The Sierra de Partacua

Back in Spain after spending Christmas in the UK and greeted with a week of sunshine and lovely snow conditions.

Yesterday hiked from one of my favourite villages in the area – Aso de Sobremonte. It’s set in a hidden-away hanging valley that makes you feel like you’re a million miles away from anyone else. There’s a lovely horseshoe which just begs to be hiked – although nobody ever seems to walk there and as usual on this route I met nobody all day.

Snow conditions were great – not too deep and a cold night had left a hard crust that was perfect for snow-shoeing over. As I reached the ridge the views to the west and south opened up – a layer of cloud covered the plains to the south with the peaks Sierra de Guara sticking out. To the east Monte Perdido, Cilindro and the Ordesa valley were easy to make out – the cliffs of Ordesa standing out against the snowy backdrop.

Usually I cut beneath the peak of Punta Balposata at the head of the horseshoe but today conditions were great and I stuck to the ridgetop. From the peak you had fantastic close-up views of the cliffs of the Sierra de Partacua (see the image above). As I continued along the ridge there were a couple of nice rocky crags that just had to be scrambled up before heading down to the track and the long winding path back to Aso de Sobremonte.

Long route (about 1350m ascent) and in deeper snow would probably have been a bit much. Weather has been quite warm this week and there’s no real snow below about 1700m. There’s more snow forecast for the coming week but temperatures are rising so will probably be rain on the lower slopes but nice fresh snow higher up.

Phil