Any Locals in Catalonia interested in an Summit Around July 12?

Activation Reports Pre-Planning
1

I will be traveling from the US to Spain with my daughter in early/mid July, and was hoping to explore the Pyrenees and activate while in the region. Are there any SOTA locals who would be interested in meeting up for an activation?

Thanks!
-Tony KM6AM

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2

Hi Tony!

I don’t know if I will be available on July 12th, but for sure can help you find a good summit to activate with your daughter.

Temperatures are very high currently, but they should go down a bit soon.

Please contact me if I can be of any help!

73 Alberto EA3GNU

3

I’d love some advice. We don’t actually have a fixed date for summiting but I figured the weekend would be the best time. I haven’t operated outside of the US and I don’t know the hiking/activating ettiquette in Europe so I would any advice.

We are going to be based out of Girona but I am up for driving a couple hours if it is worthwhile. Do you have any favorites?

73 -Tony KM6AM

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4

Hi Tony,

You can activate on any summit without having to ask for permission or worrying about anything like that. At least in my experience I have never had to ask for it. However, some summits do get crowded, and I would advice to get a spot and activate far from the “vértice geodésico” or the “summit concrete post” that we have on many summits.

I have many favorites, but some require more hiking, some more driving… I guess you are looking for some medium level hike, let’s say less than 8 miles roundtrip and less than 1500ft climb? Please correct me if you are looking for something different!

Some options:

Taga (EA3/GI-014) - SOTLAS

  • Family friendly, you will probably find families hiking.
  • Views are pretty spectacular from the summit.
  • You park at “Coll de Jou”. Narrow road but in good conditions.
  • Short but steep climb. You can connect with Puig Estela (EA3/GI-015) - SOTLAS if you want to add a second activation, taking into account that you will add 8km, 300m. It takes effort to get to Puig Estela from Taga!

Gallina Pelada (EA3/BC-004) - SOTLAS

These two summits do not belong to the Pyrenees, but to the “Pre-Pyrenees” or even other moutain ranges (Gallina Pelada belongs to “Serra d’Ensija” if I’m not mistaken).

If you want to go to Pyrenees, the closest you can go is to the regions called Ripollès and Cerdanya. Mountains are not super vertical compared to other parts of the Pyrenees. But they require longer hikes and higher elevation gains. If you want, you could check Puigmal from Núria (+1000m climb, but Vall de Núria is beautiful), also Bastiments from Vallter 2000, or Balandrau from the dirt road (I would need to check the position of the trailhead). Balandrau has a story behind, there was a blizzard that took place around 20+ years ago who killed many people, but if you go today you would be amazed how easy, family friendly the hike is.

Please, let me know what kind of hike you plan to do and maybe I can point out some other references!

Best 73 Alberto EA3GNU

1 Like
5

Thanks Alberto,
Great tips. I think most likely we will go for Taga both for the proximity to Girona and for the flexibility of adding a second summit if my daughter is up for it. Some days she she will go forever and some days runs out of steam quickly.

Puigmal also looks amazing and love that it is on the ES/FR border, what are the weather conditions during the summer/variability? Around me I wouldn’t try that summit without more foul weather gear than we are bringing in case a storm came through.

Thanks,
Tony KM6AM

6

Dear Tony,

Alberto gave you good advice! By coincidence my plan was to activate also this weekend a summit and I was considering… guess which ones… yes! Gallina Pelada or Taga. HiHi
The weather forecast was better for Sunday rather than Saturday and I was aiming at Taga on Sunday but I have just checked now and it looks similar, a bit rainy, for both days and summits. For logistic familiar reasons, Sunday fits better my schedule but Saturday can still be considered. I would be more than happy to go together if you liked.
Send me a private message if you feel like doing a shared activation and we can try to arrange a plan.
73
Joan - EA3IKB

1 Like
7

Tony, I realize now that your activation plan is next weekend, not this one! Sorry about that. I will tell you about next weekend’s plan.

73

Joan

8

There’s a chance of afternoon thunderstorms on Saturday the 12th, keep it in mind!

9

Thanks! We did a morning activation of gi-094 today, which was only 10 mins from where we are staying and hadn’t been activated yet. Still hoping we can make a trip Saturday to either taga or pugimal but we will shoot to get an early start.

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10

Congratulations for the first activation! I hope you have a great stay and a nice weekend ahead. Please do contact me if you need anything :smiley:

11

Thanks! My daughter was looking at the atlas and saw the zero so close to us and I lost my influence on the decision. Any chance you would like to join us Saturday?

1 Like
12

Thanks for the invitation Tony! I’m not sure yet if we’ll be able to make it, but I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.

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13

There is a (very) bad weather alert for tomorrow. We will cancel our plans for tomorrow…

14

Yes we will likely skip as well, but we will make the call in the morning.