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Picos de Europa Traverse

Day 6 - Friday 7th September 2018

Naranjo de Bulnes to Hotel Refuge Áliva

 

This was a great day's walking; tricky descent after leaving Naranjo de Bulnes; climb out of a bowl with an exposed scramble and traverse with cables (which we elected not to use as they have not been maintained) to Collado Horcados Rojos; the descent to the delightful Refugio Cabaña Veronica for lunch; the long traverse along a glacial valley with moraine deposits to Hotel Refugio Áliva.

 

Distance Time Elevation in meters

Km		 Elapsed
Hrs-Mins		 Gain Loss Min Max
12.88 7H57 743 1,092 1,658 2,405

 

   
 

 

 

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Sunrise

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Rebecco

Sun hitting the mountain tops

The refuge dwarfed by Naranjo de Bulnes

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Nick

The way ahead. A descent into the bowl followed by an exposed
scramble up to Collado Horcados Rojos

Preparing for the scramble down into the bowl

One at a time to minimise the risk of being hit on the
head by a falling stone or rock

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Horcados Rojos ahead

The scramble to the top goes by the dark scar or chimney before traversing to the right along a shelf at the top

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Looking back to Naranjo de Bulnes before we begin the scramble

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Note the cable to the left; they are not reliable so we did not use them at all

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View from Horcados Rojos

The group at the sunnit of Horcados Rojos (Photo: Mike Oconnor)
L to R: Rosana, Nick, Anna, Tove, Andrew, Roland, Yolanda, Graham and Julian

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View down to Cabaña Veronica

After a short descent, we turned off to the right for a short climb to Cabaña Veronica

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Stuart, Fiona, Anna and Emmet

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Lisa

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Stuart

Refuge keeper Jorge. Jorge is Portuguese and hails from a small town near Fatima.

Preparing coffee. The Refugio offers some food and drinks and sleeps upto 9 people

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A chough

 

There are two species of passerine birds commonly called chough that constitute the genus Pyrrhocorax of the Corvidae (crow) family of birds. These are the red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), and the Alpine chough (or Yellow-billed chough) (Pyrrhocorax graculus).

The choughs have black plumage and brightly coloured legs, feet, and bills, and are resident in the mountains of southern Eurasia and North Africa. They have long broad wings and perform spectacular aerobatics. Both species pair for life and display fidelity to their breeding sites, which are usually caves or crevices in a cliff face. They build a lined stick nest and lay three to five eggs. They feed, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey, supplemented by vegetable material or food from human habitation, especially in winte

  

 

A last group photo before we head down

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Previously a Royal hunting lodge, now privately owned

And finally, Hotel-Refuge Áliva

The block we were in

Main bar/lounge area

Such luxury! Beds! An en-suite!