12-05-2013
Some readers
may have noticed that thus far I have avoided the mountains in the Picos de
Europa. I now realise that it is too early in the season for my level of
competency to contemplate tackling mountains of this difficulty, especially
this year as the snow is lingering longer than is normal. Maybe I will return
later.
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| Turbina |
In the meantime there are plenty of lesser Majors to bag, like
Turbina/La Torbina 1315m P873 in the Sierra de Cuera at N43.35426 W4.77007. If
there had been a parking space available at 702m N43.33633 W4.78366 I would
have started from there. As it happened there was no room so I had to make do
with being two hundred metres lower down at 501m n43.33025 W4.77875 on a
tiny patch big enough for two vehicles.
From the higher up parking space there is a variety of routes that zig-zag steeply up on to a ridge that reminded me a
bit of the Trotternish ridge on Skye.
What was astonishing was the range of
alpine flowers growing on these slopes as Griffon Vultures circled overhead.
Once on the first ridge it is matter of working across the rising plateau of
karst limestone around a series of
sinkholes, clints and grykes.
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| Warning not to destruct the trig point - hope lightning can read. |
The main summit is marked by a cylindrical trig
point. There is another slightly lower summit close by at N43.35493 W4.77006
marked by a metal sculpture.
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| Cowaturbina |
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| Marker on alternative summit |
I descended by a similar route to my ascent route except I must have zigged when I should have zagged and there was a section when the descent became a little desperate and the Griffon vultures were beginning to feel hopeful of some tasty carrion.
10.32km, 1239m ascent.
Overnight in centre of Cangas de Otis in designated motorhome parking area.
13-05-2013
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| Pico Pienzu |
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| Asturian daffodil - Narcissus asturiensis |
Pico Pienzu
– Major 1161m P883 – in the Sierra del Sueve at N43.43183 W5.24214 is reached
by one of those cunning paths that follows the line of least resistance from
Mirador del Fitu 590m N43.43998 W5.19342. Contrary to other reports the path is
clearly waymarked much of the way.
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| View of Bay of Biscay enroute |
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| Bistort? |
And meeting others is no longer a novelty, I
met literally a coachload of teenage schoolchildren on the way. And so I
deliberately strayed from the set route towards the end and scrambled up the in
the karst limestone chaos.
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| Distort? |
The summit is marked by a cylindrical trig point and
a large unimaginativeness hideous cross. The clouds cleared occasionally to
give a partial view, including that of the Picos de Europa.
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| View from summit of Pena Corvera towards the Picos de Europa |
I varied the return
route by visiting the summits of Pena Corvera 963m N43.42540 W5.23766 and Canto
la Teya 728m N43.43043 W5.21241 on my way back to the mirador (viewpoint).
Four hours,
13.86km, 1121m ascent.
Overnight in
large car park at Tuiza de Arriba 1179m.
14-05-2013
I woke up on
this mid May day in Tuiza N43.02746 W5.91772 to find I was in thick mist (Tuiza
May – isn’t she the Home Secretary?). I thought I was in for a miserable wet
day. The route to Fontan Sur/Pena Ubina/Penya Ubina, a Major 2414m P1124
N43.01833 W5.95671 begins by following a choice of ginnels from the village up
to a grazing area at the foot of the Macizo de Pena Ubina. As I reached the
grazing area I came out of the mist to realise that I had been the victim of a
temperature inversion and all was clear above with blue skies and a splendid view
of the snowy mountains.
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| Spot the skull |
The path passes a sheepfold with a long seat on one
side at N43.02576 W5.93707 and soon afterwards the rather ugly looking Refugio
del Meicin at N43.02501 W5.93838. A price list on the door showed that the
refugio was a guarded one and offered refreshments, however it was not open today.
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| Refugio del Meicin |
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| The refugio looks OK from a distance |
JMH has
route that goes up on the north side of the main hill. However, that seemed to
involve walking up a lot of snow. I opted to go for the bealach on the south
side as it looked a bit easier. The way was quite steady up to the bealach at
N43.01487 W5.94712 with good views back towards the cloud filled valleys to the
north. It looked like the cloud stretched far over to the sea – like a sea
fret. The valleys on the south side of the hills were cloud free, though.
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| The summit from the bealach - it is steeper than it looks, though |
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| See what I mean? |
From the
bealach it was a steep climb kicking steps in firm snow with occasional deep
soft patches all the way to the summit. The summit was marked by the familiar
circular trig point and the views were excellent in all directions – except
down, of course.
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| Primula Auricula - Bear's ears |
I did consider using the JMH route as a descent, however the
cloud below had moved much further up the hillside and I thought better ‘the
devil you know’ than trying to find a way through the mist on unknown slopes.
Glissading and bumsliding down to the bealach was quite good fun, anyway – as
well as an opportunity to practice ice axe braking. Then it was back into the
mist for a similar route to that of the ascent.
12.75km, 1590m ascent.
I attempted
to drive out of Tuiza de Arriba via a road through the Puerto de la Cabilla in
very thick mist. There was a long stretch of the already narrow road where it
was half covered in knee deep old snow and I could sense, but not see, a steep
drop on the other side. At the Puerto itself the road just came to an end with
no advance warning that it was ‘cerredo’. This has happened to me a few times
now – the satnav thinks there is a road, my 2013 edition road atlas shows there
is a road, however there ain’t a viable one on the ground. In this case they
are building a new road far down the valley with tunnels through the mountains
– you’d think they would close the old road after building a new one rather
than the other way round. So it was another overnight at Tuiza de Arriba – and
it snowed during the night.
15-05-2013
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| Alto de la Canada |
I managed to
escape from Tuiza and drove to a small village called Riolago and parked up by
a signboard at N42.94368 W6.07405. The signboard shows a route that heads
towards the Alto de la Canada (‘the summit of the drove road’) a Major 2154m
P889 in the Sierra de Villabandia. The weather was mixed sunny periods and
hailstorms. There was a choice of unpaved roads from the start – the trick is
to take the one on the right.
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La Brana refugio
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As I neared the unguarded but nice-looking refugio/bothy,
La Brana at N42.91020 W6.09570 I met a group of Spanish walkers. They advised
me to head for a bealach that was much further to the right than the one on the
signboard and in JMH. However, as I got nearer to the bealach I could see that
it was o
verhung by a large cornice and I did not want to risk causing an
avalanche. So I avoided the snow in all the passes by heading up onto the
crinkly crags of Pena Negra that involved a bit of scrambling up and down to
reach an unnamed summit on the main ridge.
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Crinkly crags
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From there it was a walk over the
top of Robinalto to Alto de la Canada. A hailstorm arrived at the same time as
me, therefore no view from the summit.
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Summit of the drove road
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| Guess which way I came down |
My descent route was a variation of the
JMH route with a long snow descent and having to cross several swollen streams
– or was it the same stream several times?
Six hours,
18.83km, 1832m ascent.
Stayed
overnight in the centre of Bembibre, Leon province.
I then drove into Portugal for the first time in my life,
crossing the border at Fuentes de Onoro (E) and Vilar Formosa (P) to spend the
night in a service area near Guarda on the edge of the Sierra de Estrala.
