Segaria Ridge
This week has seen a lot of farming activity in the region. The result is lots of farmers are busy burning the dead wood, thus allowing some nutrients back into the soil. These times can cause some tension though, with residents becoming upset by the amount of smoke, and yes it can be a bit of a pain. But today it was hugely in our favour and made the Costa Blanca mountains and coastline even more heavenly than usual. A thin veil of smoke hung over the valleys, creating wonderfully atmospheric conditions, we simply had to spot and stare, a lot!
Our vantage point was rather splendid, the mighty Segaria ridge. This is only a few minutes from our winter base and provides around 4 - 5km's of brilliant ridge scrambling. Whilst it's possible to complete a full traverse in a long day out, we had limited time today, so opted for some of the 'best bits'. Meaning lots of grade 3 scrambling on a knife-edged arete, with the whole place to ourselves and a 25m abseil to finish.
All this was doable at a leisurely pace in an afternoon, about 4 hours actually. We started the scrambling at the huge notch and traversed the ridge westwards from there to finish at the TV masts. Of all the sections of ridge, this is my personal favourite as it allows for minimal kit to be carried, whilst still enjoying technical terrain in a hugely impressive setting.
Yes you'll notice that everyone in the photos is wearing short sleeve tops, and yes this is December! Winter is the absolute best time to visit Costa Blanca for rock climbing, scrambling, via ferrata, mountaineering, hiking, canyoning, or even lying around on the beach 🙂
If you're looking to escape the UK / Northern Europe for a few days of sunshine and keen to experience an adventure in the mountains, look no further, check out our Spain pages here.
For more inspiration about adventure days in the Costa Blanca please do check out our New Cicerone Guidebook 'Costa Blanca Mountain Adventures'
Thanks to Kate, Leanne, and Laurie for joining today.
Mark
