Hello spanish OM’s
Today, i was on EA5/MU-023 but…
why are most of your nice summits on privat areas (coto privado)
military zones, or behind fences and not passable and so on? see my picture
Again the AE5/MU-023 is marked as “passado prohibido” and for me … as a foreigner of Spain… i take respect of this, but today, after one hour of driving to this summit, i walked anyway in hot summer temperature to this activation.
How do you handle these limitations? Often i turned back without activation in respect of this limitations. In next future (two weeks) i hope to find other summits near the east-coast of spain with accessible hiking trails.
hasta luego, EA5/HB9CMI/p on Camping “Lo Monte” Pilar de la horadada
Pedro/Peter
In reply to HB9CMI:
Dear Peter,
Vast areas of land are in private hands in Spain.
Not much in my area near the Pyrenees, as mountaneers usually have free access to most or I would even say all of the mountains.
I have lived several years in the area of Madrid and I have seen mountains with restricted access because that territory was in private hands.
Particularly in southern areas of Spain vast areas of land, including mountains, are owned by private individuals or families and may be used for economical activities like raising bulls, agriculture, hunting and others.
In case you see one of these signs forbidding the access, I’d recommend you to obbey or you risk facing the owner asking you to get out by himself or with the help of the Guardia Civil, who will probably give you a “nice ticket” or receiving a shot from a hunter or facing a herd of wild bulls looking at you with a couple of huge terrible white horns on each head beaming directly to you…
It’s better finding out whether the access to the summit you target is freely permitted or you need to ask for some permissions. Should that be the case, you’ll have to ask for that and the owner may give it or not.
Good luck and best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to HB9CMI:
What a pity Peter. As for me, I have not encoutered such a situation until now.
Apart of the private ownership of certain land, as Guru explained, there could be due to military areas as well.
My advice is that prior to your next activation try to know the situation by requesting information at the town hall of the nearest town.
If you need help ask me and I can write something in spanish for you to bring it to the officer…
Good luck and happy stay in EA.
73 Ignacio EA2BD
In reply to EA2BD and EA2IF
Thanks for your infos and advices, but i ask me, who selects here the summits they are in such areas. Really unintelligible. In the future i will nothing what is forbidden. Thanks and see or here you in next future.
73 de Pedro/Peter
In reply to HB9CMI:
You are welcome, Peter.
I don’t know who did the selection of the summits and which criteria was used.
Probably some of the MT members will be able to answer that question.
However, I don’t think there will be many summits in this situation.
You must have had a bit of bad luck when you decided to go to that particular one.
If you come to our EA2/NV area, for instance, you’ll find more than 160 summits with free access. There must be many other freely accesible ones in the EA5 area where you are now. Ignacio’s advise is very good: ask in the closest village townhall or the tourism office if any or the local people.
You can also try to find access information on www.mendikat.com
Good luck and best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to HB9CMI:
Dear Peter,
I’ve found the summit you have activated EA5/MU-023 on mendikat:
http://www.mendikat.net/monte.php?numero=431es
They have very detailed explanations about how to reach to this very prominent summit from several different points, but I haven’t seen a single mention about restricted access.
Cheers,
Guru
In reply to HB9CMI:
By the way, since the last rules were published, you don’t need to use EA5/HB9CMI/P and just EA/HB9CMI/P is enough.
EA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 call areas belong to the single EA DXCC entity so numbers only need to be specified when you are in the Balearic Islands (EA6), the Canary Islands (EA8) and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla in Northern Africa (EA9 for both).
Have a good stay in Spain and hope to copy you.
73,
Guru
In reply to HB9CMI:
who selects here the summits they are in such areas
Geography selects the summits.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to HB9CMI:
Hi Peter!
I have read quite frequently about summits on private hands along the world. On several activation reports from G, W, VK, etc, you can read that permission must be asked before. That’s not quite usual here at the Basque Country. Perhaps on a few cases, you have to pass across some land part of a small farm (called “baserri”, or forest village) but I have never found any problem to do it.
Recently -last weekend- I hiked to Picon Blanco, EA1/BU-016 which was some years ago a military base. Now the access is free. The base has moved now to Las Motas EA1/BU-010 and so, the access to this last is now forbidden.
So, might Picon be out of the list, and now in, and, “in sensu contrario” Las Motas in before, but out now? What have it to do with prominence?
That all to say that if you move to other countries, local advising might be good. If not, you can find yourself in troubles because you ignore local laws about hunting, camping, public “passing rights”, etc. It’s not the place fault, it’s yours, sorry!
For instance, here we have which is a beloved mountain for all the basque people, “Gorbeia”, of public access. You can even camp there, but only on certain areas, and you are allowed do it just one hour before sunset, dismounting the tent one hour after sunrise as maximum. Just one day (night) on each allowed zone. Since 1985. Did you know it? Of course you didn’t , not me either!
With all my respect,
73 de Mikel
In reply to EA2CW:
Very interesting dr Mikel and thanks for all infos i not knowing at all. You wrote, EA1/BU-010 is now militar-zone and exactly this summit i choosed for activation and all was behind fences. Also, no activation. So no problem we could do other nice activation in Spain like “Sangria” hi , swimming and fine eating…Paella. This makes amend of the short frust hihi.
73 and again, thanks for the infos informative.
Peter, EA5/HB9CMI/p