Micro Blog

4/ "Ruta Nocturna - Sierra Nevada"

Only needed head torches close to the end of the walk when the moon disappeared behind the mountain. Beautiful sky! Good to take our minds off the arduous track and tired weary legs 😅. We knew we were getting closer when we saw the orange moon dipping into the Med Sea

3/ "Ruta Nocturna - Sierra Nevada"

After sunset we headed into the darkening night sky on our long journey to Capileira. Our finishing point, 28km and nearly 2000 metres of descent later. We had the moon and the milky way to guide us.

2/ "Ruta Nocturna - Sierra Nevada"

Sunset delivered as expected, especially the alpenglow eastwards to Mulhacen/Alcazaba.

1/ "Ruta Nocturna - Sierra Nevada"

Started with a 6pm bus uplift to los Posiciones del Veleta. Hiked to Col de Carihuela and hence to our dinner/sunset viewpoint on top of Loma Pua at just over 3200m. Amazing location with views in all directions

#Hiking #Backpacking #Walking #Mountains #Spain #Photography #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Outdoors #Andalucia

Inside This Clay Jug
by Kabir

Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,
and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!
All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.

Last night #SierraNevada #Spain
#stars #milkyway

The Internet of Consent

Click “I agree” to continue. You didn’t click it, though. Or maybe you did? I don’t know, it doesn’t matter

https://www.anildash.com/2025/05/27/internet_of_consent/

The GPS on this cheap, small, lightweight Lilygo T-Deck Plus running #Meshcore is very accurate (screen shows connected to 12 satellites). Battery lasts for ages just using the map facility (not the #LoRa radio #messaging). You need to download the map tiles and map format you wish separately. Might use it up in the mountains this week during our night hike (will have backup 😀 )

#hiking #walking #backpacking #maps #mapping

https://meshcore.co.uk/

Next week 6 of us are planning a "Ruta Nocturnal", a 26km night crossing of Spain's Sierra Nevada from Pradollano in the NW to Capileira in the SE. Most of the route will be above 3000m altitude with a big descent of nearly 2000m. Highlights to include dinner with wine at the Col de Carihuela 😆, whilst watching the sunset & of course the tranquillity & beauty of hiking under the stars. Should be fun. Hoping for a dry & clear night.

#hiking #walking #spain #adventure #nightwalks

This pm I took a huge gamble. I installed PostmarketOS, a mobile linux distribution, on my OnePlus6. It's buggy but I wanted to have a play around. Very easy to install via their web flasher.

Unfortunately, it's very buggy. Not many usable apps yet for my purposes. After playing around though & investigating I realised that I could install Waydroid. Game changer as Waydroid installs a LineageOS container within PostmarketOS. That way I had access to all my normal apps via F-Droid. Result!

It's always a bit of a heart stopping moment for me when you use ADB tools etc to flash a new OS onto an old phone. Will it work? Will I brick it?

Anyway managed to flash LineageOS onto an old OnePlus6 this morning. It's like having a new phone and a de-Googled one at that. Satisfying!

#lineage #android #mobile

2/2

Some photos showing the dramatic situation of yesterdays climb on Veleta

#Spain #RockClimbing #Mountaineering #Spain

Cool day on Veleta yesterday!

Took the classic Paco Pepe route (4+) but decided to spice things up. After 1st 4 pitches, traversed R along the narrow & exposed Paso de Lagarto to the Variante Silvia (5) for 2 spectacular & sustained finishing pitches

Needed help from the rope at top of the crux which verges on 5+ for few meters. Thankfully Felipe there to assist. Will come back & try to climb 100% next summer. Training on arm strength is required!

#Spain #RockClimbing #Mountaineering

1/2

Wandering into the Sierra Nevada's Forgotten Zone - A few days ago I had a wonderful overnight trip into a quiet and remote corner of Spain's Sierra Nevada. The access areas were busy but once clear of them, despite the August bank holiday, we didn't see anybody on the trails for 16 hours

https://elperronegro.com/posts/2025-08-16-wandering-forgotten-zone-sierra-nevada/

#Hiking #Backpacking #Walking #Mountains #Spain #Photography #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Outdoors #Andalucia

A few more night shots from our backpacking trip a few nights ago. Night photography is a bit new for me but I enjoyed the experience and will certainly try some more

#Hiking #Backpacking #Walking #Mountains #Spain #Photography #Outdoors #Andalucia #night #nightphotography #stars

Last nights view southwards past the slopes of Tozal del Cartujo.

#SierraNevada #Spain #nightphotography #night #stars #milkyway #camping #backpacking

About to head up into the mountains. Camping next to a lake in the cool air at nearly 3000 metres, under the stars, sounds attractive.

Heading against the grain as all the day trippers will be leaving the mountains as we enter them. Again, tomorrow morning we shall be leaving as they arrive. Sounds good to me.

Whilst in the UK last month my brothers & I came across an old leather case of my fathers. It contained hundreds of letters sent between him & my mother. It's a treasure trove!

Here is an extract written by him to my mother from his Royal Navy ship, HMS Glasgow on 24th February 1946. I particularly like the formality & style of writing.

Makes me wonder about the digital legacy we eventually shall leave behind. How interesting or searchable & discoverable will that be?

#history #writing

I enjoyed this scramble so much I decided to write a blog post

https://elperronegro.com/posts/2025-08-11-scrambling-campanitas-ridge-sierra-nevada/

#Hiking #Scrambles #Scrambling #Walking #Mountains #Spain #Outdoors #Andalucia #adventure

2/2 Then its glorious scrambling to the exit of the Canuto Norte del Veleta. From here the Fidel Fierro route to the summit is taken, care needed on the broken rock walls.

The climb finishes on the very summit of Veleta. Yesterday our group (average age 65+!) reached the summit to the bemused stares of groups of younger hikers who had walked up to the summit.

A superb day scramble for the adventurous.

#Scrambling # Mountaineering #Mountains #Spain #Landscape #LandscapePhotography #Outdoors

1/2 The "Arista de las Campanitas" from Cerro los Machos to the summit of Veleta is a superb scramble with an alpine nature. We did this in the hot sun, the ridge never falling below 3000m.

Grading wise, a grade 3S scramble but there are some very exposed sections and some short rock climbing 3 sections.

It passes over the easily scrambled, though sharp, ridge of Zacatin 3327m before arriving at the crux section, the ascent of the Campanario pinnacle 3328m. Rope could be useful here.