At the weekend Ruby and I headed out for my first hike of the New Year from the border at Portalet. The weather was beautiful – cold but with clear blue skies and sunshine.

The peak of El Forato with the Sierra de Partacua in the background

As long as you don’t want to ski we’ve had brilliant weather over Christmas with three weeks of sunshine and warm temperatures – we even had a barbeque on the 28 December!

Ruby loves being out in the mountains and never seems to tire!

Usually, at this time of year this would be a snowshoeing route but with the lack of snow I just hiked. I did take my crampons and ice axe just in case though as the snow patches that are around are rock hard and super icy.

Iced over pond at the Puerto Viejo de Sallent

Starting at Portalet means that you are high right from the off making for fantastic views during the entire route. I headed past the pass of ‘Puerto Viejo de Sallent’ and then towards the peak Foratata above Sallent de Gallego.

It’s an area I haven’t really explored before and it was great fun checking out lots of little peaks and side trips. The area was more beautiful than I expected and I’ll definitely be taking groups here thsi summer. It’s amazing that there is such a variety of hiking in the Valle de Tena that even after 11 years here I’m still discovering new routes and areas!

Mountain stream with the Valle de Tena behind

Ruby standing to attention!

The cirque of Las Ferraturas on the Spanish-French border

Looking down into the valley of the Rio Limpias. From here you can see all of the important 3000′s in the valley – Balaitus, Frondellas, Los Infiernos, Garmo Negro and Argualas.