Category Archives: News 2025

Sébastien did his last bordermarker today: 322

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Many congratulations for Sébastien Marc who completed today his quest to do all esfr-bordermarkers. Together with cousin & bm-buddy Jérôme Loubière he climbed to Port de Barroude for bm322.

It took him 29 years from his very first bm332 at Port de Vénasque up to this last one where the obligatory bottle of champagne was uncorkened with much pleasure.

He writes on Strava about his quest: “Lots of happiness, excitement, discovery, kilometers in the mountains… believe in your dreams.” And let’s not forget: Sébastien already made himself a legend by discovering the lost bm271bis. He also introduced an Excel-sheet to keep count of your bordermarkers, very helpful. We hope you won’t forget the Pyrenees.

With Sébastien finishing, there are 3 current ‘competitors’ left: Jérôme Loubière, Didier Roux and Pierre Gallart. We wish them a lot of luck for 2026.

Carlos & Conchita are done: all bordermarkers visited!

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Carlos and Conchita Roca have succeeded today in their goal: visiting all esfr-bordermarkers.

The one of today – 330bis – was the last of a 4-weeks sprint to finish their project. From Bielsa / Aragnouet (325-329 and 322) to Refuge Wallon (313 & 314) to Lescun (272) to Col de Somport (296) to Le Plan (329 & 330) and finally to Benasque for no. 330bis.

Those were not the easy ones, each requiring one day of strenuous hiking and climbing. As usual with the ‘chasseurs des bornes’, they kept the difficult ones for the end. Bm330bis was done together with their son David and his ‘novia’ Noella. Also Pierre Gallart joined them and he took this photo:

 

Carlos and Conchita are now very happy and also relieved to have fulfilled their quest. It took them 10 years to do. And though as pensionados still in good health and shape, the years take their toll anyway. Congratulations for both of you. Now you can – as Carlos told me – retire for the second time and return to the status of ‘normal tourists’.

By the way, they are not the only ones to finish this year:  Sébastien Marc has only 1 or 2 bordermarkers to go and Pierre Gallart about 17 markers. And than there is Didier Roux who hopes to finish in october with his last three markers. See this blog-post.

BREAKING NEWS: bm271bis discovered by Sébastien Marc

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I was very surprised by the message yesterday of Sébastien Marc that he had found bm271bis on the Añelarra-ridge near La Pierre Saint-Martin. I searched for bm271bis for four times – first time in 2011 – and I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t find it.

Bm271bis has been missing for at least decades. On older French maps it was indicated as ‘détruite’ = destroyed and situated on the map at about 310m from bm271 which could fit with the 360m distance as described by the Treaty.

But Sébastien found it much closer to bm271, approximately at 200 meters to the E. And I fully understand that he was thrilled to find it. The bordercross is in excellent shape and resembles the 271-cross.

But where is it exactly? Let’s first show this video-frame (also from Sébastien) taken from Pic d’Anie and looking SW. We see two elongated summits. On the right is bm271 (a bit down the ridge at the Spanish side), on the left side is the summit of Pico de Añelarra.

The coordinates of bm271bis are 42.939467, -0.731739 (based on Sébastien’s gps-track and coordinates). Description of Sébastien: “from 271 go back E and after the ‘pass’ between the two elongated summits, you start climbing the summit of Pico de Añelarra. After ± 45m there is very small pass or lowering of the ridge. Bm271bis is located just after it on the French side on a large rock, less than a few meters from the ridge.

In one week, I will travel to the Pyrenees and I will try to squeeze bm271bis into my schedule. Thank you, Sébastien, for sharing your discovery so quickly. You have only four bordermarkers to go and this discovery is real treat to your project.

New update of grpdesbf.nl / my Pyrenees-project getting to an end

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I’m proud and  also a bit ashamed of my last update. It took me almost a year to update my website with the trips I did last year in august and september. My excuse: I am retired ergo busy. The update-page is a good starting point for checking this update.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within two weeks I will be back in the Pyrenees. The main target is to assist Carlos and Conchta – my cheerful friends from Barcelona – with their last 10 bordermarkers. They are not the only ones finishing this year. Sebastien Marc has only 6 markers left and there is also Didier Roux who might complete his quest in october with his last 3 bordermarkers. See also this blog-post.

I have done all bordermarkers at least twice and half of them more than 2x. A sense of ‘enough is enough’ is seeping more and more in my mind. I long for other adventures like long-distance paths in Britain and bicycle backpacking trips to the horizon. There are still some targets for spring next year (sea my to-do-list) but overall there is the desire of moving on.

But will the Pyrenees let me part that easily? After all, we loved each other for many years, the Pyrenees meant so much for me. We will see, time will tell.