Several years traveling alone through the Pyrenees and the Catalan Pre-Pyrenees have given rise to a hiking proposal with multiple variants, the Travessa Integral Catalana (TICA, edited by Piolet), of 640 kilometers divided into 33 stages, in its most demanding version. Joan Mirabet, the creator of it, is a kind of globe-trotting hermit, an austere character who lives between a secluded pre-Pyrenean cave and the Prades mountains.
Your TICA adds to the increasingly generous offer of mountain tours with options for all tastes and levels. The project began to take shape in the summer of 2013 when Mirabet dedicated 62 days to completing a circular itinerary between L’Escala, in Alt Empordà, and the Val d’Aran. This was the starting point, the outline from which I would redefine the final route. The TICA begins in Tortellà, in the Garrotxa region, to then enter Ripollès, Berguedà, Alt Urgell, Pallars Jussà, Pallars Sobirà, Andorra and Cerdanya. In addition to the most mountainous route, the aforementioned one of 640 kilometers with 34,364 meters of positive slope, between the Pre-Pyrenees and the Pyrenees, the guide describes other more affordable alternatives and also 23 circuits of between one and six days.
True to his spartan and solitary lifestyle, Mirabet walks alone and does not usually stop at shelters or hostels to spend the night. He prefers to spend the night outdoors in his tent and reserve time for contemplation. He assumes that enjoying the freedom of stopping wherever he pleases comes at a price: attaching a voluminous 20 to 25 kilo backpack to his back. In addition to the bag, clothing, material and the tent, she also carries the necessary provisions to feed herself for several days. “I am very frugal, I have realized that you can survive by eating very little. In order not to have to carry a stove, during the crossing my diet was “cold”; I ate bread, cheese, sausages, crackers, cereals, peanuts, honey and instant soup with unheated water. It is enough to have the necessary energy, I have learned to manage fatigue,” says Mirabet, 57, who understands the journeys as a pilgrimage, in which the walker enjoys but also faces hardships that lead him to do his part. “more warrior.” These types of adventures are addictive and empowering, he emphasizes.
“I always go alone, I spend entire days without meeting anyone. Preparing this route I have recovered a lost path, between the Esplà free refuge, in Baix Pallars, and the access track to the Solduga hamlet, just one kilometer long. I have also cleaned many other marked trails,” details the author of TICA. The saw is also not missing from his backpack.
At the age of 21, after leaving his degree in Biology, he traveled through Asia, Australia and Latin America with more or less long stops in different countries to work and finance the long journey. She has also traveled the Peninsula to help with field work on farms. Now he is in charge of the maintenance of two mountain farms, which allows him to have a lot of free time to go on his journeys and face life at a leisurely pace. “Contemplate, walk, eat, sleep” is his mantra when he is in the country. mountain.
He considers that his TICA makes the difference compared to other proposals due to the fact that the hiker “can take a route à la carte.”
