Tayte Pollmann’s Tuesday Trail Tip – French Pyrénées Edition

Tayte Pollmann’s Tuesday Trail Tips series of articles are supported by American Trail Running Association corporate member Nike Trail Running. Tayte is currently living, training and definitely not cow tipping in the French Pyrénées.

Mountains are unpredictable and require you to be a little more flexible.  This weeks trail running pro tip is inspired by my training this past weekend in the French Pyrénées mountains. The Pyrénées were full of unexpected events.  I saw small mountain villages with higher populations of goats than people, I watched out for cows and donkeys on high speed twisty roads, I followed trails that suddenly turned into rivers of snow-melt, and I hiked and ran through weather that could change within minutes from hot and sunny to hail and rain.

My lesson from these experiences is that in the mountains your plans should be flexible.  For example, Sunday morning I woke up early to reach a high altitude lake near La Mongie before the afternoon storms.  I made it close to the lake, but hail, thunder, and deep snow patches kept me from getting there and I had to settle for a turn-around near a lower lake and a nice lunch afterwards in a lower valley by a river.  This adventure was maybe not exactly as I had planned, but I learned the mountains don’t disappoint when you are willing to be flexible.

– Tayte Pollmann, Nike Trail Running – #TayteOnTrails

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