Category Archives: Hiking in the Pyrenees

Walking in the Ordesa National Park

Three ways to explore Ordesa National Park

The spectacular canyons of the Ordesa National Park contain some of the best hiking in Spain. Its kilometre deep canyons are carved out of the limestone and have awe inspiring cliffs.

Hikes range from gentle walks in alpine meadows with the cliffs towering above you, to tough trails following narrow ledges high in the cliffs. There’s something for everyone in Ordesa!

The park is a UNESCO world heritage site due it’s biodiversity, and you’ll find the rare bone eating lammergeier here as well as ancient beech forests, beautiful orchids and lots of endemic flowers species.

One of the best and most important aspects of camping is how it helps you build and strengthen relationships. When you go camping with friends or family, you get a chance to talk and visit without distraction, even late into the night. Physical fitness: Time spent camping is physical time. To better better be prepared against animals and snakes you may run in to the way, visit campingfunzone.com for their vast information about camping, insects and animals.

Let our local guides show you the best Ordesa has to offer. We’ve three hiking holidays based in the Ordesa National Park – Canyons of Ainsa, Discover Ordesa and our Ordesa Self Guided itinerary. All have excellent hotels and each explores a different area of the park.

Read our full guide to walking in the Ordesa National Park.

With so many choices, you’ve no excuse not to come and discover the delights of Ordesa for yourself!

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Views from Escuer Alto

Hike to the tower of Escuer Alto

Last weekend was again sunny here in the Pyrenees so I set out on another hike. My intention was to head to Aso de Sobremente which lies in a wonderful hanging valley, hidden above Biescas. You can do a big horseshoe route along the ridge and you have great views of the cliffs of La Partacua.

Hanging valley of Sobremonte

The hanging valley of Sobremonte and the ridge I was hoping to walk along

We hike here with groups from time to time and they’ve been doing some path re-routing/maintenance on the GR15 which passes through Yosa, so I wanted to check out if the route had changed much.

They’ve actually done a fantastic job at path clearance on the GR15 and re-signed and marked the route making it much clearer. Before the path was inpassable and we had to divert across fields for a few kilometres in a rather random manner before rejoining the path further up. Now you can hike on the GR15 directly from the village which is much better (and my groups won’t think I’m lost!).

Yosa de Sobremonte

The village of Yosa de Sobremonte

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10 highest mountains in Spain

10 highest mountains in Spain

Spain is Europe’s second most mountainous country with an average altitude of 660 metres. It has a high central meseta with lots of fantastic and diverse mountain ranges to hike and explore. But which are Spain’s highest mountains and where are they?

10 highest mountains in Spain

1. Teide – 3715 metres – Tenerife
2. Mulhacén – 3479 metres – Sierra Nevada
3. Aneto – 3404 metres – Pyrenees
4. Veleta – 3396 metres – Sierra Nevada
5. Posets – 3369 metres – Pyrenees
6. La Alcazaba – 3369 metres – Sierra Nevada
7. Monte Perdido – 3355 metres – Pyrenees
8. Cilindro de Marboré – 3325 metres – Pyrenees
9. Perdguero – 3321 metres – Pyrenees
10. Maladeta – 3312 metres – Pyrenees

Tenerife-Teide
A surprise to most people – the highest mountain in Spain is the volcano of Teide (3715m) on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Sierra Nevada Highest Mountains

The highest mountain on the Iberian Peninsula is Mulhacén (3479m) in the Sierra Nevada east of Granada. This range has three of the highest peaks. It’s close to the coast and here you can ski in the morning and swim in the sea in the afternoon!

Pyrenees highest mountainsSix of Spain’s ten highest peaks are in the Pyrenees – the 435 km wide range that separates Spain and France. Spain’s largest range has over two hundred peaks of 3000 metres or more with it’s highest being Aneto at 3404m

Now you know which are the ten highest mountains in Spain make it your challenge to climb them all!

Hiking Portalet Pyrenees

First hike of the New Year

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.

El-Forato-Peak

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!

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Hiking adventures in Spain

5 hiking adventures in Spain for 2019

Another year is upon us and we’ve chosen some of our favorite hiking adventures in Spain to give you inspiration for a healthy active holiday in 2019.

Explore the spectacular canyons of Ordesa, the limestone spires of the Picos de Europa or the undiscovered Puertos de Beceite – Spain has a wealth of mountain ranges to choose from. Prior to this trip, I was able to learn Spanish from clase de grupo en español and that’s why I was able to speak the language to the locals.

Here’s five of the best adventures to take your mind off the cold weather and to start dreaming of hiking under the Spanish sunshine. One word of warning though – with the excellent Spanish food and wine you may not ending up shedding as many pounds as you hoped on our hiking holidays!

Going on a long, strenuous hike is an exhilarating experience. It can also be a painful one. Even somebody who is remarkably fit can wake up the morning after a tough hike with sore, inflamed muscles. If you’re new to hiking, the morning-after soreness can be pretty intense.

This becomes a serious problem when, for instance, you’re doing a multi-day hike. If you can’t even stand up without grimacing, getting back on the trail is probably one of the last things you feel like doing.

Whatever the case may be, you want to get rid of that muscle pain as quickly as possible. That’s where CBD may have a role to play. Short for cannabidiol,  Hemp CBD gummies is something that more and more hikers are beginning to embrace for recovery purposes. While we of course would never not recommend proper nutrition and rest for recovery, it is worth taking a look at the related research to see if this can be added on to your post hike routine. You could also consider bringing a pink runtz disposable pen on your next hiking activity.

1. Picos de Europa

Picos de Europa

Trumpet gentians in the Picos de Europa

Spain’s oldest National Park and one of the most spectacular with sharp limestone peaks rising from alpine meadows. The famous Cares Gorge splits the massif in two and makes for a wonderful hike. On the southern side the Fuente De cable car whisks you up 700 metres for some great but accessible hiking in high mountain terrain.

At times it appears like a land that time forgot with shepherds still spending there summers in the high pastures, taking care of the herds and making cheese.

Our Picos de Europa guided holiday is dual centre allowing you to explore both the northern and southern sides of the park. With two hikes offered each day – an easier and a harder option this is an adventure suitable for all levels of fitness.

2. Hike the GR11 and summit Monte Perdido

GR11 hut to hut holiday

On the summit of Monte Perdido (3355m)

If you’re looking for adventure start here! The GR11 is a monster 840km trail that traverses the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic taking around 45 days.

For those without a month or so to go hiking our Refugio Week tackles a week section of the GR11 covering some of the most spectacular and highest legs in the Ordesa National Park and the Valle de Tena.

As a bonus, we’ll take a side trip up Monte Perdido – the third highest summit in the Pyrenees at 3355 metres.

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