Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain

Archives for December 2021

My First Christmas Jumper!

Published on 15-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
The story behind receiving my very first dodgy Christmas Jumper at the ripe old age of 66!

Ruta de los Mineros, Sierra de Lujar

Published on 15-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
For many years I have gazed south to the rather uninspiring lump of the Sierra de Lujar. This small mountain range nearly 2000m high has never inspired me to walk it's seemingly boring wooded hillsides. A day with the Nomads Walking Group there has changed my opinion

First tentative steps up a mountain

Published on 11-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
I climbed my first hill in 1963, the year that President Kennedy was shot and when I was just eight years old. My Dad was an accountant and had a job doing the books of a pub in Appleby in Cumbria. On a day off he drove me to the village of Dufton and we set off up Dufton Pike

Memories of Blizzards

Published on 03-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
Blizzards, snowdrifts, gales, frostbite, snow blindness, buried tents, floods, hardship, cold, sleepless nights. It must be summer then in deepest Patagonia.

Memories of Patagonia - #1 Blizzards

Published on 03-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
Blizzards, snowdrifts, gales, frostbite, snow blindness, buried tents, floods, hardship, cold, sleepless nights. It must be summer then in deepest Patagonia.

Kiersten & the Pendulum - Via Ferrata John Hogbin, Zafarraya

Published on 01-12-2021 by El Perro Negro
Well, that day was different. A first visit for me to the Via Ferrata paradise that is found at John Hogbin, Zafarraya. Lots of steep ladders (some decidedly more wobbly than others), Tyrolean Traverses, rungs, zip wires and cable bridges to negotiate. All good, clean and exposed fun in the sun!