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!