Lost…er…’Off-route exploration’ in the Sierra Nevada

I just finished a four day hiking trip in the Spanish Sierra Nevada with my Dutch friend Jurgen. I don’t really get Spanish trail maps. They use the same marking for a huge well groomed trail with suspension bridges over each little stream as they do for an overgrown goat track. Or more often the marking seems to be a suggested cross country route, since there’s no trail at all! With some bushwhacking we found our way to a mountain hut just below the peak of Valeta (a big mountain). To get there we undertook a torturous climb up a snowy ski slope, and were absolutely exhausted when we finally reached the hut (even though it was only two in the afternoon). We shared the hut with two Spanish guys and two guys from Israel. The trip ended with an adventurous glissade (technical term for sliding on your ass) down the ski slope.