Climbing "via ferrata" a wonderful adventure

A via ferrata (iron way) is a climbing route where you will find metallic structures installed on the rock walls.

According to some sources, this kind of climbing routes had their origin in Italy, where the alpine guides of Madonna di Campiglios (Dolomites) started to place some support metallic structures to facilitated their tours with customers.

This idea was than very well received by the Italian army that came to develop the concept between 1915 and 1918 allowing their soldiers to progress on apparently inaccessible mountain terrain and getting some advantage towards the enemy that couldn’t imagine such structures.

After the world wars, from a military use the “via ferratas” started to have only a touristic use and to be spread out to other countries.

More recently there was a great effort by the Spanish authorities in the direction of installing many “via ferratas” of excellent quality that allow an excellent sensation of adventure tothose that are more experienced climbers as well to those that are not so experienced.

In the area of the Spanish Pyrenees there are has a dispersed set of excellent examples of “via ferratas” and that gives the possibility of fantastic vacations.

Although the “via ferratas” allow an easier progression than climbing on the plain rock, the use of these structures respect a set of security rules that, in case you are not familiarized such techniques is preferable to use the services of a guide.

The via ferratas are graded in many ways. There are some difficulty level grading that can go from an easy level of 1, also referred as A, or an extremely difficult level or 5, also referred as E. You can find other kinds of grading that involve other criterias suchs as a psychological factor of the “via ferrata”.

During the tours I promote to climb via ferratas, concerning the lodging terms I opt to present possibilities of reasonable economic lodging but with the basic comforts as privative bath. However, is always possible to find lodgings in accordance with one needs and pocket..

A memorable adventure.

David Monteiro

The Way of Saint James

What is the Way of Saint James? How did it appear? Why is so important?

More than a pilgrimage is a spiritual journey within us, steps towards to self-knowledge.

The History of the Way of Saint James dates back to the time of the birth of Christianity.

In the middle ages pilgrims came from all over Europe on the road to Santiago de Compostela with the intention to pay a promise or any other religious intent. In this way they contributed to what would later be called the Way of St. James or, as it is known in Spain, "El Camino".

After an impressive growth over the centuries it felt abruptly to the point of to be counted 40 pilgrims, during the 19th century.

But something happened that made the flame burn again and in 1999 an impressive number of 155,000 pilgrims were counted.

What happened?

This is a long story that I will tell in a few posts.

Keep tuned.

David Monteiro

Trekking Tours - what are

Trekking tours are tours where the participants will walk several days autonomously in mountain environment. By autonomously I mean having in one’s backpack all that will be needed for the tours days.

Well, in my trekking tours I usually use mountain huts to spend the night and is also where we can have our meals. I do not usually camp unless when the guests expressively ask for that.

The mountain huts are constructions, houses type, that can be found n isolated places in mountains as it is the case of the photo that if it sees here to the side.

In these huts you can sleep in huge rooms that can hold 20, 30, or more persons, depending of the capacity of each hut. In some huts you will find bunks and in others you will find wooden decks with mattresses and blankets where you and sleep.

In each tour day you will have a certain trail to accomplish, usually until the next hut.

The use of huts will prevent you from carrying all the gear and all the food, allowing you to enjoy more the landscape and the trail itself. In these huts you also have the possibility to meet other people that come from other countries and these sort of moments are something that always makes part of the stories we will tell later.

The trails we will accomplish are adjusted to the difficulty level announced in the tours brochures.

Only for being a mountain trekking tour does not mean that will be demanding. If in the brochure is referred to be an easy level tour so it will be easy (for a common person) however if the tour is classified as strenuous so you can also count on that as well.

Are you ready to join me for a trekking adventure?

I will be waiting for you.

David Monteiro

Active vacations in the Pyrenees

We look at the Pyrenees as a great natural border between Spain and France, a border with about 400 km of mountains that frequent exceeds 2000m of height.

It is in this mountainous chain that you can find the highest peak of mainland Spain, is the Aneto peak with 3.404m high. This peak is located in Natural park Posets-Maladeta near the  Benasque, a small village of the province of Huesca, autonomous community of Aragón.

The landscapes that we can find in the Pyrenees very are diversified and, if you consider the great differences of scenes between the stations of the year, the diversity will be even wider.

With more than 400Km' extension and with such diversity of landscapes, I find always quite odd when someone tells me that knows the Pyrenees having been there once or twice … that is, at least, very strange… is the same as to know the Museum of the Louvre in one hour.

I do not intend to cover all the diversity and extension of the Pyrenees in this post, such task was ridicule, but only to awake your curiosity concerning these mountains.

In this mountainous chain you will be able to find several Parks, National and another type of protected Natural areas where each one of these areas has its proper beauty and you will easily find many reasons for a visit.

Between those protected areas, I will write more frequently about the following:
- National Park of Aigüestortes;
- National Park of Ordesa and Monte Perdido;
- Natural Park of “Sierra y Cañones de Guara” (Pre-Pyrenees);
- Natural Park of Posests and Maladeta

Also I do not intend to all cover the type of activities that you can do around here but only to tell a few stories  and some curious things that happened during my tours.

I will be writing about walking, trekking, via ferratas, wine, gastronomy, History and culture in general.

I will also waiting to guide you in the Pyrenees to live some adventure.

David Monteiro