The Pessons lakes, a glacial cirque just behind the car park

Few people who park at Grau Roig in summer realise what’s behind them. Beyond the woods around the car park opens the Pessons cirque, a granite bowl of stepped lakes that Andorra Turisme calls one of the most spectacular and best-known glacial landscapes in the country. Better still, you can do it in pieces, from an hour to a long half day.

Finding the cirque

The cirque sits above Grau Roig in the parish of Encamp, inside the Grandvalira ski area. Everything starts at the Cubil car park in the Grau Roig sector, next to which the council has a picnic area at 2,080 m. Grau Roig isn’t a village but a ski-area base with a hotel and car parks, which I cover in Grau Roig.

Coming from Andorra la Vella or Encamp, Grau Roig lies on the climb to the Port d’Envalira, before Pas de la Casa. The nearest place with rooms is Pas de la Casa itself.

What’s the walk to the first lake like?

This is the easy part and the one I’d recommend to everyone. Andorra Turisme gives it 1.5 km and 200 m up and down. From the car park, leaving the chairlift behind, you head west through the woods to the Vodkabar hut, where signs lead you on to the lake. There’s no technical difficulty, which leaves you free to take in the woodland and whatever lives in it.

As you leave the trees, the first lake opens up in front of you. Following the shore brings you to the far side, where there’s a restaurant that the official sheets name in two different ways, so I’ll just say there is one. To come down you can use the same path or the forest track; both return you to the Cubil. It’s the stretch I’d choose for a child’s first high-mountain lake, or for anyone who wants the scenery of a glacial cirque without paying for it in sweat.

The full walk, lake by lake

With the legs for it, carrying on is well worth it. From the first lake the official route follows the GRP south and, at a junction, picks up the GR7, waymarked in red and white, along the south side of the lake. That brings you to the Rodó lake, where you get your first view of the whole group. After a gentle climb comes the Meligar lake, then a stretch of granite boulder fields to the les Fonts lake, where you’ll often hear marmots whistling.

From there the path steepens towards the last lake, Cap de Pessons, and then zigzags up to the Pessons col. The GRP sheet puts it at 2,810 m, and the view from the top takes in every lake. It’s 5.95 km with 707 m of ascent, graded hard, and 3 to 6 hours depending on your pace. This is where people underestimate the route because of the short distance.

Beyond the col

The Pessons cirque is also a crossroads. Stage three of the GRP round Andorra passes through, arriving from the l’Illa hut over the highest point of the whole loop, 2,829 m, just before the col, before descending to Pla de les Pedres, a basic unstaffed hut.

Going the other way, the route to the Estany de l’Illa leaves Grau Roig, crosses the cirque, passes the Forcat lake and the Solana lakes and tops the Portella dels Pessons before dropping to the second largest lake in the country. It’s 8.66 km that Andorra Turisme marks as experts only. For climbers, the Pic de Ribuls above the cirque has a small granite crag.

Timing and a few precautions

As with every route above 1,700 m, Andorra Turisme recommends it from late June to late September, and May or October only in a kind year. In winter the cirque is part of the ski area and belongs to snowshoers and ski tourers, not walkers.

I’d set off early, because summer storms tend to arrive in the afternoon, as the Andorran police point out in their mountain safety advice. For information beforehand, the Encamp tourist office is on (+376) 731 000. And remember the GHIC is no use in Andorra, so don’t walk without travel insurance. If you’re left wanting more water, I compare the other cirques and tarns in lakes in Andorra.