Camp
Overview

Price: €2,495
Ages: 15 – 18 years
Duration: 13 days
Start and end: Barcelona

EPIC PYRENE EXPLORER
Challenge level: 8.5
Dates: June 29th to July 11th

Discover the wildest corners of the Pyrenees in a 2-week journey through majestic forests of black pines and firs. Swim in turquoise lakes and climb iconic peaks over 3,000 meters high.

Sleep under the stars and make friends from around the world on this unique expedition through the Alt Pirineu and Aigüestortes – Estany de Sant Maurici Natural Parks. This is a true adventure where you’ll learn to navigate and fend for yourself in high-mountain terrain.

The group is limited to 15 young adventurers, accompanied by 3 experienced Pyrenean guides. We will sleep in both guarded and unguarded shelters, in tents, and—weather permitting—bivouac under the stars. Support will be provided by Pyrene vehicles and public transportation.

Designed for bold and adventurous teens, this challenge will push your limits. Conquer storms, heat, glaciers, and steep climbs—each step will test your toughness. Along the way, the peace of the mountains, the fellowship of new friends, and the guidance of our expert team will lead you to the finish line.

Discover the Full Journey

Curious about what’s in store each day? This 12-day itinerary isn’t just a scenic walk — it’s a true physical challenge designed for experienced hikers. With long ascents, high mountain passes, and demanding terrain, each stage will push your limits and reward your effort with spectacular views and a deep sense of achievement. From sunrise starts to summit finishes, every step is part of a journey that requires endurance, preparation, and determination. Below, you’ll find a map highlighting the key points of the route to help you visualize the scope of this mountain adventure.


Ready to dive deeper into the adventure? Click the button below to explore the full 12-day itinerary, with detailed descriptions of each day’s route, elevation, highlights, and accommodations. Prepare yourself for every step of this challenging and unforgettable journey through the Pyrenees.

Start: Barcelona Airport
End: Pyrene basecamp (1,900m), Cerdanya Valley

Welcome to the Pyrenees! Just this afternoon, we departed Barcelona and now stand at the Pyrene base camp in the beautiful Cerdanya Valley. We all feel the excitement and enthusiasm, the best mix of feelings to begin this 14-day-long adventure through the Pyrenees. We are 18 participants who arrived from all over the world, so we get to know each other with quick games, first laughs, and shy conversations. After, we begin our first briefing, hand out rentals out, and double check our packing list. Tonight we look forward to a traditional Catalan meal at the camp, galets soup and potato omelet. Good food makes us feel a bit more at home despite the distance, the altitude, and the new faces.

Start: Engorgs Refuge (2,378m), Cerdanya Valley
End: Illa Refuge (2,488m), Andorra Valley

We begin to let go and gain confidence with our expedition mates, who are now friends. We woke this morning at Engorgs Free Refuge, some of us slept inside the shelter, while accompanied by a shrew that ate our oatmeal flakes around midnight. Others preferred to bivouac outside, under the stars…enjoying the breathtaking night sky. The Milky Way, the Big and the Little Dipper and Cassiopeia, and the many, many, more stars are amazing! Down at the creek we wash our faces with refreshing cold water, and realize the great adventure we are living. We eat breakfast with enthusiasm, today’s meal is porridge with oatmeal, walnuts, and bananas, which will for sure provide the energy we need to reach our next destination, Refuge de l’Illa in Andorra!

Start: Pal Village, Andorra Valley
End: Comapedrosa Refuge (2,260m), Andorra Valley

Only five days together, and it seems like we’ve known each other for a lifetime! We’re starting to have a more natural flow to our routine, we complete day-to-day tasks faster, and we set up the tents in 5′. Our backpacks are fully loaded with food again; yesterday we took provisions at Encamp Village, and our legs are a little bit soar today. This evening we will have dinner and sleep in the guarded refuge of Comapedrosa knowing tomorrow we will reach its summit at 2,943m. At the very top, we will be standing highest point in Andorra, it’s quite a natural spectacle. The refuge host, Margaret, helps us appreciate the area while she prepares dinner for us. Wouldn’t it be nice to take care of a mountain refuge?

Start: Amitges Refuge (2,365m), Aigüestortes National Park
End: Refugi Colomers (2,135m), Aran Valley

For a couple of days, we’ve been hiking the Aigüestortes National Park, and it’s been a festival for the senses! Lakes everywhere are surrounded by steep peaks 3,000 meters high. We know that what we are living is unique, so we try to capture this beauty to be able to describe it later to our family and our friends from high school. Happily we leave our large backpacks in the refuge and climb up to Bassiero Peak (2,903m); the views from up here are impressive; how easily we have climbed with so little weight! On our way back, we pick up our backpacks and head towards the Port of Ratera. Tonight we will camp in front of the Colomers lake, and tomorrow…embark towards the famous Montardo (2,833m), the Aran Valley awaits us!

Start: Conangles Refuge (1,550m), Barravés Valley
End: Restanca Refuge (2,138m) Benasque Valley

Aneto Peak is at the heart of our adventure for the next few days, it’s far from Mulleres Peak (3.010m), but we can appreciate its massive size. We follow the trail that brings us to Renclusa Refuge, enjoying the views of Aneto and Maladeta’s Glacier. After settling down in this charming refuge, we’ll do a technical briefing explaining all the details of tomorrow’s ascent to reach Aneto Peak (3.404m), the highest point of the Pyrenees mountain range. In addition, we look at the weather forecast, open mountain maps, and listen excitedly to our mountain guides’ instructions. It’s time to pack our backpacks again while trying to avoid unnecessary weight to allow the fitting of the crampons, harness, and ice axe. Tonight is an early dinner and bedtime, because tomorrow we’ll be hiking before the sun rises.

*Reaching the summit of Aneto can be tricky when considering bad weather and/or not ideal physical or mental conditions of campers. Because of that, we will plan a less demanding alternative route on this day in case the conditions are not ideal.

Start: Benasque Village
End: Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona by bus, the city is so hot in July! We all have a strange and misplaced feeling after having spent 14 days walking through the highest peaks of the Pyrenees. We will enjoy an ice cream at the famous Passeig de Gràcia while staring at Gaudí’s building La Pedrera. We will enjoy a nice walk through the city to old downtown where we will enjoy a celebration dinner and then a well-deserved bath at the beach. We admit our shared thought; we don’t want to go home, we give each other our phone numbers and Instagram accounts. Inside we hope of see each other again in some corner of the world. Who knows where. Are you ready for the next adventure?

NEED TO KNOW

Includes

  • Full Board Accommodation, from dinner on the first day to breakfast on the last day
  • Transportation with Pyrene vehicles and/or by contracting external taxi services or public transport to link stages, start or end the expedition.
  • Specific material to carry out the program
  • Monitoring 24 hours a day
  • Accident insurance

Does not include

  • Arrival in Barcelona before starting the expedition.
  • Return home from Barcelona at the end of the expedition.
  • For participants from outside the European Union, it does not include health insurance.

Information for participants from outside the EU

  • Must have a valid passport with a visa to be in the European Union during the duration of the expedition.
  • Must have a travel health insurance to cover cover illnesses that may occur during the expedition. The Accidents insurance is included with Pyrene coverage for all participants regardless of whether they are from the EU or from outside the EU.

FAQS

We’ve been doing teen hiking trips in the last 15 years and out of all, this is our most challenging expedition. 13-day hike through the Pyrenees reaching mountain peaks over 3.000 meters is tough, but we believe that if you are a motivated and moderately fit teenager you are able to do it and, most important, enjoy it. We hike an average of 15 km per day, our longest hike being 20 km. Camp leaders and mates will always be giving a hand and making the challenge doable.

All the food, transportation, and necessities that you may have during the journey from the moment we leave Barcelona until the return at the end of the trekking are covered by the registration fee. In the “Relevant information” section you will find detailed everything that is included, what is not included, and other important information to take into account.

You can bring a maximum of €40 if you want to buy an ice cream, a soda or a souvenir when we pass through towns along the route.

The camp begins on Sunday at noon in Barcelona and finishes 13 days later, on Friday afternoon, in Barcelona as well.

TIME AND MEETING POINT IN BARCELONA – SUNDAY 29th JUN
We will have a first meeting point in Terminal 1 of Barcelona airport – Arrivals  (the Square) – at 12:30pm
We will have a second meeting point at the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona – at 1:45pm – https://goo.gl/maps/DntFFtMrK77AJrLJA
TIME AND PICK-UP POINT – FRIDAY 11th JUL
We will arrive in Barcelona at noon, have a farewell lunch and swim on the beach. Then we will go to Barcelona airport to accompany those who have to fly back home. Pick up will be at 4pm at San Sebastià Beach – at the Sports Park

We will sleep in guarded and free shelters, tents, and if the weather permits, we will also bivouac under the stars.

Every day we will post on our blog a short story explaining our daily adventures, with some pictures of the day as well. On Day 7 you will be able to talk over the phone with your child, participants will call their parents using trip leaders phones. If you have to contact your child urgently, you can call at anytime our office phone +34 659 642 794, and we will connect as soon as possible with the group.

During the camp we’ll be taking pictures of the activities. You’ll find them here.

A Pyrene staff member will be on Day 1 at Barcelona Airport welcoming and receiving students. Meeting hour is 12.30 pm. If your child comes from outside Barcelona, arriving by plane or train, let us know and we will give you detailed information about how to proceed. Once everybody arrives, we will begin the adventure heading us by train to Cerdanya Valley in the eastern Pyrenees.

Two weeks before the start of the expedition we will call you in a virtual meeting to get to know each other, present the program, and answer any questions you may have.

Here you can find the packing list with everything you will need for the camp. If you don’t have some of the equipment you can use our rental service.

If you rent our material you will have it prepared at the base camp whenever you arrive. We have sleeping bags, backpacks, mats, and bivouac covers… of quality and specific for the activities that we will do. Rent the material you need by clicking here.

Luckily we’ve been running Pyrene teen expeditions and summer camps continuously since 2010. We have a high commitment with our students and trips were done even during the pandemic. Hopefully this summer our trips and camps will be running as usual! If for any reason we have to cancel any of our trips, yes, you will get your money back. In case you ask for a cancellation, you’ll get a 100% refund when cancelling prior to 45 days to the beginning of the expedition.

If you decide to cancel the reservation for any reason, you will recover 100% of the amount you have paid (both the down payment and the second payment) as long as you request the cancellation 45 days before starting the journey.

If you are a large or a single-parent family you benefit from a 5% discount. You must send us a photo of the card in each case to [email protected].

You can make the second payment until 2 weeks before the start of the expedition.