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| East end of Pena de Oreol |
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| No navigation skills required |
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| Thunder in the high Pirineos |
17-07-2013
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| From the north |
Pena de
Oreol
Iberian prominence number 48, 1770m P892, Major N42.52030 W0.54232
Being a mid
day week and a hill that is away from the exciting high Pirineos I had visions
of a lonely day on a not much visited hill.
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| Pena de Oreol from carpark |
To my surprise the large carpark at
the Refugio Mirador de Oreol N42.52775
W0.53172 (1180m) was full and there were families at all the picnic tables. And
as I set off up the mountain side I met quite a lot of people coming down – I
was late starting as I had been doing the supermarket run.
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| Dappled sunlight |
The sun was shining
here – but certainly not in the thundercloud covered high Pirineos – however,
for much of the ascent it was dappled because of the trees.
 |
| Not quite Striding Edge |
The path finally
zigzagged its way to a collado at N42.51807 W0.52735 (1654m). From here there
are three options: a path that literally follows the top of the ridge; an escape
path that runs alongside and a wider path that traverses the side of the ridge
lower down. I took the top one – they all meet up again later. The ridge and
the steep northern and western faces seem to consist of rounded beach pebbles
loosely set in sandstone.
The summit
of Pena de Oreol is marked by a trigpoint and an ugly looking black metal
cross. And I had it to myself, everyone else had gone down. The views were very
good, if a bit hazy. I wandered over to the west end at 1751m before returning
by the ascent route – except I used the traverse path back along the ridge. I
didn’t bother visiting the Ermita – when you have seen one ermita, you’ve seen
them all. The carpark was nearly empty.
 |
| Summit from east |
9km 650m
total ascent
Overnight in
car park, Torla N42.62416 W0.11177 (1006m)
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Sunset over Pena de Oreol
|
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| The world's favourite cookie - apparently |
The path finally
zigzagged its way to a collado at N42.51807 W0.52735 (1654m). From here there
are three options: a path that literally follows the top of the ridge; an escape
path that runs alongside and a wider path that traverses the side of the ridge
lower down. I took the top one – they all meet up again later. The ridge and
the steep northern and western faces seem to consist of rounded beach pebbles
loosely set in sandstone.
The summit
of Pena de Oreol is marked by a trigpoint and an ugly looking black metal
cross. And I had it to myself, everyone else had gone down. The views were very
good, if a bit hazy. I wandered over to the west end at 1751m before returning
by the ascent route – except I used the traverse path back along the ridge. I
didn’t bother visiting the Ermita – when you have seen one ermita, you’ve seen
them all. The carpark was nearly empty.
9km 650m
total ascent
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