Review: Hiking Mulhacén, Spain

This time I organised two back to back trips. The first one was flawless, everything went according to the plan, we had perfect weather and there was no drama. While the second one was more eventful, not all for good reasons. And here is how it unfolded.

Mulhacén can be climbed in one day (a loooooong one day) but we decided to do it in two and stay one night on the mountain. The plan was to hike to the Poqueira refuge (2500m), stay there overnight, and next day climb to the summit and all the way back down. We managed to do that on the first trip with no problem. While on the second one things didn’t go entirely as planned. There was a storm coming with winds of up to 70 km/h. If we went for the summit that day we would have no chance to make it. Therefore, we decided to change the order, i.e. climb to the summit first, then back to the refuge, and finally back down the next day.

We landed late on Friday night in Malaga. There were 9 of us in total, 8 flying from London, one from Bristol. And of course, the Bristol flight was delayed so we had to wait like muppets for an hour and a half for that one person. We rented a nine-seater van and to waste no time, drove straight to Malaga to drop off one guy, who gave up on the hike before we even started. He decided to be lazy by the pool instead. Though he did cycle 600 km a week before just to give him some credit. On the flip side, one girl on the first trip missed her flight twice, finally got the third one, caught up on us, and made it to the summit. What a superstar! And what a commitment. Well done Jade.

In the morning, we had some breakfast… a rock solid baguette with cheese and ham. Thought there was some local pate on the side as well, so I didn’t complain. Yummy!

After the breakfast, we had a quick stopover in a local shop, got some essentials for the hike, and an hour after planned we drove up to the start of the trails, Hoya del Portillo car park.

Our first stop was at some great lookout place. It’s my favourite spot for photos, especially if you’re obsessed with Instagram just as me. LOL

The rest of the journey to the top was pretty easy and enjoyable. After about an hour hiking on a dirt road we got to a massive open space, called Mirador de Travelez. At that point we could already see the summit and the path that led all the way to the top, about 2 hours away. There was no drama until then, but shortly before the summit Sarah started to feel pain in her knee. She slowed down considerably which at that point wasn’t an issue as we were still good for time.

At the summit, there was hardly any wind so we took some cool shots and videos with the drone. We stayed there for about 40 minutes and headed down. At that point Sarah was in so much pain she struggled to walk. So much so, that she decided to walk backwards on her arms and legs… no joke! A real spider-woman in action. It looked hilarious… whatever works though, right? Thankfully it wasn’t too steep and there was no drop around so it wasn’t too dangerous. Luckily after a while someone spotted her and offered their walking poles. It was so nice of them!

In the meantime, the time was ticking and I was worried the refuge would give away our beds despite the deposit I paid. They hung up on me whilst I was making the reservation, so I had no expectations whatsoever. Therefore, Gary and I run down to secure the beds for all of us. An hour later we were at the refuge… not a bad time considering the distance and gradient, although I felt it the next day! Mike got there shortly afterwards carrying Sarah’s backpack. We sorted out the beds and headed back to the rest of the group, the sun was already going down fast so we wanted to make sure they didn’t get lost.

 

When we met up again with them, they seemed to perfect the Spiderman walk. It came in handy during the steep parts and finally, after 4 hours of descend, Sarah managed to “crawl” back to the hut. Despite her ordeal she kept her soul of the party status. My favourite girl! So positive and so hilarious! Thought this time we didn’t get to see her most hilarious party trick… the splits with her whole fist shoved in her mouth and a pizza tray on the head. LOL

Next morning there was no real rush. We only had to hike down to the carpark and chill for the rest of the day until our flight back to the UK in the evening. We left around 9am. Sarah and a couple of guys left 10 minutes earlier. Knowing she would struggle to keep up the pace because of her knee, we thought that was a great idea. Except that it wasn’t. We sent them in the wrong direction and instead of walking towards the carpark they walked down the valley. We had no idea where it led to. I was sure eventually it would lead to some road, but would that be a 2 or 6 hours’ hike? We didn’t know. So, after a few minutes of drama over the phone they turned back. I bet Sarah was absolutely lived to have to walk back the distance unnecessarily, but hey!

 

Sarah, John and I stayed at the back while the rest of the group headed down faster to the car. Our pace was getting slower and slower and it was getting more difficult to find which way to go. Especially at the split of the path. Moreover, Sarah literally couldn’t walk anymore. Our phones died too so we couldn’t call for help. The only option was for John to carry her while I run down to get one of the guys to help. And so we did. Eventually we all got back, completely soaked but in good spirits. The weather couldn’t have been any worse though. Even the busses stop running as they couldn’t drive up to the carpark leaving some family stranded 20km from the town. We had to cram them into our van and help them get down. Two adults and two little kinds shaking like a leaf from the cold.

There are several routes to climb Mulhacen but I only did one, so based on my experience an easy route starts from the carpark called Hoya del Portillo. At the end of it, the road continues, but you can’t drive it with the private car. There is a barrier that only special buses can pass through. Instead you take a small path on the left into the forest, just before the little hat at the end of the carpark.

After 45-60 minutes hike the forest will end and you’ll get to a crossroad. From here you have two options depending if you want to hike it in one or two days.

Continue straight, the sign will show the route to Mulhacen. You can’t get lost, it’s easy from here all the way to the top. It’s probably another 3-4 hours. And you go down the same way.
Alternatively, you can take the bus from Capileira instead of even driving up to Hoya del Portillo. It will take you through Hoya carpark, then through that barrier I mentioned earlier and drop you somewhere on this route, so you’ll only have to walk about 2 hours to the top. And again, you can get the bas down, but check the schedule first.

That way you’ll reach the top from the west but on the way down you should take the east path – it’s the most prominent path from the summit it should be easy to find. Carry on down until you reach a dirt road and follow it all the way to the carpark. It should take about 3-4 hours.