Walking across the Sierra Nevada in a day

Spain’s Sierra Nevada is a big range normally associated with multi-day trekking excursions. There are however some great day treks to be had crossing the range from north to south. The advantage of a north to south crossing is that you can take advantage of high summer access via the ski centre thus reducing greatly the amount of ascent.

One of the best and easiest ways is via the ski centre, the Elorietta, Rio Lanjaron to the Ventura or Lanjaron. Yesterday, Emma Phillips and I tried a different and to my knowledge relatively unused way yesterday that gave a fine mountain day out.

Catching the early 9:30am bus from the Albergue at Hoya de la Mora to Los Posiciones below the shoulder of Veleta, gave us a 500m start. Well worth the €4.80 bus fare. Note that this will only run until 13th September though. After that you walk!

We took the Veredon Superior path that contours into the Corral de Veleta. This is a great path with fine and dramatic views over the encircling cliffs. The path hugs the base of the crags as you drop into the Corral. Narrow but very little exposure.

Then it’s across the bottom of the Corral, marvelling at the glaciated remains and small icy filled tarns. There is still some substantial snows remaining here, so I guess that this year it will be permanent.  There is little wind and no other humans around. A magical place.

We climb the steep screes opposite on a small track. This leads after half an hour toil to a levelling below the summit of Cerro de los Machos (3329m). Ten minutes later we are on top and eating our lunch surrounded by Macho Cabra Montes (Mountain Goats) for which the reigning peak is well named!

This is a fine summit with extensive views, maybe one of the top three summits in the Sierras? The eye is drawn to the tremendous drop NE towards the faces of Mulhacen, Puntal de la Caldera and Alcazaba.

You also get an unusual view of the Cariguela hut, Tajos de la Virgen ridge and Elorietta hut in the same shot. This can’t be seen from any other angle.

We drop down the SW ridge of Los Machos to meet with the main track from the Cariguela to Mulhacen. This is the only time in the day we encounter other humans making their way to summit Mulhacen, I guess. Not for us. We head towards the Cariguela, but at the last bend in the road head across screes on a small track to join the ridge coming down from Loma Pua.

Now it’s down the broad ridge. There is very little in the way of a track but small cairns on rocks indicate the way down. Keep more or less to the rdige crest for the best views. We avoid the summit of Pico de Sabinar as we have a 4pm pickup at the Hydro Electric Station of Cebedilla above Capileira. In truth it was because the feet are starting to ache with the rigours of descent.

The ridge is easy but relentless with great views all around. The station at Cebedilla never seems to get closer as the toes pack into the front of the boots at every step. Eventually we meet the hydro pipeline and it is only another hour or so to go until we can relax and enjoy a welcome beer.

You do need 2 cars or helpful drivers to do this route. It only has 300m ascent using the bus, but has a mega descent of 1800m to finish. Apart from the Sierra Nevada “road” for 20 minutes we saw nobody. In mist the summit of Cerro de los Machos can be confusing and good navigation skills are required to find the track off to the SW. Total trip is about 6 or 7 hours. Recommended!