What a fantastic place to wake up this morning! Rab's Nuterino 200 sleeping bag kept me snug and warm all night. I crawled out of the door and got back inside it while we brewed up in the morning sun. Bivi bliss.
Some friendly (hungry) Chamois came over to say hi, while we got some porridge on the go.
Yesterday's peak of Mulhachén was still in the shade, but the day looked promising.
It took a while to get the team out of their pits and all fed and watered, but we were in no particular rush. We all enjoyed the morning mountain ambiance as the air warmed up.
Around mid morning, we set off west to attempt an ascent of Valeta, which is Spain's second highest peak. It was a long walk away, so we decided to see how far we'd get. You can just make out the bivi hut in the centre of the photo below as we walked away.
We followed the old road track around the ridge and past this cool looking ridge.
Despite some building clouds, we decided to 'go for the summit' and after a long final slog on the remains of the ski resort slopes of Sierra Nevada Ski Area, we made it to the summit at about 14:00.
From the top we could see north to Granada and back east to yesterday's summit - Mulhachén. We could just make out the coast line, but there was too much haze to see the distance shores of Africa today.
All was well until someone spotted the Refugio Poqueira in the distance. It looked a very long way off indeed! I'm pointing at it here...
The journey to the sanctuary of the Refugio turned into a real 'long march'. The scenery continued to be dramatic and some good chat passed the time well. Barney, if you are reading this, you'll be delighted to know that the word game that you taught Clare and I on the Kesch Hutte Ski Tour had everyone guessing for hours! It was really funny as people in the team gradually worked out the answer, but wouldn't let on to the increasingly frustrated others. Oh how the kilometres flew by!...
On the final descent to the Refugio, we passed through a little hidden valley which was carpeted in all sorts of flowers and had a clear water stream running through it.
We stopped for a short break on some hot slabs of rock in the meadow for a rest and could easily have fallen asleep. Reluctantly, we pressed on, with hot feet and sweaty backs for the final few kilometres.
Eventually, we rounded a hillside and the hut came into view. There was much rejoicing! And even more rejoicing, once we'd made it into the terrace and got an ice cold can of drink in our hands. It had been a tremendous effort from the team. Over a 1000m of descent, 700m or so of ascent (including reaching the second highest peak in Spain) and over 20km of distance covered.
We celebrated over a big dinner and some litres of water to re-hydrate. There were only eight other mountaineers staying in the hut and would you believe it - one couple were from Caernafon, North Wales!
No comments:
Post a Comment