"Excursion to Collarada". Thus my father had headed a page that now seemed incapable of resisting a blow. I held it with the fear that it would fall apart between my fingers.. Many years had passed and it was like reading the fragile note of a castaway. In just eight lines, dispatched one of the most brutal slopes in the Pyrenees: the almost 2.000 meters that separate the town from Electrician from the top of Collarada, the giant of the Aragón Valley with its 2.886 meters. Along with four other colleagues, They started walking at ten to four in the morning and, five and a half hours later, they reached the summit. It was the 30 July 1944.
I had already climbed Collarada as a teenager, but they took us by car to the Trappe shelter, I remember. It wasn't the same, course. You took off in one fell swoop 800 vertical meters. So the climb from Villanúa had been on my mind for a few years., a kind of tribute to my father and classic Pyrenees. Finally, I decided.
The page written by my father in 1944 seemed unable to resist a blow. It was like reading a note from a castaway
Before facing the “excursion”, We walked one day at the end of August for three hours towards the Ip hill, one of the routes (that of the Espata refuge) ascent to Collarada. Bad weather and still insufficient physical fitness slowed us down under the Abete Pass, I estimate that less than two hours from the top.
eight days later, Belén and I tried seriously,this time for the Trap. We get up early, although not as much as my father 71 years back. At seven in the morning, with the first light of dawn, We parked the car next to the interpretation center of the Güixas Cave, past Villanúa towards France. Twenty minutes later we were already stepping on the Aragonese section of the Camino de Santiago that leads to Somport, from which you have to deviate to the right as indicated by a sign that indicates the climb to La Trapa. The curious thing is that the ascent begins on some stairs (68) of cement that cross the first slope and connect very soon with the track that allows you to climb by car to the shelter (You have to ask permission at the Town Hall, since a barrier closes the passage to unauthorized vehicles).
Repeating its climb was a kind of tribute to my father and classic Pyrenees.
To avoid the awkward track, several wooden signs and successive white and yellow marks indicate a path that gains altitude very quickly, saving us the endless curves. Be careful not to miss any of the detours., well in another way, as it happened to us near a dolmen, you are forced to walk for a long time along the track until you find the next.
We walk at a good pace and, although the sign indicates that the shelter is three hours away, to 8:50 (in an hour and a half) we are already there. We still have more than 1.100 vertical meters. Before us, a wide gap in the rock, the Ax, save the first stone barrier that protects Collarada.
A towline helps to overcome the most exposed part of the Hachar, which can discourage those who suffer from vertigo
The path ascends to the left until, in the last stretch, crosses the canal from side to side. A towline helps make some exposed steps more bearable. Just be careful, although it may intimidate those who suffer from vertigo, How happens to Belén.
Once we have overcome the obstacle, an immense meadow opens up in front of us where it is easy to lose our way., so it doesn't hurt to take some reference for the descent. It is a good place to take a short break before resuming the march at half past nine in the morning..
The top, now in sight, It begins to be covered with clouds and the fog is gradually falling over it.
The top, now in sight, It begins to be covered with clouds and the fog is gradually falling over it., to the point that we passed by two references of the climb, the Cubilares cabin and the Campanales fountain, that we don't even glimpse. But since at the moment we do not lose the path and the forces are with us, we move forward.
As we move down the final rock, The fog becomes increasingly dense and we cannot even see the channel through which the second necklace of rocks that precedes the summit is saved.. We lost, in fact, the stone milestones that mark the climb and we spent a good time looking for them before continuing upwards intuitively due to the poor visibility.
When we lose stone landmarks due to poor visibility, we continue upwards intuitively
I'm considering turning around, because the fog is, with a lot of difference, the main enemy of the mountaineer in the heights. Nativity scene, who has never been to Collarada, He doesn't even want to hear about giving up, despite the fact that his vertigo problems are accentuated on such steep and unstable slopes. Your spirit of improvement is commendable. We move forward.
Once on the canal, We secure each step and look for handholds on the stone to gain height, slowly but surely. We are so focused on the next step that, when we reach the hill that overlooks the circus of Ip, we have to descend a few meters to look for the best option to the top, now so close.
At the summit I remember my father, of his greatness as a man and as a mountaineer
Ten minutes before noon we are at the summit (four and a half hours after beginning the ascent in Villanúa), shrouded in fog, which deprives us of the wonderful views of this privileged viewpoint of the Pyrenees. We hug each other satisfied. It's quite cold and I don't feel like it (what irony after so much effort) stay here too long. I remember my father and his “excursion” 44, of its eight bare lines of adjectives (which I reproduce in the photo gallery that accompanies this chronicle), of his greatness as a man and as a mountaineer (maybe one thing leads to another), of the love of the mountains that instilled in me since I was a child.
The descent through the canal is much faster. We come across a solitary mountaineer who suddenly emerges from the fog, jumping from stone to stone towards the summit.. He's the first person we see all day. At one o'clock, already in the meadow and recovered body heat, we stopped for lunch. The fog, fortunately, has been left behind.
It's quite cold and I don't feel like it, what irony after so much effort, stay on top too long
Maybe, instinctively, We let our guard down because shortly after I lose orientation and we drift more and more to the left. It is not a minor issue, Well, you have to find the entrance to the Hachar so as not to end up stuck in a wall with no way through.. I definitely realize my mistake when the top of Collaradeta appears., the minor summit of the massif. There is no other choice but to retrace our steps until we find the cubicles that lead to the Hachar. We waste a lot of time and strength that we do not have enough.
Finally, and knowing that we still have to climb a hill to look out onto the path, we see a row of stone cairns descending into a ravine and, fed up with so much coming and going, we followed her for a while, losing height rapidly, until, The Trapa track is already in sight in a clearing in the forest, we have to continue between the trees without any path. But we have already overcome the cliff of rocks and reached the track after two-thirty in the afternoon.
eight hours and 45 minutes after, and after losing the way on the way down, we are in Villanúa again
Where to go? Left, heads to the Espata refuge and to the right, to the Trap. Will we be closer to one or the other? End, We chose to walk towards the Trapa. A table in the shade of a tree awaits us. It's almost three in the afternoon.
We stop to eat something and finish the last sips of water and continue down the comfortable path that we already know from the climb. (The extra fatigue due to the loss of the path leads us to leave the descent through the Azús ravine for a better time., as was our intention). At four in the afternoon we are in Villanúa, eight hours and forty-five minutes after beginning the climb to Collarada. The “excursion” is over. And it took me a little more than eight lines to break it down..
