Mulhacen

Mulhacén

Mulhacén is the highest mountain in continental Spain, in Sierra Nevada near Costa del Sol . Since I was working in Málaga, I seized the moment and tested the feeling resulting form climbing up to the altitude of 3481 meters.

Nothing much had to be done for preparations. I had conveniently some Bündnerfleisch brought as a gift by Kari and Irene from Switzerland. Of course, I should have taken the Alpujarra air-dried ham, but I didn't have that at the moment. Additionally dried breadsticks, chocolate and water, and my provisions were ready. Radio woke me up at six o'clock, and I hit the road at seven o'clock at this beautiful Sunday morning. While I was driving towards the mountains, the sun rose behind the sea nicely, the whole circle in less than two minutes.

Village of Capileira is situated at altitude of 1436 meters; only Trévelez in the next river valley has higher elevation in Spain. I left my car just after Capileira, at about 1500 meters level. The time was 10.00. The road continued after this point still, but it was really narrow and mangled by the autumn rains. While I was hiking upwards, a Spanish group passed me by with their car waving at me since I nicely stepped aside. I cut some serpentine curves in the road, and after a while this same group passed me by again, I had been faster on foot! I continued and soon reached a resting place that was under construction. This was the place the car drivers had to leave their cars at latest. After some curves I reached again that same group, and now they expressed their astonishment about my speed. To that I just replied that my goal was to reach Mulhacén, and I still didn't know difficult or time consuming it would be.

One hour has passed, and I reached the limit after which there grew no trees any more. But even up to this point the forest hadn't been natural, just planted pines in straight lines. The road continued taking me upwards and soon it was time for the first snack. After this, the slope wasn't so steep any more, and the road was more like a means to get closer the actual mountain tops. Soon I reached a place from which I could see Trévelez in the next valley. At this point the wind grow so powerful that I had to put my fleece jacket, cap and gloves on.

The ridge before me was in the right place to be Mulhacén according to my map, but I wasn't sure of that. So I decided to follow the road until I would be sure of the right target. At two o'clock I had reached a point where I could be certain enough that the slope to the right of me would take me to the highest point. Up you go! At this point I had already walked some 15 km and climbed over 1500 meters vertically, so my climbing wasn't among the fastest in this about 35 degrees steep, occasionally breaking and snowy slope, having strong winds around me. From time to time, I looked back and compared my placement to the top of Pico de Veleta in the edge of the skiing slopes, which is the second highest peak in this area with 3391 meters. I thought I was still lower than that when I suddenly reached the peak at three o'clock. Obviously, the horizon and long distance had caused my misjudgment.

I enjoyed the peace at the top of Sierra Nevada almost one hour without anyone else coming there. The weather was nice and comfortable with temperature at zero, but the wind coming from the north was really powerful. Luckily the north face of Mulhacén has such form that it sling the wind straight upwards and the top had quite calm conditions most of the time. I had my lunch covered by aluminum blanket and enjoying the scenery. In the left, I could see the desert of Almería one hundred kilometers away, in the middle Motril and the seashore and in the right Pico de Veleta. While being up on the top it was of course mandatory to notify my friends of this accomplishment; the GSM telephone worked alright after finding a proper place.

I started the descending at 15:50 and decided to use another route to see, if the direction I had originally thought of would have been the right one. It would have been, and easier also, because it was not so steep. I hurried since I figured out that I would have difficulties reaching my car before dark. The wind helped me, since it was so powerful that from time to time I was forced to run, so hard it pushed from behind. I was pleased to notice that my clothing really was windproof as promised! Although the return was much faster than the climbing, it was no surprise that dark fell before I got to the car. There was light enough for me to use the stripes for stopping the fires in the edges of the forest. In the end, I had to slow down because of my left knee that started aching also. I reached my Twingo at 7:00 pm, which meant that my trip had lasted nine hours. I had used five hours for ascending, one hour being on the top and three hours for descending. The elevation difference was about 2000 meters and walking distance around 30 kms. And I felt like that! On the other hand really worn, on the other hand enjoyably exercised.

Since the driving to home succeeded without incidents in two and half hours, I was able to say to myself that I had had a wonderful trip, the worst part being that I did it alone, without anyone to share it with.

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