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
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
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
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:
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
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
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
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
There’s a chance of afternoon thunderstorms on Saturday the 12th, keep it in mind!
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.
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 
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?
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.
There is a (very) bad weather alert for tomorrow. We will cancel our plans for tomorrow…
Yes we will likely skip as well, but we will make the call in the morning.
Hi Tony, I see you did not make any activations recently, my guess is that you decided not to due to bad weather? I hope everything went well during your visit. 73!
You were right about the weather! That day we drove close to Taga and Pugimal through some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen (and hail!). It was breathtaking and a bad day for an activation. Unfortunately that was our last chance to activate although we had a great few days in the south of france before returning to the US. Thanks again for the advice!
73
-Tony
Hi Tony, I’m glad to hear you didn’t run into any major issues in our mountains. Better to cancel an activation than risk anything worse. These mountains are usually gentle with us, but they can turn dangerous very quickly in bad conditions.
I hope you enjoyed your time in Catalonia and the south of France! 
73!
Alberto EA3GNU