Planès valley - la Conca - Cambre d'Ase

Map: IGN 1: 25,000 2250 ET (Bourg-Madame Mont-Louis)
START: St-Pierre-dels-Forcats ski station. We follow the GR36 (red-and-white waymarks), which is following a forest track eastward, just above the ski station car park.
Where the track becomes a path, we leave the GR36 and we turn right into the forest. We follow a path which is on a waymarked mountain bike circuit. The path climbs for some distance.
We reach another forest track. We turn left and we follow this track. The track eventually descends towards the Planès valley.
At the end of the track, we go straight ahead on a path. The path crosses a stream (the Planès Riu), and then the path starts to climb.
At a path junction, we go to the right. We follow the path (which has yellow waymarks) up the wild and beautiful Planès valley.
We reach the Estany de Planès, a small and lovely lake at the end of the forest.
The yellow waymarks end here, but the path continues beyond the lake. We follow the path (which is marked by occasional stone cairns) further up the valley.
We climb to the lip of an immensely rugged mountain basin at the head of the Planès valley called la Conca.
We turn right. We continue to follow the path, which climbs steeply. The path then traverses the side of the mountain, still climbing.
The path brings us to the edge of another huge mountain basin (a grazing area for izards - Pyrenean chamois).
Here we turn left and we follow the line of a minor ridge across occasional boulders, with the mountain basin on our right.
We reach the Serrat de les Fonts, at 2775m altitude. The imposing peak of Torre d'Eina is to the left (south), and beyond that are peaks along the France-Spain frontier.
We turn right and we follow a well-used path northward along a major ridge towards the summit of Cambre d'Ase. The Eyne valley (a famous nature reserve) is down below on the left.
Cambre d'Ase is at the junction of two ridges, at the head of another gigantic mountain basin, surrounded by vertiginous cliffs. We follow the western ridge (to the left).
The path is later marked by large stone cairns. We eventually reach the top of a ski slope.
We descend by following the ski slope. The ski slope takes us back into the forest.
After a long and sometimes quite steep descent on the ski slope, we reach the ski station car park at the start of the walk.
(A pdf version of this walk description is at:
http://www.walks-vernetlesbains-canigou.eu/wikiloc/planes-valley-cambre-d-ase.pdf,
or click on 'View more' below.)