Áliva at the end of winter

More than a month on I finally found a moment to get out into the country. After the usual hour and a half plus drive to Liébana, Monty and I set off from Llaves, a little village on the way to Fuente Dé. Just out of the village came the first view of the Peña Oviedo, which was to be the first stop before heading round to Áliva:


the Cumbre Abenas, which we would follow round to the left later on


Views from Peña Oviedo: Llaves down below


Coriscao


The Eastern Massif of the Picos


the continuation, from the Junciana and on past San Carlos, with the track down to Mogrovejo below


Potes, with Peña Sagra behind


Curavacas and Peña Prieta


We then changed direction and followed the track to the west. As you can see, Monty had more important things to do than admire the views of the Coriscao


From the Puertos de Pembes Pico Valdecoro came into view


Down below is Espinama


Skirting the Cumbres de Abenas we saw the track that comes up from Espinama as it goes past Igüedri


The Portillos del Boquejón mark the entrance to the Puertos de Áliva


Peña Vieja


The little chapel in Áliva



Peña Cortés from behind the chapel. I walked as far as the Castillo (the large boulder on the pathway) to get a better picture of the Canal de las Grajas, which is the route I took to climb Cortés in 2009, and also of the Canal del Vidrio up to Peña Vieja, but unfortunately the photos didn't come out...


In fact I was only able to take one more photo before the camera stopped working all together. Retracing my steps I then took the path down to the village of Pembes. Before it went out of view, I took this last shot looking back at the entrance to Áliva. No more photos I'm afraid, on what was a pleasant walk down to Pembes before following a path to Llaves. After 6 hours' walk Monty was quite happy to call it a day. Me too - I felt really unfit after so long away from those steep climbs!

Tollo to Tudes

At last! Good weather forecast and a chance to get into the mountains.

Monty and I headed off for the road that goes from Potes to León and I left the car between Tollo and Tudes - two villages near the Vega de Liébana. Unfortunately, on the first part of the hike we had to put up with the constant howling of dogs on the scent of wild boar, and passed several hunters stationed strategically on the track eager for a kill.

Not having been out since mid-December I felt pretty unfit, and we had to keep going fast to get out of the way of the hunting team. Added to that we soon encountered snow, which made the going heavier. The plus side though was that not long out of Tollo the Eastern massif of the Picos de Europa came into view and stayed with us all day long:



The ascent finished at Campu Largu, but I decided to walk up a hill to get a better perspective on the mountains surrounding us; Peña Remoña to Pico Cortés:


Coriscao in the centre of the shot


Looking S-W towards Peña Prieta


SSW: Curavacas in the centre if I'm not mistaken


Southwards to the Bistruey


The next photo shows where I was headed next, from right to left, with the Peña Sierra in the background


The pico Jaru in the centre of the photo, which I climbed last time I was in this neck of the woods


A frozen pond on the way


The hill which I had taken the previous photos from in the foreground


Campu Largu just to the left


Continuing along the ridge heading northwards now - luckily not as much vegetation as I'd anticipated


Tudes down below


The Sierra de Peña Labra (SSE)


Just to the right of the previous photo


This shows the contrast between the places that get the sun and those that don't


A view from the Mediajo, with Peña Vieja to the Samelar as a backdrop


Walking down from the ridge; Campu Largu in the centre of the photo


The ridge that I walked along from right to left


The track eventually came to Tudes, and a mile or so along the road my car was parked.

Pyrenees August 2009

Work and weather have meant no walking in January 2011 so here's a look back at the summer of 2009 when I went to the Catalan Pyrenees.


First some photos of a walk up the Peguera Valley to the "Estany Negre". "Estany" means lake in Catalan, and as you'll see from these photos, there are an awful lot of them in the "Aigüestortes" (twisted waters), which is the name of this National Park :





This is the Estany Tort de Peguera



The Estany Negre (2385mts)






Looking back down the valley towards the Estany de Lladres

The same lake as we passed by on the way down





Route number two was up to the Pic de Ratera. This photo was taken near the start of the walk.



"Els Encantats", the mountain which overlooks the famous Estany de Sant Maurici

The Ratera waterfall

Looking down at the Sant Maurici lake

More lakes as we ascended




The Pic de Ratera (2862mts)


Views from the top of the Ratera:


















On the way down from the summit






"Els Encantats" in the centre of the picture show up against the mountains behind


About here is where I first felt a pain in my leg which turned out to be the tendonitis that kept me out of action till the following year...



The waterfall again