Range Portugal-Galicia
We land in Lisbon, Portugal at 5am and our next flight is at 7pm, so we have plenty of time to bag the peaks around here. The only problem is that many of them have already been climbed by Rob, me or both of us. However, we found one regional highpoint that neither of us…
Range Portugal-Galicia
Last peak planned for today, so we drove to the lower summit of Besteiros at 1080m to check out the views and a large black and white conical trig pillar. We then drove to the highest point where we found a huge concrete trig pillar (unfortunately impossible to climb) with two smaller ones on either…
Range Portugal-Galicia
Fifth of six summits today, and the fifth drive up. We reached the summit on a reasonably good road. An auto-moto-peakbagger would be excited as he or she could touch the base of the trig pillar with a car. Perhaps that is why the trig pillar has been raised by two metres. And the lookout…
Range Portugal-Galicia
The good news about windmills is that one could almost always find the road. It might be private, closed or bumpy, but it will be a road. This time it was a good gravel road and soon we reached the top of Povoinha, which is surrounded by windmills and has a raised trig pillar. We…
Range Portugal-Galicia
We climbed the third peak today and again had a tarmac road all the way to the top. There was a windmill farm, a lookout tower and a trig pillar on a 2m tall plinth. It was nice to be able to climb the trig pillar as there was a ladder on one side. The…
Range Portugal-Galicia
This legend tells the story of a Christian knight, Gonçalo Hermigues, who kidnapped a Moorish princess named Fatima on St John’s Day in 1158. The knight took her to a small village in Portugal and she fell in love with him and converted to Christianity, taking the name Oureana. As a reward for her conversion,…
Range Portugal-Galicia
The highpoint of the Santarém region in Portugal. Rob and I found that neither of us had bagged this mountain, so there were few arguments against visiting it. We checked previous reports and expected to have to leave our car a few miles early, but when we arrived we found a reasonably good road all…
Range Cordillera Cantabrica
The main objective of this trip is to climb the remaining three ultrapeaks in mainland Spain. And this trip perfectly matched a Atlas Mountains trip. The plane from Casablanca lands on time, we rent a car, and we roll towards Pico Almanzor. We spent the night in the small village of Hoyos del Espino. After…
Range Castile Ranges
I already think that Le Serrota was the first and the last mountain of the day. I was wrong. As I drive towards Madrid, I notice another pretty hill with windmills. If there are windmills, there will be a road. And so it was that I drove up. I could go almost to the top,…
Range Castile Ranges
An unplanned bonus peak on this trip. I wanted to hike it a few years ago, but I was probably distracted by other peaks, and my gaze constantly kept returning to this red dot. This time I have the whole day, and I’m in no hurry. Slow breakfast in the hotel, then driving towards a…
Range Cordillera Cantabrica
This peak is included in Core Europe’s 50 Most Prominent Peaks list, the World Peaks with 300 km of Isolation list, the Spain Autonomous Community High Points list (two), and the Iberian Top 100 by Prominence list. It has so many reasons to be climbed, and the most important reason is its beautiful scenery. Torrecerredo…
Range Pyrenees
Top of the Pyrenees and Spain’s third-highest mountain, and also the birthplace of what were once the largest glaciers in the Pyrenees. Today, the glacier looked like a big patch of old snow in the summer. I was concerned about how we would avoid crevasses when we were planning the peak, but after watching a…
Range Castile Ranges
After successfully climbing five ultrapeaks in Morocco, we arrive in Madrid, get in the car, and a couple of hours later, we stay in the village of Hoyos del Espino, which is reasonably close to the trail. Pico Almanzor is the first of three planned peaks in mainland Spain. Good, we have a plan; we…
Range Castile Ranges
The main goal for the next few weeks is to target ultras in Morocco and the Spanish mainland. I stop in Madrid on the way; it’s only 2 p.m., and my next flight is tomorrow morning. The plan is clear: find the mountain. Of course, I found it. There is one more P600 mountain, just…