Mulhacen

Long before embarking on this wonderful trip, I had planned a solo adventure into Sierra National Park to climb the highest peak, Mulhacen. On a clear day, one can sit on the peak of Mulhacen and look out to Africa. I had originally planned to do this trip on April 29^th -30^th but the weather interfered with these plans so I rescheduled for May 10^th-11^th. I did not want to tie up the car so I planned to use the bus system .

 Unfortunately, the bus schedule I was using off the internet did not match reality and I missed my bus to Granada so I took another bus into Motril and did my best to waste four hours before my next bus. The bus from Motril dropped me in Orgiva where I took another bus to Capileira. From Capileira, I picked up the trail head, which would take me to the Poqueira Refugio, an awesome bunk room with food service (and beer!) that sat at the base of the peaks just below the snow line.

The trail wound its way along a beautiful river until it split off for a pretty steep walk up to the Refugio.  I wish I had taken more time to enjoy this trail but I had ambitions of stopping at the Refugio for 15 minutes and summiting before night fall.  The staff at the Refugio told me that making the summit that night would cause me to finish in darkness, so I chose to have beer instead with a Dutch couple and a fun group of British women, who go on trekking trips together, and enjoy the fabulous views from the terrace of the Refugio. We had a laughter and wine-filled dinner at the Refugio and I went to bed thinking I would abandon my ambitions of getting up at 5 am to summit Mulhacen.

Insomnia had other plans. I awoke at 3:20 and by 4:15 was convinced that I was not going back to sleep so I put on my boots and the crampons I had rented and headed out into the star-filled night. I was properly bundled with my head lamp on and was quite exhilarated to be making the climb. A spectacular shooting star verified that I had made the right call! I was making great time and I thought I was being extra careful by staying to the left of the snow as much as possible since there was a river that ran beneath the snow and because of the darkness it was hard to pinpoint where this river was.

I thought I might summit before sunrise when I realized that I was climbing the wrong mountain. At first I thought I would simply walk the ridge line over to Mulhacen but this would have had me climbing two other mountains before reaching Mulhacen so instead I dropped down about 800 feet and then climbed up another 1200 feet. By this time, I was making slow progress as I was literally walking at a 35 degree angle in icy snow. I would see a spot and make a goal of reaching that spot in seven minutes and then it would take fifteen minutes. I stopped to take a break during which I took my gloves off and took some pictures and ate way too many potato chips. I started walking up again towards the summit when the cold in my fingers became unbearable (I had only brought lightweight running gloves). I began to descend and then foolish pride would turn me back to go up the hill. Finally I decided to begin my descent before summiting. I was probably about 300 (in altitude – a eighth of a mile in distance) feet below the summit. I will be back!!

I made it down to Refugio and had a good laugh at myself with the woman that operated the place and then promptly got lost on my trip back civilization. I probably ended up walking an unnecessary five miles as I followed old logging roads back into Capileira. I had a large beer, opened up my silver dollar sized blisters and took the bus back to Orgiva, where I was delighted to be picked up by the family. I had hiked 28 miles in 24 hours and was exhausted.