Montana de Hogarzales

  • Montana de Hogarzales
  • 1062 m
  • Primary factor 495 meter
  • Location: North 27.95029, West 015.79639, (GPS at the summit)
  • Gran Canaria, Spain
  • Difficulty: (YDS) class 3
  • Climbed December 8. 2014.

Information:


How to get there:
This mountain is located on the island of Gran Canaria. From the souternmost city, Maspalomas, drive the autostrada west (direction Mogan), when the big road ends, continue north up the valley to the village of Mogan. Continue driving on the main road (GC-200) towards San Nicolas de Tolentino. Turn left at the last col (named Degollada de la Aldea, elevation 679m) towards Tasartico. Drive 2.5 kilometer to a new col at eleavtion 567m, where an old (now blocked) dirt road forks right. Park here, this is the trailhead, location N27.94301, W015.78024, elevation 567 meter.
Route description:
First, head directly up the tiny valley to a distinct pass on the ridge. There is a vague trail, it starts out directly from the mast next to the trailhead. This trail enters the small valley, then follows a dry creek uphill, higher up the terrain is easy to walk, just aim for the col above.
At the col, turn right and follow the ridge uphill. Cross over the first tiny top, then locate a faint trail (there may be some small cairns) that slopes a bit downhill to your left, then traverses nicely to the 758 meter col beyond the first (significant) top along the ridge. From here, follow the top of the ridge towards the characteristic pyramid (elevation 929m) straight in front. When the slope steepens, follow the faint trail as it makes a bypass on the right (north) side. Next, find an easy way to regain the top ridge immediately beyond this point (elevation 915 meter. Follow this top ridge and continue left as the ridge naturally continues as a pretty wide (but unfortunately quite overgrown) ledge on the south side of the mountain. Turn a corner and continue about half-way on the next section of the same ledge. At location N27.94680, W015.79583, scramble uphill, and follow the gully until just below steeper cliffs. Now, traverse right (there are some cairns here) until you see a weak spot in the cliff band where you can scramble up. Slightly more right, then a final (YDS) class 3 move and you gain the main crest at location N27.94733, W015.79388. From here, first scramble (easy) up slightly left of the main ridge, then stroll the last easy section to the summit.
Comments:
We left our car at 1035 and gained the first saddle easily. The terrain up there looked worse than it was. Next, we traversed on the left side of the first top along the summit, We went a bit too low and gained the ridge a bit further along than what the best route, detailed above, specifies. Still, we made good progress and quickly gained the top ridge beyond the pyramid top, then headed left on the natural ledge. We soon got tired of this ledge and we were happy as we scrambled uphill. Here, we made a wrong choice and went left to gain a ridge that became too steep for comfort just a bit higher up. We returned and traversed as high as possible, now in the opposite direction (east), until we located a weak spot in the cliff band and gained the top ridge. From here it was all easy going and we arrived at the summit just after 1300. We rested until 1330, then returned the same way, arriving at the car around 1520.

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