minnows that turn into the trout so sought after by numerous fishermen. On its banks there's an expanse of flat, soft meadow for camping, while above it stands the Refuge d'Ayous at 1960m (tel 05.59.05.37.00; closed mid-Sept to mid-June). Over the Col d'Ayous behind it, the GR10 continues west to the Chemin de la Mâture and the Aspe valley.
Pages in section ‘Lacs d'Ayous’: Lac d'Artouste.
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