The thread is getting long and the weather on the passes of the Napoleon route will have improved within a short time. But there is something I'd like to point out. While it may have snowed in other parts of the Camino Francés at higher altitude, too, the situation between SJPP and Roncesvalles is unique.
There have been fatalities on this section. A regional newspaper article claims that the most common reasons are natural causes like heart attack, heatstroke, getting lost and hypothermia.
It is difficult to know how and why something has happened because often there is just an initial news report without any follow-up. Speculation is then ripe. In January 2002, a pilgrim was last seen near the Bentarte pass and was found dead 10 days later. In April of the same year, another pilgrim disappeared and was found dead days later in Ortzanzurieta which would indicate that he lost his way, possibly in bad weather, near the Lepoeder pass. There were also numerous cases in the past where pilgrims got caught in very cold weather, got injured because they had fallen or slipped, and would have been in danger to limb and life had they not been rescued, always in adverse weather conditions and at higher altitude.
Much has been done by the Spanish authorities to prevent such incidents. A fairly short section of the Route Napoleon has been equipped with an infrastructure that must be unique in the Pyrenees and the Alps. A small solid building has been built as a shelter with an emergency phone - at the relatively modest altitude of below 1500 m, at a distance of not more than 5 km - barely an hour to walk - from a major road and habitations!!! Some 200 wooden poles, numbered, have been installed - I know this only for roads with car traffic (helps the snow ploughs to find their way) and not for foot paths!!! Even two WiFi stations have been installed at the start end and end of the 5 km section!!! The ban for everyone to walk between November and March was introduced a few years and gets renewed every year.
All these infrastructure efforts - and also helped by the fact that many pilgrims carry nowadays a working mobile phone and can call for help when exhausted or injured in any weather - have reduced very serious incidents in recent years.
However, hardly a week passes without reports that the first responder teams had to come and assist pilgrims on the Route Napoleon. These teams are in danger of becoming or being regarded as a taxi service. Or perhaps the road from Lepoeder to Ibañeta will receive a better surface and taxis will indeed roll up and down for pilgrims. Then you can be driven up to the Croix Thibault, can say that you walked over the Pyrenees for an hour or so, and be driven down to Roncesvalles. Is that what we want?
I don't participate in these threads to make fun of foolish behaviour or of advice that may sound exaggerated. I participate because I hope in some small ways to help the Burguete Bomberos to concentrate on their main job: first response in the case of serious traffic accidents and dealing with fire in buildings, especially chimney fires.
There are pilgrims who are very unfamiliar with the climate, with the deciphering of the weather forecast, with the territory and with simple facts of hiking outdoors in a mountainous area. They are from a far away region and walk on their first day. I believe in people being able to make informed decisions when they are well informed and can better judge their situation, their capabilities, the composition of their gear. And that's why I participate.