Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain
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The return journey involved the spectacular traverse path north of Picacho Alto 1776m to the Collado de Abantos followed by zig zag descent westwards down to meet the forest road that returned us to our cars.
Didn't see anybody on this route of 14km with 1030m of ascent and descent. Recommended.
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A few minutes away is the superb summit pyramid. A small col in a dramatic situation is the place to have a rest and admire the plunging rock scenery.
The scramble to the summit is simple but needs care. The summit itself is small and airy, just as a summit should be.
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The Corazon de la Sandia (1885m) is is one of our favorite hikes. We started an ascent yesterday in the cold morning air of the Dilar Valley. Crossing the Rio Dilar we followed the twisting gorge of the Rambla del Rio Seca for 3km then heading up a steep slope, on a faint path, directly to the col R of the peak.
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Big day today on Corazon de la Sandia. There is no easy way up this peak, easiest route involves over 1000m of ascent & 14km. Nevertheless, despite the name, the "Heart of the Watermelon" is a dramatic peak.
Will write more tomorrow about the route. Until then here's a view from it's rocky summit, looking towards the main Sierra Nevada range. The wonderful mountain scenery in between needs few words. It's tremendous!
Evening light over Lanjaron and the cliffs of Tajos Colorao tonight. Clouds building over the Sierra Nevada behind
A tiny 21€ Lillygo LoRa board with antenna hooked up to my Meshtastic network.
onboarding easier than but uses only LoRa for communication. Range testing next.
You can tell I'm from Yorkshire. Commercial 3d boxes cost twice as much as the cost of the radio itself, so I drilled some holes in the original box it came in. Job done 🤣
So proud of my two daughters. I just couldn't ever get them interested in climbing hills & mountains. Now, both in their 40's, they are qualified mountain leaders, do SAR stuff and go out at night into the hills to play in the snow. Why couldn't I get them to do that? 😂
Believe it or not this is on Mam Tor in the Peak District
I've always been interested in navigation. From reading wonderfully detailed paper maps by a winter fireside to micro navigating my way out difficult mountain terrain in a blizzard. Navigation has been made much simpler recently due to sophisticated GPS mapping systems. It's all interesting stuff. And, just when you thought we couldn't get much better .... Quantum Navigation appears out of the gloom. Interesting eh?
Been testing better antennas on today's dog walk that have expanded the range and increased the reliability of my local Reticulum Network. Even managed to voice transmit but words were lost due to the howling wind 😀.
Two Groups of Castaways Marooned on the Same Island: One Did Everything Right; One Didn’t
https://explorersweb.com/auckland-island-castaways-contrast-in-survival/
That's the last time I'm ever going into an Ikea. Must have done 5 miles twisting and turning down alleyways and walkways lined with people and products 😂. No direct route to the part of the store you are looking for. At the end ... the €18 product we wanted. Online only, if at all, for me from now on.
@jds some images from . Descriptions in the alt text
Spring is in the air
Yesterday we came across an interesting and unusual feature that we've never encountered before in mountains (outside of Kamchatka in 2013). A deep crack/crevice was found near the summit of Morron de Enmedio at 1098m in the Sierra Elvira. Coming up out of the crack was a constant strong blast of warm wind. This feature (the Raja Santa cavity) is just west of the summit if you want to experience this for yourselves. Natural warming for a cold winters day!
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As we had never been to these mountains before we called this walk "The Sierras We've Never Heard Of"! The Sierra Elvira lie just NW of Granada city. Good motorway connections mean the start is just 45 mins drive from our home base in Lanjaron.
We started the walk at the large parking area at Collado de los Pinos and made our way up through pine forests and open slopes to the Collado del Morrón del Punta.
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