Day 2 - Ibon de Sabacos - A day of Fauna

Looking across the valley of Panticosa

Day two was a loop walk through the mountains above Panticosa. This day was 16km with only 550m in elevation gain, but 1050m descent. I was so glad to have my poles, this descent was brutal on the knees. In summer there is a gondola running so we didn't have to slog it up through the ski field. This was a really great day walk. Today it really felt like we were in the Pyrenees, mountains all around, an easy ascent to 2295m, and blue skies for pretty much the entire day.

The trip up was done in a gondola, it was quite clear the difference in the levels of infrastructure between Spain and Switzerland. True Switzerland is higher, the peaks there are in the 4000m range, though the Pyrenees have quite a few over 3000m, but it seems that it is a lot easier to get a lot higher

We walk down to that hut, then up the other side. Montana del Verde is the 

peak overlooking the lake.

in Switzerland. I mean they have a train station at 3450m, which is higher than the highest mountain in the Pyrenees. I would have expected more ski lifts and gondolas in Spain, just because people enjoy getting into the mountains. This gondola was the only time we saw a way into the mountains, other than walking, during our whole trip. And it's not as if the Spanish don't enjoy the outdoors. They seem to be bigger ramblers than the British are, and it's a full family affair here, with grandparents through to grand kids walking together.

Looking out to the mountains on the other side of the valley

The view from Montana del Verde, looking down at Ibon de Sabocos and the hut

This was a day very much with a lot of up and down and it was also probably the busiest day we had. Probably because of the gondola, so more people could easily get into the mountains. From the gondola station we walked along a big fire trail, this was a bit of a walkers superhighway. In fact there was even a bus that could take people from the gondola up to Pico Mandilar, that's only at 2211m, we scoff at those small peaks. Luckily our walk was avoiding this bus route, and the majority of people. As we split off to the left and towards the Ibon de Sabocos. I think Ibon must mean mountain lake in Spanish, but I was never able to confirm this.

Looking down on Panticosa

The not so abrupt top of Montana del Verde

We come over the ridge and you can see the lake down below you, with a pretty little hut, and then you look further in the distance and see the next ridge you have to climb, and the big mountain to the left. That is Montana del Verde, and is 2295m high. So a bit of a climb from the lake edge, which is at 1900m. Montana del Verde was really quite steep, luckily we could leave our bags at the base. You also had to approach it from the back since there was a lot of scree on the other sides. It seemed that is a feature with the Spanish mountains, the approach is quite important. Not that this was at all difficult, just a bit taxing on the lungs and legs. The views from the top were amazing though, even though we still aren't really in the big mountains. There is a ridge of 3000m mountains that pretty much defines the border between Spain and France, but that was still a couple of days further north from where we were.

The top of the mountain was actually quite cold, since there was a very strong wind up there, I guess there weren't many other peaks at that height in the area. Though there were also a lot of sheep, I guess they are fairly safe from being harassed by people up here. It was also much less peak like up there, more like a narrow ridge. After dropping back down from the peak it was pretty much downhill all the way. By the end of the day I was really not enjoying that much down. I have to say I often prefer going up than down. It's a lot less painful on the knees and ankles.

More great views

As well as the sheep this was about the only day that we saw marmots. These are really funny little creatures, kind of like a cross between a rabbit and a rat. Probably as big as a rabbit, but with a longer body and small ears. They make this really strange screeching noise, we thought it was birds at first, but there weren't any birds around us. Though we also saw some really big birds today, we were hoping for golden eagles as apparently they live in the Pyrenees, but I think they were just a vulture of some kind. This was definitely the day of fauna.

There was also this massive cave in the cliffs, it was a really obvious cave from hundreds of metres away, so it must have been huge. I'm guessing it would have been a favourite for neolithic people. Another reason for them to hang out in this valley.

Montana del Verde, looking a bit more like a peak here