| Where | Cantabrian Ranges |
| When | June/July |
| Distance | 434 km / 270 miles |
| Length | 15 days |
Our average crest faint trail
I hiked the western half of the Cantabrian Crest in 2011 and the eastern section in 2015. In 2021, I went back to join all the dots because there’s nothing like traversing a whole range, end to end. The green grass, the grey rock and the blue sky, never mind the misty days.
This is a magnificent range and a high route is a challenging way to walk its length.
Bare data can contribute to define the character of a trip. Here are a few key figures and facts for my time in the Cantabrian High Route.
A 2 week trip on a high route along the spine of the Cantabrian Range. These mountains align east to west, parallel to the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Cantabrian Range runs along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It’s the boundary between two markedly different environments, the deep, lush, temperate coastal valleys to the north and the undulating highlands to the south, much drier with higher temp extremes behind the rain shadow of the mountains. The Cantabrian Watershed makes for a challenging, magnificent long distance trek.
| Where | Central-East Iberian Ranges |
| When | Late October |
| Distance | 266 km / 165 miles |
| Length | 9 days |
Lands of Iberia
An off-the-beaten-track route through the most sparsely human-inhabited regions of the Iberian Peninsula, away from the big mountains, inspired on my trips in similar areas in North America, enabled by the need to stay local in 2020 pandemic times.
The following is a set of land, human, environmental and personal aspects that shaped my trip in The Empty Quarter.
The plan was for a 2 week, one way trip, starting and finishing at a train station, with very little, if any concession on uninteresting terrain on either end. I had planned for one resupply point on day 6, possibly a second one around day 10. In both instances, I’d resupply and keep going. I planned for no overnight stays in town.
A long weekend, second wave pandemic times with inter-regional travel ban and a named storm bringing a winter spell to the local hills. A three-tier challenge to remind me why I love backpacking.
Population shifts in Spain in the latest decades have gone through a dramatic polarization trend. It’s not only the typical move from rural to urban but also the lack of any thriving population hotspots in most of the inland areas. The highland regions where farming is tough have particularly suffered from depopulation and there were no regional urban alternatives.
The villages and the roads are still there but they’re increasingly empty. Empty of human things which, in turn, means it’s nature that thrives.
The Hecho valley is on the Western Pyrenees. It’s the westernmost pyrenean area of consistently dramatic mountain scenery and some features make it special: there are no through roads across the range and there are no ski resorts. It is a wild and quiet place. What the mountains are meant to be.
Hiking the crest
The Cantabrian Ranges run parallel to the Iberian peninsula northern coast for 300 km as the crow flies. It’s a region of grand beauty, complex geology and wicked weather patterns that make hiking a challenge. It’s the mountains, they’re big and we are small.
Thru-hiking the watershed divide is a tough call. Doing it in November adds to the challenge.
A one week allowance is not enough to hike the whole thing. What follows is an account of a 180 km route along the Cantabrian crest divide. 8 days hiking among the limestone giants.
The Blue Line between A and B
The complete High Route in the Cantabrian Watershed divide would take at least 2 weeks to cover to a strong, committed hiker. This trip was 8 days long in a season where daylight is getting short, no way I could hike the whole thing. I had a starting point and a way to go. The goal was to hike and be on my own for 8 days in the most magnificent of sceneries.
View route map for Cantabrian High Route Pajares Piedrasluengas on plotaroute.com
I didn’t record the hike so the plot above, drawn by hand, is not accurate, neither is the distance, which came out to 180 km (112 miles)
The menu on the right has the stage breakdown. The names will be meaningless but I need to put a name to the places!
You won’t find many resources on this route in anything that’s not Spanish. Actually, there aren’t many in Spanish either. Most internet resources and guidebooks focus on one-day activities and most of them will be about climbing peaks. Overnighting outside is not a popular thing, neither is long distance hiking.
The high pressure conditions remain and the weather should be clear. I don’t know what caused yesterday’s fogs, maybe some cold air mass in the area. I would expect a new, clear day today no matter how dark and thick the fog was yesterday but I have a plan in case it remains: the track I was following would actually take me out of the mountains. It’d be acceptable given this is my last day of hiking.
I wake up to a dry tarp and a view of a frosty valley below, fully endorsing yesterday’s camp choice. Actual site and orientation missed the best mountain view but I could see sunset and sunrise instead:
Good morning
In my lowest altitude camp I wake up to negative temps, high humidity and a good frost all over the place as a consequence. This is a classic example of temp inversion driven by sustained high pressure conditions: cold air sinks and humidity condenses. During the night there’s no sun to warm things up so the system stays locked.
In the morning my tarp is dry and the grass around is dry as the valley bottom has frosted over. What a huge difference a short distance can make in the camping experience and how much nicer it is to pack a dry shelter.
Frost in the valley below
A small cirque at the very headwaters of a cantabrian valley, that’s the definition of the perfect overnight spot and I feel fortunate to wake up in such glorious place. The only downside in a mid-November morning is how long the sun takes to shine. I leave the area before I get a chance of getting any warmth. Morning lights are beautiful anyway.
Yesterday’s last effort was more than a last push for the sake of performance, it was also a statement.
It’s often easy to skip crest sections by joining saddles along the slopes or the base of the hill. This is fine as it is all part of what a High Route means: the idea is to follow a coherent line along the divide. Then there are cases like yesterday evening’s: the road to the ski resort runs parallel to the divide crest and leads to a gentle climb back to the top on a service track. I could have done all that in less than a couple of hours. It is not cheating, it’s just the -in this case- easy way.
The night goes in between heaven and hell. Heaven because that’s what the night usually is: a time to relax, do nothing but rest, heal the wounds of the day’s work, feel at peace with the world. Hell because sometimes the world gets aggressive and you become a tiny piece of nothing at its mercy.
I took the early morning train from Leon to Busdongo de Arbas, 4 km down the road from the Pajares pass in the divide. The train line goes north across the plains and into the foothill mountains, along a narrow, winding valley.
I took the divide at the Pajares road pass after a short hike up the road from the nearest railway station. The choice wasn’t random: that’s where my previous hike in the High Route finished a few years back. I would hike east and as far as I could go in 8 full hiking days.
This is very personal and only tangential to the actual route. It’s about challenges, fears and how I’d cope with it all. The challenge will be at a rather emotional level.
Day 6: when my smile was genuine
Hiking the High Route in the off-season was something I could do. Feeling comfortable about it was a different thing. This latter was my challenge.
This is a summary of some specifics about the Cantabrian Ranges and their High Route traverse.
Hiking the crest
Summer-style, multi-day backpacking in late fall requires some adaptation, not only in the gear: I usually take lower level, less exposed routes and/or plan for less days out in a row. This time I chose a summer route in summer style: 8 hiking days, self supported and a seamlessly compromising location.
November is a tricky time to backpack in the northern Iberia ranges: weather can be anything in a wide range of scenarios. One of them is very harsh, including cold, wet, fog, snow or the whole bunch.
The Cantabrian Ranges
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