All our snowshoes were out with another group having, as it turned out, a fantastic snowshoeing day. We didn't think we needed them. The overnight snow changed all that. For our 2 day winter alpine skills mountaineering course we were left with having to cope with the mental effort required to wade through knee and at times thigh deep snow.
Accessing the lower Barranco de San Juan from the Hoya de la Mora, above the Sierra Nevada ski resort, we had a plan to enter the Corral de Veleta and climb on Cerro de los Machos. After having taken 3 hours to do what would have normally taken us 1, we changed our plans accordingly.
Great winter walking on the Tajos Campanario ridge
Have to say, it was a cold bivouac, with ice forming inside the bivvy sack. Above us we watched the satellites and shooting stars amid the plethora of constellations Not exactly a comfortable night, but it always amazes me how quickly 12 hours pass before it's time to get up out of the pit and start again!
The morning found us dropping ropes off the vertical side of the Tajos del Campanario. There are some tremendous situations, I guess many remain unexplored by humans. Great fun in impressive mountain scenery with the peaks of Alcazaba and Mulhacén dominant to the east. We finished up the ridge to the junction with Los Posiciones and made our way down the easy normal route to the car. It was "beer o´clock" time!
Thanks to Ian Tupman for producing this video from the trip. Photo gallery below video.