Pico de la Nieve

Pico de la Nieve

La Palma

Route: Pico de la Nieve

Area: La Palma

Date of walk: 27th January 2017

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance: 6.5 miles

Weather: Sunny

Inspired by our recent walk to Roque Palermo we decided to revisit the spectacular crater ‘Caldera de Taburiente’ and walk along the opposite rim. Thanks and credit to the guidebook we’ve been using for our walks on the island – ‘Walk! La Palma‘, published by Discovery Walking Guides, which I’d highly recommend to anyone visiting the area

We repeated Tuesday’s interesting car journey up the Road of a Thousand Hairpins, taking care to drive round the rockfalls higher up, and parked in a small space below Pico de la Cruz – we were already over 7,000 feet above sea level. An added bonus to this walk was that we were above the clouds covering much of La Palma, which may have spoilt a lower level route

Pico de la Cruz must be one of the easiest mountains we’ve ever climbed. It took us less than 10 minutes to reach the top and it could easily be attained with hands in pockets. Anyone ‘bagging’ this mountain from our parking spot would feel a sense of guilt in doing so

The rest of the walk, to the summit of Pico de la Nieve, involved lots of ups and downs over rocky terrain but was made easier by a well waymarked footpath, and the steeper sections were ironed out by the ingenious use of more hairpin bends

The views along the way were awe inspiring, especially those of Mount Teide in distant Tenerife, surrounded by a sea of clouds. Having reached the summit of Pico de la Nieve (altitude 7322 feet) we had our picnic and then retraced our steps back to the start

It had been another spectacular walk on La Palma

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