To seek Turbon

28-07-2013

They were delicious

El (Castillo de) Turbon – a Major, P1022, 2492m high, JMH Iberian prominence number 28.

I had read in a couple of places that the start from La Muria to seek Turbon is hard to find. Not sure why, the village is signposted from the main N260 road. When you reach the village there is a left turn just before it which leads to a carpark and what looks like an abandoned picnic site (1397m) N42.44994 E0.53685. However, there is a definite sense that the area around it is GOML country.

A signboard shows two routes to the summit and I  decided not to drive any further up the pista as the two routes diverge quite soon. There is a chain on this first stretch that looks like it may sometimes be padlocked. If you are going to go and return by the same route it is possible to drive as far as Partida de Selvaplana (1488m) N42.44157 E0.54076 and take the risk that the chain is not locked on your return. The marked path enters the trees and then rises steeply to a meadow and then it looks like everyone makes their own way as the path disappears.

Collado de San Adria

At the top of the meadow the two routes meet up in the Collado de San Adria (1898m) N42.43907 E0.51751 where there is a fingerpost and a fine view of Turbon. And it is clear from here why the ascent route does not continue up this end of the ridge.

North ridge of Turbon

The path drops for a while into the Coma de Sant Adrian – although it is probably feasible to walk the ridge on the left instead. The coma offers a range of landscapes including meadows of Edelweiss, stony paths, walking between huge boulders that have fallen in geological terms quite recently from the neighbouring mountains (you can still see the scars in the rockface), and scree. 

Between the boulders

At La Portella (2253m) N42.41453 E0.51276 the path meets a route that starts at Vilas de Turbon – this is probably a much shorter and possibly easier route, but would have involved a lot of extra driving to get to the start. The path then rises relatively gently around the head of the valley and on to the summit ridge to end at the trigpoint at N42.41692 E0.50533 and a fine view of the high Pyrenees to the north.

On the descent I cut the corner a bit and missed out La Portella. When I reached the Collado de San Adria I decided to have a go at the alternative route. Initially, there wasn't much evidence of the path and I think I didn’t follow the main path even when I was following a line of cairns. The solution is to find the border stones that look like mini trigpoints and follow them. 

Puerto de la Muria

Anyway, by a mixture of skill and luck I managed to get to the Puerto de la Muria (1602m) 42.45016 E0.51085 where there was another fingerpost. And a path marked with yellow/white dashes. 

Beware – the yellow/white dashes become misleading further along the path. There was a junction at about 1560m N42.45300 E0.52000 where the yellow/white marks quite definitely indicate take a left turn which, I eventually began to realise, takes you away from the carpark. Keep right and follow what looks like a dry stream bed – however, cannot be as it sometimes goes uphill – after a while I concluded that it is/was probably a canyada/ cattle drove road. When it reaches the valley near the pista the path virtually disappears – I could not work out how the start could be found if ascending this way.

23.27km, 1770m total ascent

Overnight at La Muria carpark (1397m)

Posets by the devil

26+27-07-2013

  

(Pico de) Posets - a Major, P1131, 3375m high, JMH Iberian prominence number 17.

I had my second haircut of this trip in a unisex hairdressers in the resort of Benasque. The first had been in a traditional barbers in Gibraltar. This was the opposite extreme – my hair was washed both before and after the cut, the cutting and styling was painstaking – no cut throat razors and it cost twice as much.

Then it was a  short drive to Eriste and up to the Pileta del Estallo carpark (1500m) N42.61408 E0.47847 to walk up to the Refugio Angel Orus (2072m) N42.62735 E0.45729 for an overnight stay. Shared a table at the evening meal with a family group from Toulouse and played a few games of dominoes with the two young boys in the family, before an early night.

Refugio Angel Orus

Breakfast was served at 6.00am so not quite as early a start as I had hoped. A few people set off before me – however not all of them were headed for Posets and I soon overtook the ones who were going that way. The path up from the refuge is generall quite obvious as it crosses rocks and boulders. There was one place that I went a different way on the ascent from the descent and neither way seemed to be right. 

Eventually the path reaches a bridge over the Torrent de Llardaneta – you will see in the picture that the torrent must have been too torrential for the bridge at some time – and then the terrain gets a bit easier. There is a key junction without a signpost at 2574m N42.63739 E0.44319 where it is advisable to keep right, although it is not difficult to get back on track if you don’t.

Canal Fonda

Although it was late July, Canal Fonda was still very much full of snow. So, it was time to put on crampons at 2685m N42.63925 E0.43991 and labour up the steep slope to Collado del Diente (2855m) N42.64362 E0.43796.

Diente de Llardana

As I was removing my crampons a young man caught up with me, shouted a greeting I did not understand and then he walked without any aids up the near vertical side of the Diente de Llardana. I am not sure whether he reached the summit as a cloud obscured the view – I did not see him again.

From the collado the ridge to the summit is scrappy with loose stone, scree, patches of snow and the occasional exposed scramble. It was also, for me, misty and there was a fierce cold wind – and I had not brought any gloves. 

Wind blown trigpoint

Posets poser - with windblown hair

By time I reached the summit trigpoint at N42.65462 E0.43524 my hands were freezing and there was no view. I was the first person of the day to reach the summit – however, I was glad to be soon joined by a man and his daughter and we descended as rapidly as we could to get out of the wind. As we reached the collado we began to meet several parties of people heading for the top – including my French family from Toulouse. I think some of them were surprised to meet someone already descending.

As we approached the refugio we began to meet marathon runners walking up the path. After I had collected my things from the refugio and set off to the carpark I met several hundred more – and it is only a narrow path.

15.56km 2796m total ascent

Overnight in the La Muria carpark (1397m)

Caught in Aneto

25-07-2013

 

 (Pico de) Aneto – the highest point in the Pirineos/Pyrenees, the second highest point in mainland Spain, the second highest point in mainland Europe without the Alps, an Ultra with P2812 and a height of 3404m – is not a mountain to be taken lightly. And it isn't a mountain where you are allowed to drive to the start point at La Besurta – however, there is a (4.5 Euro return) shuttlebus service. I caught the 5.00am bus from the Vado car park (1730m) N42.68246 E0.60452 – and considering the number of motorhomes in the carpark was surprised to find I was the only passenger – to La Besurta (1895m) N42.67884 E0.64982. By the light of my headtorch I found the path that leads up to the Refugio de la Renclusa (2127m) N42.67884 E0.64982. Thankfully as I passed the refugio it was beginning to get light as it is quite a rough climb through rocks with lots of twists and turns.

When I reached the foot of the Glaciar de la Maladeta (2620m) N42.65896 E0.64658 there were quite a lot of people putting on their crampons. I walked past them to find a more solitary point on some rocks further along the glacier. For some reason I seem to be quicker at putting on crampons than other people, because once again I was ready and off before anyone. At 2844m, N42.65475 E0.64415 it is necessary to take off the crampons climb over an intervening ridge from Pico de Maladeta and then drop down through the Portillon Superior onto the Glaciar de Aneto (2860m) N42.65405 E0.64648. 

Portillon Superior

Ahead of me on the path there were a lot of people who clearly must have set off from the refugio at the same time or earlier than the time I had left La Besurta. Some of them were moving painfully slowly. It is long way across that glacier and there are several points where it is bare rock – do you keep the crampons on or not, I kept them on and skittered across the stones.

Towards the end of the glacier it gets steeper and several parties had roped themselves together, which meant overtaking them was quite hazardous with loose coils everywhere. Finally the gradient eases off at Collado de Coronas (3284m) N42.63330 E0.65516 – thankfully as it enough effort to cope with the thinner atmosphere. The snow ended at N42.63185 E0.65639 (3361m) and then there is a steep short exposed ridge scramble to the summit at N42.63113 E0.65668. 

However, the summit was rather crowded so I waited a while and chatted with a group of Portuguese people, an Austrian couple and two Czechs whilst we waited for the summiteers to return.

Puppets on a string

I am not a rock climber, however, I know enough about the art to know that that the way people were using their ropes was worse than useless. Loose coils of rope; the rope passed through karabiners but not tied on; everyone moving at the same time and no-one taking up a stance; ropes held in hands; seemed to be the norm. One falls and they all fall – getting away with nice rope burns if they are lucky. It made me wonder how many of them knew how to use the ice axes they were carrying on the glaciers – most of them walking like Quasimodo with a short axe in one hand and a walking pole in the other (nobody used a strap on their axes, so likely to lose them anyway if they should slip).

The Austrians and I had the summit to ourselves for a while until another couple of roped groups invaded. We scuttled back over the ridge as quick as we could – by the way, despite the exposure and the scrambling needed it is very nice grippy rock, so don't bother with a rope.

By time I got back to the glacier it was beginning to soften in the sunshine. It was possible to slide past the ‘Quasimodo’ impersonators down to where it levels off at about 3180m N42.63504 E0.65388. I decided to abandon the ascent route and use the alternative one marked on the map. There was a trace of others having used it. As I slid down the glacier I realised that about twenty people were following me – I began to worry that if I were wrong that I would be held responsible for them. It was a quick and efficient way to go, no rocky outcrops to deal with until a thousand metres lower at 2180m N42.66530 E0.65914 looking down at the glacial lake Ibon del Salterillo. As I was removing my crampons the people following me started to arrive – I was asked several times did I know where the camino went. When I replied I had no idea, they repeated the question in English and I replied by saying that I had understood what they were asking in Spanish, but my answer was the same.

Two Spanish women and myself set off at the same time and between us we found a way down to the glacial lake and then found and lost several times the path that traverses ..... At N42.66590 E0.65914 (2194m) we met a woman coming down a path from the refugio who assured us that the path going down to the Cascada d’Aiguallut was the best way rather than continuing to traverse.

This path is marked on the map as crossing the river above the cascades. 

As we approached Aiguallut we could see and hear the bells of a couple of hundred cows in the valley and across the water probably about one hundred tourists. When we reached the river we could see that the water was quite deep and that the cows were having to wade across. The two women chose to strip down to their underwear, wrap their ponchos around their rucksacks and swim across. I decided that considering the number of cows in the water it would not exactly be potable and with the woman, we met from the refugio, waded across. (Later when I hung my socks to dry on my ice axe back at the carpark they were literally covered with flies of all different sizes and types – there must have been something in the water to attract them). I gave the two women a wave and left them to be gawped at by 100 tourists.

Shortly after the cascades the river goes underground and the surface river bed is quite dry. Question – why doesn’t the path just cross lower down? Indeed, in the dark in the morning I recalled crossing the dry river bed lower down the valley, on the ascent route to the refugio. With water filled boots and wet trousers I made my way to La Besurta for a welcome ‘una canya’ (a small beer) and a full bus back to the carpark.

19.21km 2233m total ascent

Overnight at Vado carpark (1730m)

Cotiella

24-07-2013

Cotiella in the Sierra Sardanella is 2912m high – another 88 metres and it would be swarming with people. It is a Major, number 13 in the JMH Iberian prominence list with P1187.

My 2013 Marco Polo road atlas clearly shows a secondary road traversing the eastern side of Cotiella from San Juan de Plan via Barbaruens to Seira, with another branch going to Villanova. Oh yeah? There isn’t even a pista/unpaved road. And anyone who has been there will be able to tell you why Bararuens is literally the end of the road. That is a big drop into the Barranco de Bilse. I am sending a bill to Marco Polo for the wasted diesel.

Just before the road from Seira reaches Barbaruens there is a pista (1130m) N42.50256 E0.39547 that heads uphill. I parked at 1395m N42.50568 E0.37611 – indeed, I slept the night there. The pista is still drivable beyond there until 1535m N42.50785 E.036987 and there is space for a couple of vehicles. But you couldn’t get a 4X4 much further. 

The path then winds through some woods – if you are bored with the path I wouldn’t stray too far to the right, the next view of a tree see will, momentarily at least, be its canopy way below you.

Ibon de Armena

The path follows the cliff edge in the wood and then rises up to a ridge where there is a view of the Sierra Sardanera and then it is down to a pretty little glacial lake, Ibon de Armena (1830m) N42.51529 E036987. In the mud near the lake I found a Buff (headcover) identical to my own. I picked it up and when I reached the unlocked/unguarded quaint looking Refugio de Armena I washed it in a nearby stream and tied it on the back of my rucksack to dry. The refugio is very nice inside – with mattresses, comprehensive first aid cupboard and a radio link to the Civil Guard.

Refugio de Armena

I walked up the Circo de Armena which alternates between grass, scree, rocks and patches of late snow with a steep finish to the Collado de Cotiella (2670m) 42.50808 E0.32308. Just before the steepest section I met three French people who had stayed in the refugio overnight and already been to the summit. I wasn't aware of any funny looks from them at the Buff I was wearing, however, when I took off my rucksack to get a banana, they spotted the Buff I had found. They enquired of its provenance and I handed it over to the rightful and grateful owner.

From this point to the summit it is all loose stone, rocks and scree – if you are planning to go there in a group it might be a good idea to wear helmets. I certainly dislodged several large stones. 

For the ascent I followed a ‘path’ that traverse right across a wide circo to the Collado de la Colladeta (2715m) N42.50853 E0.31696 and then zigzagged through more scree and rocks to the trig topped summit with tremendous views all round.

For the descent I took a more direct and straight course towards the first collado missing out the long traverse. Although a steeper way it wasn’t any worse than the ascent route. From the collado I more or less reversed the overall ascent route, stopping for a chat, at the refugio, with the three Buff wearing French people, who were packing their gear in readiness for a walk-out.

Cotiella

19.87km, 2139m total ascent

Overnight in the Vado carpark, Benasque valley (1730m). Camping is not allowed, however sleeping in a vehicle does not count as camping as long as you don’t put out tables, chairs, barbeques, canopies etc. By the end of the evening there were about ten motorhomes, similar in size to my own, in a semi circle at the far end of the carpark – and several people were sitting outside on chairs under canopies. 

Punta Llerga and a packet of crisps

21-07-2013

From P Montanesa - it's the one behind

Punta Llerga, Iberian prominence number 93, 2269m P739, Major 

N4254389 E0.23083

There is a large car park in the village of Saravillo N42.55429 E0.25660 (1048m) or you can pay a toll of three Euros and drive up the unpaved pista to the unguarded and unlocked Refugio de Santa Isabel at a collado N42.53661 E0025262 (1521m).








I had a look inside and it is just like a small Scottish bothy with a fireplace, a sleeping bench for one/two people and a table and seat.

As seen from the refugio

From here Punta Llerga looks quite formidable with a wide steep vertical face and not going to be as ‘facil’ as JMH describes it. An area of trees has been recently cleared, I assume to provide grazing for cattle. There are no waymarks or cairns – however, if you walk up to the summit of the meadow and down the other side to N42.53762 E0.24637 ((1607m) there is a distinct path through the trees that leads across base of the previously mentioned steep face and exits at N42.54146 E0.24572 (1653m).

Stream crossing

Llerga lurker

The path crosses a dry stream bed in a barranco at N42.54256 E0.24264 (1770m) and then zigzags through rocks and bushes up to a steep meadow topped by a narrow ridge. There are several ways up this steep meadow – on the ascent I went across to the end of the ridge at N42.54552 E0.24107 (1897m) and there was some mild scrambling along the ridge for a while until it broadens out and meets a more well used path than the one I used (on descent, this well used path quickly deteriorated into a range of options that people have taken, with no clear favourite).

The ridge eventually gives out onto a large mainly grassy Cairngorms like round lumps. The Balsa Lierga marked as a lake was, despite the heavy thunderstorms, a muddy patch. 

Spain's Tarn Hows? A muddy patch

I followed a line that took me to the left and then swung around the back of an intervening minor summit/lump to the base of the twin summitted high ground. According to my GPS both summits gave the same height – however, as the northerly one has a trig point I counted that as the tick on the list – and if I am proved wrong I am covered as I visited them both.

Twin summit

Summit view

Way below me I could see down to the Camping Los Vives where I was planning to stay for a day’s rest, laundry and blog writing.

My route of descent varied by making more direct and steeper descent to the dried up lake and missing out the scramble on the ridge end. And, I would agree with JMH, this one is fairly ‘facil’.

9.58km 1093m total ascent