Tag Archives: bm271bis

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.

Bm271bis: a nightmare

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Well, it’s a nightmare for Jesús Murueta. He has ‘done’ the esfr-bordermarkers 1-272 in the years 2000-2003, finding all these bordermarkers or getting an old picture of the few markers which are are lost. See this post for his story and to download his extensive account.

There’s one exception: bm271bis. It was a bordercross on the isolated and rough ridge of Añelarra near Pic d’Anie.  It has long been reported (on the French topographic maps) as being destroyed and no one in the last decennia has found any trace of it and we have NO old pictures. This keeps haunting  Jesus Murueta: a picture would fulfill his bordermarker-quest. Who can help him?

But there’s an important question: what was in fact the location of bm271bis? The esfr-border follows in this part of the karst-plateau a a zigzag-line with a straight part on the Añelarra-ridge for a few hundred meters.Let’s show it on this Google-Earth map:

The Añelarra-ridge has two summits. Bm271 is at the western summit and nowadays we find a geodesic  marker of Navarra, close to it (with D.F.N. on it = Diputación Foral de Navarra). That makes sense. The second summit is at ± 240m to the east and could make a logical location for bm271bis. Here we find today an iron plaque with the contour of Navarra and a large cairn.

But the topographical and historical evidence is different! The original treaty says that bm271bis is 360 meters from bm271 on the same ridge. But we have to acknowledge that the distances between the previous bordermarkers 262-271 – as mentioned in the treaty – are often unreliable.
The location of bm271bis on the IGN-maps is ± 310m from bm271 when following the ridge.  And that position makes more sense.  The ridge descends and bends slowly in the direction of Pic d’Anie. It’s a logical/natural place for the borderline to bend southwards and descend towards Col d’Anaye. Let’s zoom in:

I have to return and do a new search, now focussed on the lower half of the red circle. The upper half and center of the circle, I searched thoroughly on this trip.