So off go the 5 of us happy campers for a 3 hour walk in to the Caballo Refugio. We intended to use tents to sleep in and use the hut to socialise in. As it turns out the walk in took 5 1/2 hours in deep snow. By the time we got to the hut it was nearly dark and was extremely cold so the decision was made the 5 of us would sleep in the hut after we had dug the snow out to make sure the door shut to keep the foxes away from steeling our food!
We then tucked into a cheese fondue and wine for dinner, wasn’t really a lot left for the foxes after we had finished. We only took 1 1/2 litres of water as we thought we would be able to get more from the lake beside the hut, ha, it was frozen solid and no amount of ice axe attack could break it, so we went thirsty until we got back to Lanjaron. Unfortunately we did not have enough fuel between us to melt ice!
The next day the 4 went off exploring some snow gullies, leaving me behind (because of my still poorly finger) to take the photos. We left the area below Cerro de Caballo and headed back the way we had come in to visit another area of potential snow climbing. The clouds then came in, blocked all views, so we headed out before we froze. A quick way to get down some of the slopes is to slide on your bum or side using your ice axe or walking pole to help control your speed, so a lot of fun was had on the way out.
We eventually arrived back in Lanjaron and headed straight to a bar to help us recover from a very hard 2 days of winter mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.
To read a full trip report visit Sierra Nevada News
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