3 February 2013 El Calar

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Our lunch stop on El Calar

The weather in the valley last week was excellent, but the forecast for the weekend was for a return of the cold northerly wind. We had organised two new walks for the group, an A team harder walk and a B team easy walk, both setting off from Mark and Anne’s house in Gúéjar Sierra.
On the car park in Cozvijar at 9 a.m., sheltering behind the cars out of the wind, there were only 6 brave souls willing to pit themselves against the elements. Because there was only Hilary for Hilary’s B team walk she decided to go home and sit by the fire, leaving 5 of us to make the journey to Gúéjar.
Along with Mark and Anne there were another 4 people waiting for us, making a respectable group of 11 to walk to the top of El Calar, the hill behind Gúéjar Sierra. For a long time Mark has been extolling the virtues of this hill with its commanding views of the Sierra Nevadas.
As we set off on the short walk into Gúéjar we were protected from the wind by the hills to the north of us. It was only when we started climbing up the zig zag path that the wind hit us. One minute in the lee of the hill you were stripping off the hats, scarves and gloves, the next minute you were in the full force of the icy blast and putting them back on again, but driving us on was the ever expanding views of the snow covered Sierra Nevadas.
Amazingly, right on the top, we found some shelter out of the wind and were able to stop for our lunch break with the sun beating down on us.
The way down from the top involved some careful footwork as we crossed numerous snow covered sections. We then followed a long, easy descent under the shattered rock face on El Calar. This was a great way down and we could have spent ages looking at all the twisted rocks laying around. It looks like we will have to come back again another day for further exploration.
On returning to Mark and Anne’s we were rewarded for our efforts with a cup of tea and buns.
A very enjoyable day out.
We walked 14.7 km and climbed 871 metres.  Maximum altitude 1868 metres .



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