Why?
Mountains, I kind of like them, yet I have never climbed one outside of the UK and this clearly had to change. The not so obvious choice was to avoid the Alps or Pyrenees but head for the Sierra Nevada in Southern Spain.
Little known outside of climbing circles, Mulhacen is in fact the 3rd highest prominent mountain in Europe, towering over the ever hot Granada. So, we decided to camp in the nearby Trevelez campsite, the highest in Spain and a stones throw from where the hike would start. At a height of 1560 meters, we had just under 2000 meters of mountain to climb above us and boy was I excited.
Let’s Go!
So, on the morning of the 8th of July we (Catherine and I) left the quaint white village of Trevelez in the direction of Mulhacen. Initially we climbed up a steep and rocky valley, the sun casting long shadows over us, rays of sun blasting high above onto higher slopes.
It was already hot, in fact Granada achieved 45 degrees celcius when we were battling our way up these initial slopes. Soon we could here voices, though evidently not English, we had caught some Spanish climbers. They blabbed something at us, no idea what “Do you speak English?” shakes of heads greeted us followed by laughter. What were they laughing at? We didn’t know but we overtook them at one of the many small refuges dotted across the mountain, though still above 2000 meters.
Following this run in with the locals, we headed up towards a series of lagoons, the first of which was at an altitude of 3000 meters. I have never been to this height and with a slope that was as steep as ever and a thundering water fall to our left I had to call ‘a whiff’. I sat, felt light headed and couldn’t get a full breath. It felt strange, I had never felt like it before, the air just wasn’t quite there, I could breath, I could breath deep but the air just wasn’t right.
On Up
After 5 minutes my heart rate had reduced and I felt better, drink, eat, drink and we were soon stood in the most amazing valley at, what felt like, this ever evasive lagoon. COWS!!! All of a sudden a herd of cows came and said hello, cows at 10,000 feet! We said hello, had some lunch and planned our route up to the Mulhacen summit. Off in the distance we could see it, through the heat haze, she looked a long way off but we were going to stand there, I could taste it.
The final part of this towering mountain is a strange one, you can see the summit, you can almost touch it yet when approaching 11,000 feet the smallest of distances passes painfully slow. We trudged on up, stopping frequently, sweating, breathing on airless air and hoping that soon the mountain would allow us to stand on its summit.
Snow!! It was 45 degrees in the below valley yet we had found snow, freezing to touch this was a sure sign of our elevation and a sign of what these mountains can turn into, given the wrong weather conditions.
Trudge, trudge, breath, breath, heart thudding, sweating, damn!
We passed some very harsh looking shelters, used only by the desperate in times of need we were so close, the last bit was steep but I didn’t care. I ran, hopped up a rock and wow!! Made it! I could see it, Catherine and I and a lonely goat were stood atop this amazing place. It was chilly, it was beautiful, it was literally breath taking. The people also stood atop the summit were evidently experienced, weathered faces, elated smiles, we had all had our own little fight to stand on the meter square piece of rock, we all knew that this is what it was all about.
The Views
Rarely do I feel like I can’t explain myself in words but this view genuinely offered this feeling. We had everything, from the Veleta and its shark like summit to the one side and the largest valley I have ever seen to the other. We could see the outline of northern Africa, though not the Atlas Mountains that you can see on a really clear day. The sky was the bluest blue, this really was like being in a plane. In fact we could see planes at 20,000 or so feet departing Malaga airport. They looked so close from our vantage point, I waved, felt stupid and then waved again, maybe they could see me, maybe not!
Down, down and down again. The air was becoming so thick it was like soup, breathhhhh, how wonderful it was to take a breath and feel normal. We descended the same way we had climbed and were back in Trevelez after 12 hours, tired and happy with some fantastic memories made. We had walked just shy of 45k’s, climbed and descended 2000 meters and stood at our first 3000 meter plus mountain. There was one thing left to do, find a coffee… dos cafe con leche?
Jack
Jack's Blog 
Amazing experience for you both but I hear you also had other funnier ones!! Xx
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