Walks and Climbs in the Picos de Europa

The guidebook has walks and climbs in Spain's Picos de Europa, a limestone range to the north of the central section of the Cordillera Cantabrica, on Spain’s Atlantic shore. The routes have been divided into two main groups: valley-based routes and mountain routes, of all grades. With background information such as geology, flora, fauna and history.

Foreword

Though relatively modest in terms of altitude and extent, the Picos are, in fact, unique amongst Europe’s mountains in a number of ways: geologically, for being the largest single mass of mountain limestone in the continent, a mass radically affected by the process of karsification; geographically, for being the only true maritime range Europe possesses…; and sociologically, for retaining even to this day a large part of the culture that has for centuries been the basis of life in the towns and villages dotted about the area.

The uniqueness of the Picos became apparent to me, as indeed it does to most people, almost as soon as I had set foot in them. A first, fleeting visit in 1979 took me down the Cares gorge and up to El Naranjo, leaving me convinced of the need to return. This I have done on countless occasions, in both summer and winter, since coming to Spain to live in 1981. Walking, scrambling, climbing, or simply sitting watching the wildlife, no one activity proved, or proves today, more satisfying to me than another. This plurality, itself an attraction of the range, is reflected in the content of the guide.

The first section of the book deals with such background information as geology, flora and fauna, and history. These sections are, perhaps, longer than is normal by current standards, but I feel that it is only through knowledge of such areas that a full appreciation of any range can be achieved. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the routes themselves, whilst the last two chapters cover the more specialised activities of multi-day tours and winter mountaineering.

The classic division of the walks and climbs into three main chapters, one on each massif, was not felt to be an effective way of organising the guide. Thus, the routes have been divided into two main groups, those in Chapter 4 being essentially valley-based walks, whilst scrambles and climbs approached from a mountain base make up the bulk of Chapter 5. This division is not ‘water-tight’, of course, and some climbs will be found in Chapter 4 and vice versa. Within each of these two main chapters, the activities are organised working around the range or massif in question in a clockwise direction, starting from the most popular entry point for each area.

The choice of routes is principally the result of my own experience, together with recommendations by friends. In the few cases where I have not been able to do a route personally, I have used local sources to compile the description….