Walk Sunday 8 July 2018 Caballo

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The destination for this week's walk was Caballo, the little hill behind Nigúelas. At 3015 metres it is the lowest of the 3000 metre peaks in the Sierra Nevada but for those of us living in the valley it is our hill and must be climbed. Access is not easy as it entails a 15 km drive on a rough 4X4 track. This year we only had available 2 vehicles capable of making the journey so our numbers were limited to 10 people. In the end, only 8 people wanted to go which made the drive a lot pleasanter for those sitting in the back. They were shaken not stirred.
It’s a great way up as from the start the summit is in view, and it remains so for most of the climb. There was surprisingly little snow on the way up, after last weeks lower altitude walk in the snow I had been looking forward to sledging all the way back.
The views from the top were superb in all directions, most of the remaining snow was down in the valley of the Rio Lanjaron, obviously, this was our intended direction.  We headed down to the Refugio and the Caballo Laguna, where we stopped for lunch.
  Setting off again we walked about 20 metres until we came across an expanse of snow which we were supposed to cross. None of us were keen to do the crossing, it was on a steep sided slope and one false move would see you sliding down on to the rocks below. No one wanted to waste time waiting for a helicopter evacuation as the thought of a cold beer and tapas in Miguel’s bar was beckoning. We decided to retrace our steps from the laguna back up onto the ridge. From the ridge, it was a direct downhill return to the cars.
We returned to Nigúelas just in time to catch Miguel before he closed.
It was a great day out.      
We walked 11.5 km and climbed 1076 metres

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