Browsing through the rules and regulations for Picos I see we are supposed to carry with us amongst other things a torch (the event starts at 4am) altimeter, compass and map. Ive never used an altimeter in my life but the head-torch Ive already got. I bought one two years ago and its still in the box. This very evening I have the opportunity to inaugurate it. Tonight theres a nocturnal 12K on Monte Pajariel which I hadnt originally intended to do but itll be a good test of my head-torch running ability and also to see how Ive recovered from Last Saturday.
By my reckoning its not the night of San Juan (or the summer solstice for us pagans) for another week but no worries..it's as good excuse as any to run 12km along the stony trails of Monte Pajariel in total darkness. The event was orchestrated and organized by Aquilianos veteran Domingo the mountain goat and this was a strange but not totally new experience. I once ran a nocturnal marthon with Miguel Mushroom when we shared a rather inappropriate caving headtorch between us. This time I sported a sleeker, lighter modal that only let me down when the batteries ran out near the end. Next time I'll buy some duracell ones.
12 strange and silent kilometres with occassional hills in 57 minutes.
Head torch OK.
I'm staring down the barrell of some night runs too, though not really by choice, just that the days are so short here now that it seems to be the only option. I don't fancy long runs in the streets, so that means the beach at night with a headtorch. Nice to know it's feasible!
12 clicks in 57 minutes at night with hills is a choice effort.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:I don't fancy long runs in the streets, so that means the beach at night with a headtorch. Nice to know it's feasible!
That sounds perfect MLCM.. and the sound of the sea might cure your insomnia.
Funny this... on the packet for my head-torch it put "suitable for camping and bush-walking".
1. The terrain.
The Picos de Europa is a limestone mountain range whose close proximity to the coast (some 20kms away) signifies huge height gains and peculiar climatic conditions. The highest peaks exceed 2600 metres whilst emblematic villages such as Puente Poncebos lie at a mere 200m above sea level. When moist air from the Atlantic meets the giant limestone walls, authentic oceans of cloud and mist accumulate along the northern face of the range. The southern flanks are influenced by a more continental climate of extreme temperatures and lower rainfall.
Geographically the region is well defined.
The western section is called Cornion.
The central part is Urrieles.
The eastern most massif is Andara.
These mountainous blocks are divided by rivers which wind their tortuous way through mighty canyons the most famous being the Cares.
The travesia integral of the Picos de Europa crosses these three massifs in one day. It starts next to the lakes of Enol, crosses the Cares gorge and finally ends up in the village of Sotres (see map). It doesn’t actually scale any peaks but the height gains are brutal and accumulate more than 5000m of climbing and the same in descent. The total distance to cover varies between 50 and 60 kms.. it depends who you ask. Aside from the physical challenge it is the perfect opportunity to explore, albeit briefly, a mountainous region steeped in history and tradition.
I’ll try and take as long as possible.
Many years ago, I went on foot from Poncebos in Asturias to Caín in León. The view is really amazing and the path was quite narrow sometimes, which could be dangerous especially if there are people coming the other. Besides, the river Cares is below which in case of falling down could be terrible
Thanks Antonio!
We have to cross the Cares gorge at some point and one of the feeding stations is in Caín.
And don't worry, I intend to be very careful, even if it means not finishing.
2. The cheese.
Ive always loved my cheese. It used to be just Cheddar but when in my late teens I discovered abroad I sampled blue cheese for the first time. It changed my life.
Picos de Europa produces some excellent blue cheeses. Cabrales is probably the most famous. You can find it in our local supermarket but then again in this globalized day and age you can even find Wallace and Gromits finest Wensleydale in our local supermarket. What you cant find in our local supermarket is the Picón. This is an authentic collectors item of a cheese and Ive only ever seen it in the zone where its made. It might even be an illegal, extra strong bootleg cheese.. I dont know. What I do know is that its been produced for generations by the shepherds of the high mountain pastures of Andara, the eastern most massif of Picos.
And to my untrained eyes its not actually that blue.. its more a greenish brown colour which might be disconcerting for the uninitiated. The colour is a result of its elaboration. The Picón, like Cabrales, uses cow, goat and sheep milk, mixed in varying quantities and left to mature between 2 and 4 months in mountain caves. Here, temperature and humidity factors interact to encourage a mould similar to penicillin which will give the cheese its distinctive taste. Mmmmmm.
The Picos race will end in Sotres. If you carry on upwards along a road which didnt even exist until the early 90s, you will reach the isolated village of Treviso. This is where the Picón, the mother of all greenish-blue cheeses, is still made in the traditional way. Some years ago I bought one, took it home and stank the kitchen out. Mrs BB ordered me to eat it or chuck it. Miguel mushroom, ever interested in fungal related matters, promptly came around and helped me polish off the offending article. One of my reasons for running 60 mountainous kms across the Picos de Europa is to reacquaint myself with the blue veined beast.
The myth that the Picón cheese matures encrusted with cow-dung is unfounded although many people believe it including Mrs BB.
Images of the Picón on the internet are surprisingly hard to come by. This might be one.. although it looks a bit too blue to me..
3. The strangest mountain refuge in Europe.
Once upon a time I went walking in the Picos. Well, I went cycling actually, but I ended up running out of road, ditching the bike and discovering some of the mountains I’ll revisit in just over a week’s time. Almost by accident I came across the strangest mountain refuge I’d ever seen. From a distance it looked like some sort of space capsule beamed down onto an inaccessible moonscape and encased in a base of pink marshmallow concrete. There was this grizzly fellow who looked about 50 (but was probably younger) selling water outside at extortionate prices. It was a hot day and he was doing a brisk trade amongst the walkers who had strayed this far and had discovered that there were very few springs up here.
Later I discovered that the refuge, “cabaña veronica”, was in fact the gun turret of an American aircraft carrier scrapped in Bilbao and purchased by the Spanish mountaineering federation. It had been carried up to this inhospitable place piece by piece on the back of a horse called “blondie”. The grizzly fellow I’d seen was Mariano, the self appointed guardian of the customized gun turret and the highest based refuge warden in Spain in what is the smallest refuge (it admits 4 at a squeeze).
Mariano rarely descended to the valleys below and lived a spartan existence in this barren, treeless world of snow, ice and rocks between 1983 and 2007. There can’t be many people in Europe living permanently above 2300 metres of altitude and I’d hazard a guess that there’s nobody living at this altitude all by themselves.
Perhaps Mariano was a true hermit of our age, a modern day version of the early Christian monks of the Tebaida Berciana. What drove him to live in this way? Escapism? An excess of existential ponderings? Some personal tragedy? ..Whatever the reasons it seemed like a workable compromise for the social animal that we are, periods of absolute solitude followed by plenty of company as walkers passed through during the day or when bad weather forced a group of mountaineers to shelter in the gun turret overnight. Let’s call it “splendid isolation” without going the “Monty Python- 18 years down a hole/ under a juniper bush” full hog. He also provided an important liason between stricken climbers and mountain rescue.
Last summer Mariano descended from Cabaña veronica and this time for good. At least the window on his hospital ward offer views towards his beloved Picos. Cancer spares no-one and even the sterile atmosphere of high altitude offered no hiding place. Not even for Mariano.
We’ll be passing just north of cabaña veronica in the Urrieles stage of the Picos event.
A moving story, BB - thanks.
Not to make light of Mariano's life but that turret looks alarmingly like something that Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit) might have knocked up.
Cracking cheese, that.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
4. The Mecca of rock climbing.
El Naranjo de Bulnes isn’t the highest peak in Picos but it’s certainly the most recognizable and the most emblematic of all of them. This time to use the word “inaccessible” is no exaggeration. It’s an awesome lump of rock that rises from the rockscape like some great dinosaur of rock. Rock on! Hmmm.
It’s a real test for climbers with all the proper climbing gear. I for one would never, ever be able to scale it or anything similar due to my fear of heights (or rather my fear of the floor) but many do every year, following a myriad of routes of varying difficulties (from “difficult” to “holy Jesus!”
And here, hanging permanently from those terrible walls of Naranjo de Bulnes, are the ghosts of two of the most important figures in the history of the Picos de Europa.
One was The Marques of Villaviciosa, founder of the national park of Picos, the first national park of its kind in Spain. The Marques was an aristocrat, a lawyer, an Olympian (Paris 1900; silver medallist in shooting) a writer, a politician and a gentleman. He travelled the world and he died in 1941 aged 71.
The other was “el cainejo” a shepherd from Caín and life was hard in Caín to unimaginable extremes. El Cainejo’s three sons all died young in tragic accidents, one was shot, another drowned and the third fell off a rock as did his mother in law and a son in law too. El Cainejo survived them all but still didn’t make it to retirement age being gored to death by one of his own rams.
They say he was blessed with big hands and short muscular legs and that he climbed like an orang-utan.
This unlikely partnership formed by two men from worlds apart was to enter Picos mythology as Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing did in the Himalayas. Together they were the first to scale the Naranjo de Bulnes in 1904. The Marques trained by climbing in the Alps and the Pyrenees beforehand and wore specially made shoes recommended to him by English climbers. El Cainejo meanwhile not only acted as guide, he scaled the entire wall barefoot.
We’ll be passing directly below the Naranjo de Bulnes around the halfway point (bottom right hand corner of the photo).
Unbelievable BB! Are you sure you've told Mrs. BB about this race - I mean in all its glorious detail? If so, I want to meet her - she must be rather special.
Where's that smiley icon thing that symbolises shaking one's head in utter disbelief?
anlu247 Wrote:Best of luck on Saturday, BB. Take it easy!
Thanks Antonio…I will, I promise.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:Are you sure you've told Mrs. BB about this race - I mean in all its glorious detail?
Errr, yes and no.
I haven’t exactly told any fibs but I haven’t shown Mrs BB any photos like the one below either. The endless red line traces part of the longest, nastiest, hilliest bit and it’s called the Canal de Dobresengos. It comes immediately after passing through Caín (460m) where I’m told a grandson of El Cainejo still lives (the one that survived the rock jumping and the ram gorings). This climb takes us up to the Horcada de Caín at 2344m but it’s not the long haul upwards that worries me most but the descent that precedes it.
Last Sunday I had one final opportunity to test my footing on the terrain. I chose Peña Ubiña on the León/ Asturias border because setting out early I can get there, bag the peak and get back home all in a morning. It also offers the same blend of porous rocky limestone and grassy meadows which I expect to find in Picos. In fact from the summit you can even see Picos in the distance on a clear day.
It was a wonderful morning, hot, sunny, windy up top and misty in the valleys. The views were spectacular and at times I thought that this must be what high alpine meadows in Switzerland must look like. There were millions of flowers, semi-wild horses sharing the pastures with the local cows and mushrooms the size of dustbin lids. There were also lots of craggy, knee-jarring rocky sections and occasionally I had to use my hands. Nothing on the scale of the Naranjo de Bulnes though.. but enough to test my head for heights and reassure me that I was within my limits. Photos here…
Still dithering over the subject of footwear. Wore some new boots up Peña Ubiña. They were great for stability and my dodgy ankle was well protected but on the descent my feet heated up and almost caught fire. It looks like I’ll have to do it in trail runners (like everybody else) but I’m not altogether happy about it.
No more posts from me.
Picos de Europa here I come…
Your reluctant decision on footwear is probably the right one. New boots + mammoth mountain excursion could possibly = horiffic blisters/ misery. You could lightly strap your ankle(s) to offer some support whilst maintaining essential flexibility, though I'm sure you've considered this :o Carrying some form of emergency ankle-strap might be useful. I used to wear one for 5-a-side (it was an elastocated slip-on-quick type, about a fiver in Boots back then); of course my hell only lasted a meagre hour.
I'll swap my usual 'God's Speed' for a 'Come Home Safe n Sound'.
I salute you.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
That, my friend, is a mountain climb in anyone's language. I normally avoid telling people to "take care" (most people take too much care and never actually do anything signfiicant), but in your case it seems mandatory!
So, take care, and have a great race - get back more or less safely!
Im still alive MLCM!
Didnt make the second cut off time but not too despondent about it all. Managed to cross two of the three massifs of the Picos de Europa in a race of extreme technical difficulty and that was quite enough for me thank you very much. Will try to do a proper race report during the week.
