Weekend 8,9,10 September 2017

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Last week was our big walking weekend away, staying at the Poqueira refugio above Capileira.
We started out on Friday afternoon with an easy, leisurely walk up to the refugio. It was not like last year when it was a boys only weekend, sleeping on the floor. This time we had real luxury, we had a bed, not each but one bunk bed that sleeps 10 people, boys, girls and kids all together, there was even a dog but he slept outside. There are actually 8 of these giant beds and, by the second night, every one of them was occupied, sheer bliss for the perfect night’s sleep. I must have been the only one amongst the other 79 who did not snore. (!!!)
 There were two walks on Saturday. The first relatively easy and safe and the second one for the idiots amongst us, and there were 5 of us. All determined to throw caution to the wind and cross the vertical north face of Mulhacen. Both Martin and myself have been part way across this path before but none of us had ever done the full crossing. What we had not done when we had originally found it was mark it on the GPS. So like the Grand old Duke of York, Martin had us marching up and down Mulhacen searching for this path and, on a 3479.6 metre (Note Mulhacen is now officially 2 metres lower than last year)  high mountain  trying to find a 10cm wide path takes some doing. Eventually we located the path and made the crossing. We even came across some ice on the path, part way across, which caused the adrenalin level to rise even higher.
The path leads to the Siete Lagunas and then on to Alcazaba. I did not fancy the scramble up to Alcazaba so Dave de Lanjaron and I  had an easy stroll through the Lagunas and back to the Refugio whilst Martin, Demi and Max went up to the Alcazaba.
 Sunday saw us with a dilemma. The plan was to go up Mulhacen but the forecast was for strong winds and it would have to be a fast walk. I opted, along with some others, to head back to the cars along the acequia, Martin and 2 went for the full workout with a stiff climb up the mountain.
It was a great weekend but it was nice to climb into my own bed.    

We walked 35.9 km and climbed 1860 metres.

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