I have been wanting to walk at Puigsacalm for ages and today seemed like a really good bet. The weather would be sunny, visibility good and although a weak front was forecast for late in the day, I didn’t think it would spoil the party. We’ve done a lot more flying than walking this winter, so it was about time to dust off the walking boots.

We dropped off the spare car we are baby sitting for my parents at the Coll de Bracons and drove back down to Joanetes to start the walk. Puigsacalm is the highest bit of a ridge near Olot and it is a sheer rock face. You walk in and start ascending. Once you clear the treeline, you get to the bottom of the cliff and then climb up a Via Ferrata. It’s slightly more than 800m height difference, so a stiff climb. Once we got to the top of the Via Ferrata we could really appreciate the stunning views – the Med and Roses, some 70km away was clearly visible, in fact you could have counted the houses. The Pyrenees looked just amazing. We sat down in a sheltered position on the edge of the cliff and had our sandwiches while the wind started picking up. It had taken us two and a half hours to reach the top of the ridge and we decided it would be time to get a move on, if we wanted to do the rest of the walk in a leisurely fashion.

As we emerged from our picnic spot, we realised that the ‘weak’ front was nothing of the sort. In the 20 minutes it had taken us to eat our sandwiches and admire the view, the front had come in and it was snowing heavily in the mountains – and the snow was heading our way.

The route we had chosen was the Cami dels Burros (the donkey path), which is a narrow path right along the front of the cliff, about a third of the way down. We tried to assess if it would be safe to walk it in the increasingly gusty winds, given that the path is sometimes about a foot wide and the drop next to you is 100m. In the end we decided to go for it.

The weather was coming fast, and we decided we needed to be off the exposed side of the mountain, so the second part of our walk turned into something of a route march. As soon as we crossed the ridge and onto the back of the mountain it started snowing. The path back to the Coll (and the car) is wider and easier to spot, so we were less concerned about the snow. It was actually quite nice to have the snow flakes dancing around you while you walked through the forest. What a contrast though. From t-shirts for the ascent to jumpers, jackets and cagoules for the descent.

We ended up walking in the snow for an hour, although the trickiest bit was the incredibly slippy fallen leaves. I mentioned to Geoff that he should try not to break his ankle and this made him trip up about every 5 minutes. After five hours of walking we got back to the car, exhausted, but pleased to have had such a nice walk/adventure.

People did go to fly at Santa Brigida, including Erwan from Niviuk, who texted us to say it was his last flight there, and wanted to say good bye – he’s moving to Morocco to work with his father. Unfortunately, we got the text when we were on top of Puigsacalm, so no chance. Have a great time in Morocco, Erwan, it’s been nice flying with you the past year or two.

See photos of today.

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