C) Perdiguero Massif

The Perdiguero Massif, together with the Gourgs Blancs, Claravide and Lézat sectors, has around 40 peaks over 3,000 metres high, forming the borderline between Spain and France. Its morphology and altitude made it possible during the Little Ice Age to concentrate 426.4 ha of ice (18% of the Pyrenean ice) in this massif, making it the second massif with the greatest glacial extension of the whole chain, surpassed only by Aneto-Maladeta.

The peaks of Perdiguero (3,222 m), Maupás (3,109 m), Crabioules (3,116 m), Seil de la Baquo (3,103 m) and Gourgs Blancs (3,129 m) are some of the most outstanding. All of them are named after some of the glaciers that surround them.

Although it may seem incredible given the current conditions, the massif was home to 4 of the 15 largest glaciers in the Pyrenees. The joint glacier of the Portillon d’Oô (35th), Seil de la Baquo Est (36th) and Oô Ouest (37th), ranked 3rd. Crabioules (30, 31 and 32) was 6th. That of Gourgs Blancs (38) was 12th, and that of Boum-Mail Barrat (27 and 28) was 14th.

At the beginning of the 1980s, 20 devices were inventoried, 11 of them classified as glaciers and the other 9 as ice fields, representing the largest group of the 12 Pyrenean massifs with glacial ice. The French slope was home to 13 of them and the remaining 7 were in the Aragonese valleys of Literola, Remuñé and Estós.

In the four decades since then, 14 of the inventoried devices have become extinct, the Seil de la Baquo East glacier being the only one to maintain its glacier status.  Today, all the remaining glaciers and glaciers of this massif are in French territory. The last remaining glacier ice on the Spanish side became extinct in 2022. It is estimated that the current glacier ice extent of this massif is 7.1 ha, which represents a 98.3% reduction since the end of the Little Ice Age. This massif now occupies 5th place in terms of ice extent among the Pyrenean massifs as a whole.

The location of the remaining glaciers and the locations of the extinct glaciers are located in the most protected areas of the massif.