Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain
FB blocked my blog post about camping in the mountains, citing that it didn't meet "community standards"! 😱 What? You've got to be joking. A genuine attempt to write real content, not AI, no adverts, no bad language, no politics, no affiliated links & not even one link to my own business. Real content, hoping to assist others & written by a human, well me 🤣. Well **** you FB. Thank goodness for the Fediverse, a drop of sanity in an ocean of madness.
Time to leave FB for good methinks.
I wrote this for a friend of mine who is interested in preparing an overnight camp in the mountains but is a bit wary of the weight to be carried. This is to encourage her and give her a place to start the journey of what to bring and what to pack. I then thought I would share it with you here on my blog in case it assisted anybody else.
https://elperronegro.com/posts/2024-06-26-lightweight-backpacking-gear/
1/2 Sometimes when we head into the mountains, things don't always go according to plan. Yesterday, we ran into some tough challenges on a trail that was overgrown with waist high, spiky shrubs, leaving us with some bruises and cuts on our legs. To escape this, we decided to veer off the trail and make our way directly uphill to a ridge line further away.
Last night, as part of the annual fiesta we had the "Noche de Agua", the world's biggest water fight. An hour of mayhem that finishes at 1am and is followed by hours of partying in the town. Exciting, vibrant and uniquely Spanish!
After living here 22 years though, and not getting any younger, @khusky and I had a few glasses of wine before retiring early with a good book 🤣
A successful afternoon. This might not seem much, to you tech wizards out there in the Fediverse, but I managed to get my first containers (docker) working on my Synology NAS.
I now have a Hiking Trail database (Wanderer) and Recipe database (Mealie) working locally.
The view from our "dinner table" (a flat rock surrounded by soft grasses) a few nights ago as the sun started to set. All we could hear was the sound of the cascading waters of the Rio Lanjarón. Ahead and to the right is the Cerro de Caballo.
Morning light on Cerro de Caballo (3009m) reflected perfectly in the small lake by Laguna de Nájera as we get ready to strike camp
A marvelous 2 day backpacking trek into the upper reaches of the Lanjarón Valley in Spain's Sierra Nevada mountains. Still lots of snow which form tunnels through which the river flows. Beautiful scenery of mountains, rivers, wildflowers and a feeling of remoteness.The trek is 26km in total with 1500 metres ascent/descent.
Video 3:52
Did I tell you I like snow tunnels? This image from the upper Lanjaron Valley a couple of days ago
All packed up & ready for tomorrow's jaunt up the 15km Rio Lanjaron valley & reaching the Laguna de Lanjaron at 3000m tomorrow pm. Returning following day via the Verea Corta & lagunas at Bolanos, Cuadrado & Caballo. Maybe summiting Cerro de Caballo along the way? Taking spikes as I have heard some trails still affected by hard snow in the mornings.
Pack weight is 5kg + 1.5kg consumables and 0.7kg camera equipment.
@[email protected] it's 11am and its 100°C. It will generally cook from 10am until whenever we are ready to eat. Afternoon temp expect 150°C. We adjust the direction of the oven/shields if we want lower temps
The ultimate slow cooker, nothing overcooks
Our trusty sun/solar oven at work early this morning. A dhal curry is gently going to cook for hours during the day.
We bought this oven some 15+ years ago and its given excellent service. Anybody with some DIY skills could make this (I have none!). Its relatively simple, a black box with a parabolic aluminium shield. A very efficient, free energy resource.
Been messing about trying to convert some very old outdated/unused mobile phones to be used as GPS devices in the hills. Might as well get some value from them, yes?
BQ Aquarius 4.5 running Ubuntu Touch OS - big fail. Bricked it :sablobsmilehappy:
OnePlus 3 running e/os/ (Android) - big fail at loading Lineage OS until I luckily hit the right combination of recovery buttons that led to a complete restart of e/os/. Now functioning well just as a standalone GPS device using OSMAnd+ for mapping
The weather forecasts said rain/storms from early morning throughout the day. I was somewhat suspect as the norm this time of year is for cloud build up mid-afternoon and maybe some thunderstorms late afternoon. Anyway I heeded their warning so today we changed venue from high mountain to low mountain. We hiked in the Forests of the Cumbres Verdes with an easy escape available.
Anyway we had a lovely walk. Here's a 2 minute video of the hike.
I've joined a Peertube instance to produce a series of short hiking and mountain videos of my travels through southern Spain.
As a bit of a test today, I filmed our regular morning dog walk. Please bear with me, I have recently acquired a DJI Pocket 2 and it is all a bit new.
I intend for the videos to be either "Silent" or with easy listening music, no narrative. I'm probably not that natural a speaker anyway and the landscapes should do the talking, not me! 😀
Trumpet Gentian found on a hillside at 2500m in the Sierra Nevada a few days ago. Proper name I think is Gentiana alpina (or Southern gentian)
I've upgraded our Petzl Via Ferrata lanyards in preparation for our forthcoming July trip to the Dolomites. These "Scorpio Vertigos" weigh only 380 each (+ pully) so are quite a weight saving on the previous models which we have.
There are more and more Via Ferratas popping up here in Andalucia so the old kits will still be well utilised.
Yesterdays early morning start from our bivouac site had us ascending using an easy snow staircase that led up 400 meters to the ridge line. We arrived to meet the sun and walk the high ridges southwards, going up Cerro de Caballo, before dropping steeply back down to the car. By lunchtime, a couple of hours later, we were enjoying a cold beer in Lanjarón.
An excellent two days that will live long in the memory.
First light reaches the mountains of the Alayos del Dilar group with Corazon de la Sandia prominent. Behind the outskirts of the city of Granada.
What a morning! This was our view when the suns rays reached us yesterday morning after a 2 hour ascent through the dawns shadows. In front of us the magnificent Cerro de Caballo, Europe's most southerly and westerly 3000m peak.
There is much more snow here this June than I can remember from previous years. All good news for this summers irrigation supplies in the Alpujarras
