European mountains
La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
Lomo de Harinero (861m),
Montaņa Del Adivino (722m),
Montaņa de Guergenche (Las Pilas), 661m + Barranco de Argaga, Jan 2 2010
To the main Lomo de Harinero/Barranco de Argaga page (maps,
route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
To the La Gomera introduction page.
The route - as seen in Google Earth
(Click for larger image)
This was our (Anne
Rudsengen and me) sixth and last day on the island of La Gomera. We had
gone a bit tired of driving around, and agreed to check out the local peaks on
the east side of Valle Gran Rey. Time (and other factors) permitted, the
plan was later to descend the Barranco de Argaga canyon. Through literature
found on the internet, we learned that it seemed impossible to descend
this route, but clearly - this being a popular (upwards) hiking route, Anne and
me would certainly have no problems of going in the opposite direction.
But we would visit
the tops first, and first on the list was Lomo de Harinero - the "proudest" of
the peaks along the ridge. We had no information about this mountain, and perhaps
we hoped that there would be some challenges along the way....
Lomo de Harinero seen upon our arrival on the island
(Click for larger image)
We drove up to El
Guro, parked, asked around for the trail to the other side of the valley,
found it, and by 10:08am, we were on our way. We found the trail up the
mountain, survived rock fall from a sheep at a slightly higher elevation and
arrived on the ridge (approx. 680m) 11:20am. We sat our direction towards the north
and followed the ridge crest as long as it was possible.
The scrambling was
fun, but then we reached a wild rock that we couldn't traverse. We had to
descend to a lower ledge and work our way through bush and cactuses. The
sandstone rock was just amazing, and parts of the mountain seem likely to
collapse any time soon...
Below Lomo de Harinero
(Click for larger image)
We
reached the top of Lomo de Harinero 12:16pm, after taking a detour in respect to
grassing sheep. We didn't know exactly how steep the terrain was, and didn't
want to scare them off a cliff. This consideration for animals resulted in more
cactuses and blood. From the summit, we had a good view towards the other tops and
(still, if permitting) our route into Barranco de Argaga.
Our onwards route
(Click for larger image)
We
returned to the pass where we came up from the valley and continued in the
direction of Montaņa Del Adivino. This was fairly easy terrain and we reached
the summit 1:27pm. We proceeded across the summit and joined the ridge
path after a little while. The path took us up to point 643m on Montaņa de
Guergenche (Las Pilas), which turned out not to be the high point. After a 320m
walk to the north, the true summit was in the bag (2:22pm) and the reward was a nice view
towards La Playa - our neighbour village down by the sea.
La Playa seen from Montaņa de Guergenche
(Click for larger image)
We didn't have a
lot of hours of daylight left, but we seemed to have enough to take on
Barranco de Argaga. The only potential concern was about having to turn around
deep down in the canyon. But we concluded (one more time) that if people come up
this way, we certainly can go down this way.
The route into the
canyon was a bit .. rugged, but we found a vague path that brought us safely
into it. Anne treated herself with the luxury of a nice swim in a canyon pool.
Then we had to ascend a bit in order to join the canyon trail. It didn't
take long before the canyon dropped - steeply. An abyss seemed to present itself
ahead of us. Excitement was rising! Just above the steepest part, we ran into a couple -
on their way
upwards. I asked them if they had control in terms of daylight, and the guy
insisted that they did. They were on their way to Gerian. The girl didn't seem to enjoy herself at all - probably
overwhelmed about the air below her...
Descending Barranco de Argaga
(Click for larger image)
The descent went
just fine, although it was nice to no longer have to hold on to something. On
the way down to Playa de Argaga, we heard flute music from somewhere up below Teguergenche. We stared up the mountain for a while, but didn't see any
musician. How odd! But what we heard was probably the ancient whistling language
that La Gomera is known for.
We reached the shore and followed the road to
Vueltas and the main road back to our hotel in La Puntilla. 4:37pm
(6,5 hours after heading out). The (long)
hike had come to its end, but we still had to pick up the car. After a short
break, I volunteered for the task, and thought I was able to run (with
moccasins) the 3,2km up to El Guro. But I'm not 20 years old anymore, and at La Calera, I
got into a cab and enjoyed the remaining 1,5km from the back seat...
Back in La Puntilla
(Click for larger image)
The next morning, we
left the island and the long and aggravating journey back to Norway is
documented on the main La Gomera page. But in
retrospect, compared to the stranded travellers after the
Eyjafjalla
eruption, we had quite a smooth travel back home... |