I don't know what happened to my original post of Day 14. I know that it is in fact Day 13, but seeing as we gained a day at the beginning, I'm out of sync with the days in the Guidebook, so I decided to put myself in sync, so no Day 13.
Blue sky, cool because of snow. This is the day I was awaiting with fear and trepidation especially since some people who had walked it from the other direction told us that at the top in the pala (shovel) there was ice. I know for a fact that I go skating on ice with my boots. I had meant to pack some metalwork screws to screw on the bottom of my boots but forgot. I woke up at 1:00 am and had trouble falling asleep at at the thought of sliding in the shovel! We were going to leave early to have coolness for the climb, but those people convinced us to leave later to give the sun a chance to soften the snow and ice. We had to make a detour to bypass the spot where the route was flooded. We found the bridge we were to cross without difficulty, then - the trail had to cross a creek with too much water. We had to take our boots off and ford - brrr. After that we encountered our GR11 trail and kept on going up. The grade was easy so it wasn't hard. When we hit the snow, we were able to kick steps in it. We could see where other people had gone. The pala wasn't icy so I lost sleep for nothing. With the snow covering the marks, we missed the prescribed gully we were supposed to climb. The one we picked was totally vertical. I was a bit afraid because the rock was crumbly and you could only hope and pray that it would hold you. We had to climb about 10 m. Was I ever happy to hit the top where we could see our trail down below, so more scrambling. After that, the going was good. We still had huge snow fields to cross, but it was going down where you could dig your heels in. For a change, I was able to go fast downhill. We had quite a few other streams to cross, but we managed without having to take our boots off. Then came the long, long downhill. What a pretty sight, waterfalls all over, beautiful flowers all over. The route was quite stony so it gave me the chance to put my feet flat and give my knees some relief. We were surprised to see Manolo sitting on the path near Banos de Panticosa. He was supposed to have taken a day off at Sallient de Gallego. It turns out that there was no room free for him. Peter had scared him with his talk of snow and ice, so he bought new boots and walked to Panticosa on the road, actually arriving a day ahead of us! Thanks to him we got a bed in the refugio because it is full of people driving in from the city.
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Hi! we intend to walk the GR11 next Juin/July. We are short, me and my wife, our body weight is about 50 Kg and we will be carrying 15 kg each. Do you think that this Cuello Tebarrai is difficult in this conditions? would it be better to go around, by road?
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on your conditioning. When I did it, I was 66 yrs old, 164 cm. tall, weighing 60 kg. I was extremely well prepared. The only thing that caused me grief was the heat, but that was not an issue climbing to to the Cuello Tebarrai. The ice was a great concern for me. I would suggest you do what I did not, and that is to drill small holes in the thickest part of your boot and screw in a few sheet metal screws. They will not add too much weight to your pack and it will afford you some grip on the ice. The ones that are sold here in Canada need a flat screwdriver, so it is easy to make do with a small coin.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, my pack weighed 13 kg.
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