VHS blog: February 2012

Map of Route

Height Profile

I came across a couple of things last week that I thought were quite interesting, the first is a Spanish word used to describe a hard challenging walk or track - senderoextrem (sendero being a path or a track). The second was a local route that I was not previously aware of - to the summit of the Divino mountain, but starting in the Val d'Arc at the base of the mountain, as opposed to the top of the Tagarina valley where we normally start from. So, I had a little chat with my walking companion Eric, and after a bit of discussion we decided to try and combine these two new learnings!

So, our day started at 07:00 before the sun had even got out of bed. We walked out of Sella heading off down the Val d'Arc, past the climbers refuge and at 08:00 we arrived at the point where we turned left off the main track and onto unfamiliar territory and a narrow path that, in theory, would lead us up the mountain to its summit which stood some 570m (1870 ft) above us. As we started our ascent I was pleasantly surprised by how reasonably defined the path actually was (I had expected nothing). On a few occasions it did seem to disappear, but we may have actually wandered off it, before finding it again a bit higher up. I'm not sure if it is a man path or a pig path, probably a combination of the two. It was not long before we came across a short run of scree that we had to ascend, but not too long or too difficult. Once we were approximately three quarters of the way up the mountain, the vegetation gave way to rock slabs that anyone who has walked on the Peña de Sella will be familiar with, and this meant the going got slightly easier. It was now just a question of enjoying the views, keep moving up and eventually and quite suddenly both the summit and familiar territory came into view - 10 minutes later we were on the top. As I sat looking at the view, Eric in meantime was looking at a herd of deer that were traversing the mountain below us, fortunately he did not give chase! Our ascent from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain had taken just under one and a half hours.

We now descended via the normal route to the Font de Alemany where we took on more water before heading up onto the Peña de Sella. Once on the Peña, as we were heading up to the first of the three ascents, Eric decided to take a slightly different route, not unusual behaviour on his part, and I continued, expecting to meet him at the top. Once on this first summit I waited, and called out to Eric, and waited, and whistled and waited. I then started to retrace my steps, calling and whistling but still no sign. I did a full circle, descending and re-ascending, but alas nothing. I then repeated this circuit again continually calling out to my companion (the gauge on my concernometer gradually getting higher and higher). On my third sweep I finally spotted some movement below, not however my companion, but at least a possible explanation - more deer traversing the mountain. My suspicions were that he had either seen them or picked up on their scent and gone off in pursuit, which meant that he could now be absolutely anywhere, but hopefully not down a ravine. I continued my circuit ending up back at my high point which gave me good views far into the distance, but still no sign of my little white companion. So, my plan now was to return to the font, thinking that after a 'chase' he may of returned there in search of water. I was hoping the Spanish farmer who I had bid good morning to as he tended his land just above the font on our way up was still there. As I approached, I saw him talking with two other locals (both of whom I knew) so I went over and made enquiries as to whether they had seen my dog? One of them immediately asked if it was a small white one - 'yes, yes, white and brown' my excited response, relief swept through me as he told me that he had seen Eric down at the font. I thanked them and quickly continued on my way. As I went round the next bend, who should be coming up in the opposite direction, my not so faithful little friend! He was looking slightly sheepish, but apart from that quite pleased with himself - I gave him a bit of a talking to, explaining the risks of splitting up with no defined plan in place when high in the mountains, my words were hard, but my tone was soft, I was so relieved to have found him and that he was alright. So, bearing in mind that this unexpected extension to the days walk had added nearly 2 hours we now had a choice, abandon it and phone for a lift, or to continue? I knew that I had to walk back up onto the Peña to get a signal on my phone so that gave me a few minutes to make my decision. It was a perfect day, clear blue sky, the temperature was around 20 degrees C. and in spite of the 2 hour 'dog hunt' the time was still only 12:30 so, taking all that into account plus the fact that I don't like to give up on an idea the decision was to continue.

We made good time traversing the Peña and the only decision left to make was whether to make our decent via a route we know well directly behind Sella, or to continue with our original plan and descend via The Water Cave (Cova de Agua), where the path has almost no definition, its a route that I don't know well and one I knew would fall into the senderoextrem category!

The descent to the cave went well, aided by red paint marks which lead the way and fixed ropes in a few places, we arrived much quicker than expected. From the cave there are no red paint marks to assist and it's not so much a question of finding the safest route down, but more a question of finding the least dangerous route down! However, we took our time and although on occasions I had to assist Eric down some of the steeper sections, we eventually reached the landmark that we had been aiming for, a lonely pine tree from where a path leads you through the forrest to the road and back to Sella.

We both slept very well that night!

Conclusions - there are various routes from Sella up onto the Peña de Sella/Divino (5 that I know of) all of them are challenging (some more than others) but reward you with incredible views and a great sense of achievement. As far as routes back down again, while it it possible to descend all of them, there are only 2 that I would recommend. The first is get someone to meet you in the Tagarina valley and come back down in a car! or if that's not possible or like me you would consider that to be 'cheating' then the PRV 198 & 199 route directly behind Sella that goes past the phone mast, is in my opinion the most defined, and easiest route (that does NOT mean easy!)

MHS Feb 2012