Blog Entre Montañas
Archivo de la categoría ‘Hiking’ 
For those of you who don’t know it, in Barcelona there is a great place to do sports: It is The Les Aigües Road in the Tibidabo Mountain.
It is a road located in the Collserola Park, and it is easily accessible. It is highly recommended for walking, running or cycling, as we can see a stunning view of Barcelona.
The road runs along the sea side of the Collserola mountain and it extends between the Besos and Llobregat rivers.
The path allows offers a great view of the city of Barcelona. On one side we can see the city of Barcelona in its entirety and the sea at the end. On the other sice, a large forest that stretches across the county of Vallés.
However, if the weather is clear, we can see Llobregat river delta and El Prat Airport, Garraf and Ordal massif, Montserrat, Sant Llorenç del Munt, Montseny, El Maresme, the Pyrenees, with the Puigmal and Cadi (the most importat peak in this Area).
The access to this road is from the Ronda de Dalt (exit 5, Vall d’Hebron). You have to pass near the emergency entrance of the Ciutat Sanitaria Vall d’Hebron located in the Arquitectura Street. Follow this street until it ends, turn left and it will be near the church of Sant Genis del Agudells. The starting point.
The Annapurnas Sanctuary is located in the Annapurna region. It is bounded on the west with the Barbunh Khola and Doplo, and on the east with the Buri Gandaki. The central mountains of Nepal are dominated by the Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu.
Pokhara is the principal town in this area, and is the point where we must start the Annapurna trek. At lakeshore PhewanTal, you can enjoy excellent views of Machhaouchhare and Annapurna, although it is difficult to not find the mountains covered by clouds. Unlike other areas, this area is not protected from the monsoon’s attacks, which causes the mountains to be covered with clouds.
I’m attaching a video of this spectacular trek in the Annapurna Sanctuary of Nepal.
Oh Eun Sun
A few days ago I spoke about Edurne Passaban’s adventure. She wantes become the first woman to climb the fourteen “Eight Thousand” on the planet.
Well, Edurne Pasaban had to settle for being the second woman to get it as the Korean climber Oh Eun Sun crowned, this past 27/04, the Annapurna peak, becoming the first woman to climb the fourteen “Eight Thousand”.
Two climbers competed to get this title. Two were located in the basecamp of their last ascent: the Korean climber in the Annapurna basecamp and the Spanish climber in Pagma Sishma basecamp.
But the controversy is served: the Spanish climber had previously expressed doubts about whether the South Korean had crowned the Kanchenjunga peak: the third highest mountain in the world, the highest in India, and the second highest in Nepal.
Fueling this controversy, three hours after the Korean’s feat, Edurne posted a message on Twitter: “Cold and snowy here in Chinese basecamp. Congratulations to those who today have climed Annapurna. We will continue with our work, time will tell.” She was making a clear reference to the controversy surrounding the Kachenjunga peak.
14 peaks of planet
The Himalaya Mountain Ranges have the highest peak in the world, including Mount Everest with its 8,850 meters of altitude; but it is also the highest cemetery and dump.
On the white snows peaks of Everest, all kinds of garbage have acumulated: empty oxygen bottles, the remains of camps, every kind of utensil and even the bodies of those people who died in the attempt to crown the highest peak on earth.
So, a Sherpa expedition has made the decision to collect trash that has been accumulated over the over decades in the final ascent of Everest, known as the Death Zone.
Each Sherpa may bring down about 20 kilos of trash on every trip, so a total of 3,000 kilos of rubbish can be lowered.
Nepalese companies will pay the cost of the expedition, all related to tourism.
This team will also bring down the bodies of climbers who died in the attempt. Previously, the rescue of these bodies had been excluded to those below 8,000 meters. But this expedition aims to recover these bodies, whethere, the families want it or not.
The expedition will take special stretchers to drag the bodies carefully.
Trash on Mount Everest
Dead man in Everest
The trek of Pedra en Sec or GR-221 is a long distance trail that passes through the Serra de Tramuntana in Mallorca from end to end.
It’s called Pedra en Sec (Dry Stone) due to the large number of buildings made with dry wall construction that we can find along the way: banks, mines, walls, etc.
The trail is about 283 km (175 miles) and uses, for the most part, the old roads that run close to the highest peaks of the Sierra de Tramuntana in Mallorca, which in many cases exceed 1000 meters altitude.
When the path is completed, it will link the town of Andratx with Pollença in 8 segments, crossing the Sierra de Tramuntana from west to east. At the end of each segment there will be a shelter, but villages that we find along the way also offer shelter.
The segments go through distinct landscapes: coastal areas, areas little or no inhabited, towns and villages, farmland, forests and the highest peaks. They all have a significant presence of the Pedra en Sec (Dry Stone) buildings in the form of walls, terraces, roads, houses, etc.
Many of the shelters are located in places that can be considered natural viewpoints and, at the same time, they all are associated with very important assets of the Serra de Tramuntana, both ethnological, and natural, historic or cultural.
The shelters at the end of each segments, sorted from Andratx to Pollença, are:
- La Trapa: An old monastery founded by monks exiled from France in 1810.
- Sa Coma d’en Vidal: A rustic mountain home.
- Banyalbufar – Esporles: Not built yet.
- Can Boi: An old Deià townhouse.
- Muleta: An old telegraph station built in 1912.
- Tossals Verds: A rustic mountain home.
- Son Amer: A rustic mountain home.
- Pont Romà: An old slaughterhouse of Pollença.The route that we propose here consists of five segments: from Valldemossa to Pollensa. Only five segments have been built actually, the rest are still under construction:
- Segment 1: Valdemossa – Deia
- Segment 2: Deià – Sóller or shelters of La Muleta
- Segment 3: Sóller o shelters of La Muleta – Font des Prat o shelters of Tossal Verds
- Segment 4: Font des Prat o shelters of Tossal Verds – shelters of Son Amer or Lluch Monastery
- Segment 5: Shelters of Son Amer or Lluch Monastery – PollençaThe segments are the following distances and slopes:
- Segment 1: 8 Km (5 milles) – Positive Difference 520 m – Negative Slope 800 m.
- Segment 2: 10 Km (6.21 milles) – Positive Difference 310 m – Negative Slope 320 m.
- Segment 3: 30 Km (18.50 milles) – Positive Difference 950 m – Negative Slope 400 m.
- Segment 4: 16 Km (10 milles) – Positive Difference 900 m – Negative Slope 700 m.
- Segment 5: 17 Km (10.60 milles) – Positive Difference 200 m – Negative Slope 700 m.You can access the rest of the information about this route in the following link: Pedra en sec – GR 221 – Serra de Tramuntana in Mallorca.
Pedra en Sec - GR221
The Pacific Trash Vortex is a Pacific Ocean area where tons of garbage cover a vast extension, estimated to double the state of Texas.
This marine dump is located at a point where currents of the Pacific North have caught tons of plastic that are suspended between the coordinates 135 º to 155 º W and 35 º to 42 º N.
Despite its size and density, the Pacific Trash Vortex is not visible on satellite photographs, nor can be located it on radar because they are small plastic particles suspended in water.
Unlike biodegradable waste, plastic photodegradable disintegrates in smaller pieces that become polymers. This process continues until the molecular level.
As floating photodegradable plastic waste becomes smaller and smaller, it concentrates on the top until it decays, and is eaten by aquatic organisms that live near the surface of the ocean. Therefore, garbage waste enters completely into the food chain.
The existence of the Pacific Trash Vortex was discovered in 1988 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States. The agency found high levels of accumulated plastic in certain areas of the Pacific that they call “Eastern Garbage Patch – EGP.
The Eastern Garbage Patch has been formed gradually over recent years as a result of marine pollution and North Pacific currents.
Scientists say the land is in a intense seismic activity phase. After the Sumatra’s earthquake in 2004 that provoked a tsunami that caused more than 200,000 victims, a season of major earthquakes gave way. Most recent:
- Turkey: Magnitude 5.9 – March 8th – 54 victims so far.
- Haiti: Magnitude 7 – January 12th – 217,000 victims.
- Chile: Magnitude 8.8 – February 27th – 802 victims.
- Taiwan: Magnitude 6.4 – March 4th – No victims.
- California: Magnitude 5.9. February 4th – No victims.
- Japan: Magnitude 7 – February 26th – No victims.
- Papua New Guinea: Magnitude 6.2 – February 1st – No victims.
- Solomon Islands: Magnitude 7.1 – January 3rd – No victims.
But scientists also suggest that the large number of earthquakes in recent years isn’t a special geological phenomenon. According to the scientists it could also be simply by chance.
Each year there is an earthquake of a magnitude higher than 8, about twenty between 7 and 8, and more than 100 between 6 and 7. So this year 2010 fits inside the average. In addition, scientists say it isn’t probable that the recent earthquakes are related between them.
Here’s an image with the geographic location of recent earthquakes. As data to highlight: two earthquakes of magnitude 7 in this year, one in Japan and another in Haiti. In Japan 0 vicitimas, in Haiti, unfortunately, with more than 200,000 dead.
Recent earthquakes map
Also, a small map is shown with the location of the latest earthquake in Turkey.
Earthquakes in Turkey
This past summer (August 2009) we hiked the GR-20 in Corsica, a long distance route of over 180 kilometers (about 110 milles) from the north to the south of Corsica in 15 days, from shelter to shelter.
In this post I want to explain how the shelters work the in Corsica. It can be summarized this in one word: BAD, and if you want more details I will say that Corsica shelters are the WOSRT.
Let me explain with a little more detail why I think that the Corsican shelters are a disaster in all aspects:
- First of all, the booking in the shelters is a total chaos. It seems that until the last year, we weren’t able to book in advance: when you arrived at the shelter if there was room, perfect, but if not you had to do bivouac. But begining in 2009 you are able to book in advance through the Internet at www.parc-corse.org
The problem is that when you book your reservation upon arrival, maybe the shelter is full and you don’t have any place to stay. The reason is that the keeper doesn’t know how many reservations have been made over the Internet every day. If a large group comes without reserving, the keeper makes the decision to place them or not.Several times, during our trek in Corsica, we saw people who arrived too late to the shelter with a reservation an they had no place to stay because The keeper had already given the places to other people.
- Secondly, they are very dirty. When you go to shelter, you know that they aren’t hotels and you have to adapt to what you find. But Corsican shelter are really dirty. On several occasions we literally got eaten alive by bugs, with our arms and legs full of bites. An unpleasant experience. So if you will be hiking the GR-20 don’t forget to bring a good antihistamine. Furthermore, the services such as showers, toilets, laundry, etc, are virtually abandoned without any maintenance or cleaning.
- Food is scarce and poor. The pasta dish every night, inedible. And the list continues.
But for me the worst thing wasn’t the food, or bugs, or dirt, etc. Without a doubt, what most bothered me was the keeper’s rude behavior.
In short, if you decide to hike the Corsica GR-20 in shelter don’t forget some food, a good antihistamine and above all a lot of patience.
There is another option to not suffer the Corsicans shelter, and it is to bring your own tent. In all shelter, without exception, there is a free camping area. In this case, you pay for the use of the services such as toilets, showers, etc.
This is a very good option if you want to minimize the inconvenience of the Corsican shelter.
GR20 Córcega
Centralita
A few days ago I spoke about Las Tablas de Daimiel Park; it was declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1980 and Wetland of International Importance in 1982.
At the end of last year an underground fire put this weak ecosystem in very grave danger. The astonishment news spread in all the news TV programs. Personally, I had never heard of this type of underground fire.
But it seems that underground fires are a phenomenon much more common than we think: Currently, there is a town called Centralita in the United States, located four hours from New York City, that has been suffering from an underground fire since the 80s. Only with time, at least a century or two, will put it out.
The fire was declared about a half a century ago, in a large underground pocket coal reserve. Today, the fire continues to consume the coal strata in this region.
In 1962 a burning pile of trash came into contact with the coal subsurface layer in the locality. The fire spread through the bowels of this area. The Centralita inhabitants took numerous actions to extinguish the fire, but the fire spread through the old coal mining tunnels and nothing could be done.
Years passed, and the Centralita inhabitants realized the danger of living in this area: the rate of carbon monoxide in the air was increasing and in 1981 a child died when a crack opened under his feet.
Centralia Today looks like a ghost town, only a handful of residents have refused to leave the area while the bowels of the earth are consumed slowly.
Some weeks ago we went to Ordesa and Perdido Peak National Park (El Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido) in the Huesca Pyrenees.
There are a lot of excursions in this park that you can do. Most of them are of medium difficulty, without any technical complications. Most trips begin at La Pradera, where you can find a bar, a restaurant, and some services such as a shop and a park information office. It is also the busiest area, but luckily most people just follow the river up to La Cola de Caballo, a beautiful waterfall inside in the Soaso Range. In fact, this trip is known as the Superhighway to Ordesa. If you have been in the park during Holy Week you will know that this name isn’t an exaggeration.
When we went to Ordesa Park, we hiked the Hunters Route (La Ruta de los Cazadores), a nice trail halfway between La Pradera and the Soaso Range on the southern slope. The next day we hiked Faja de Racún, the same route but this time on the northern slope.
Both trails are great and you can get an idea of the park ecosystem, as you walk away from the bustle of La Pradera and surrounding areas.
Before we went to the park we heard talk about the famous “clavijas“. They are a few air steps in the mountain walls, created by metal pins inserted into the rock, like stairs. So we couldn’t contain our curiosity and, from the Faja de Racún, we approached to Las Clavijas de Cotatuero.
Just say that we tryed to climb up them, and I wasn’t able to climb over the first step. Once I was stopped in the first pin, after looking under my feet and seeing a free fall of about 200 meters, I decided to return to the starting point.
Then we saw people climb up them, but honestly I think it’s crazy to climb them without a harness to secure ypurself and minimize the risk of falling.
We now have an excuse to return to the Ordesa Park: We will go to climb Las Clavijas de Cotatuero but next time we will go with a harness to avoid unnecessary risks).
Clavijas de Cotatuero
