Malpaso (Hierro HP)

  • Malpaso (Hierro HP)
  • 1499 m
  • Prominence: 1499 meter
  • Note: The elevation was changed down to 1499m in 2022.
  • Location: North 27.72932, West 018.04047
  • El Hierro, Spain
  • Difficulty: (YDS) class 1
  • Climbed December 4. 2014.

Information:


How to get there:
This mountain is located on the island of El Hierro, Canary islands. From the airport, first drive up to the village Valverde. Continue through San Andres. Do not drive left to El Pinar, follow the main road. After about 4 kilometer, start to pay attention in order to locate a left fork also signed for El Pinar, do not turn, but locate the next fork which follows quite close. Turn left here and continue to follow this nice road as it partly runs along the main crest. In 2014, this road was closed after about 3 kilometer. Thus, I parked at location N27.72638, W018.02765, elevation about 1350 meter. When the road has been put back in working order, one may drive essentially all the way to the summit.
Route description:
From where I parked my car, I followed the main road as it climbed gently. You will arrive at a road fork where a signed road for Malpaso turn sharply right. This road looked well maintained, all paved and with proper draining as well as nicely built walls for protection. The paved road climbs the hill and eventually reach a minor summit just before the main summit. From this point, the remaining road was dirt. A small, final hill and you arrive at the main summit. There is an antenna mast, a cairn and a big summit marker.
Comments:
I caught the 0700 flight from Gran Canaria. After a brief stop at Tenerife, we landed on the rather short runway on El Hierro at time. I checked out my rental car, unfortunately, this company "CICAR" has not yet discovered how to run a proper car rental business. They delivered the car quarter full of gasoline, I hate these primitive plots to rip off customers.
However, the day was nice and I was soon on my way high up on this rather unusual island. It turned out that the access road to the summit road was closed a bit before the turnoff. I parked and set out on foot around 1000. It was a nice road hike, nobody around. I reached the summit at 1030. Much to my surprise, the summit road was in very good shape. It looked like it recently received quite a bit of maintenance. The view down on the north side was pretty good. I rested about 15 minutes while looking at the clouds that slowly drifted by.
Leaving at 1045, I was back by muy car at 1115. I next decided to drive around the island. The road from El Pinar to the very west end was very nice and scenic - highly recommended. Similarly, the steep descent to a very different landscape at Punta de la Paloma was well worth the trip. I subsequently returned to the airport shortly before 1600 to catch my flight back to Gran Canaria.

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