Snow in the Sun - Mulhacen Spains Highest Mountain

Two years ago, with a group of four friends, I tried to get to the top of Spain's highest mountain, "Mulhacen". It's a moderately big mountain at 3,478.6 metres, (11,413 ft) and not too difficult to climb, more of a very steep walk.

We set off in good time to reach the summit but we never made it. At about 3,000 metres and about 4 hours climbing, the altitude and thin air made one of my friends very ill, so we all gave up without seeing the summit.

Ever since that day I've dreamed of going back and getting to the top, last weekend I tried again, this time with just one companion.

The mountain is in a national park with no cars allowed, so we took a special mountain bus as high as we could, which was above the snow line, and started walking. Three hours later we reached the top.

In the two years since my previous attempt I'd forgotten how thin the air was at such a height! As we got higher it became more difficult to breathe, and we both got a headache. With the summit in sight, we could only walk twenty steps before stopping to get our breath and recover. But we made it, hooray!!!


It's taken me a day to recover. My headache went before I went to bed that night, but my whole body is still aching two days later. I'm walking like John Wayne after four days in the saddle.

Would I do it again?
Possibly, but I'm in no hurry. The scenery was obviously wonderful, you can see the Atlas mountains in Africa. The wildlife was spectacular, I shared an apple with a mountain goat. There were alpine flowers and more butterflies than I've ever seen in my life before.

At the top of the mountain there's a shrine where loved ones have left personal items and photographs in memory of the many people who have died on the mountain.

We spent about half and hour having lunch at the top before making an easy decsent. It was a great day, here's to the next adventure.

Melting snowball on top of the mountain