Peak 12 | Coma Pedrosa, Andorra | 2943m | 22nd May 2019
- Adam Stevenson
- May 22, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 12, 2019
Quick Summary
• Starting point - Arinsal
• Route taken - Via Collet (GR11 path)
• Total ascent - 1500 m
• Total length - 14 km round trip
• Total time - 7 hours
• Expense category - #Low
• Equipment - #StandardHike
• Difficulty - #Level3 of 5
• Enjoyment - #4Star of 5*
This was our second visit to the country on this trip. On our first visit at the end of April, we were taking a bit of a chance and probably being overly optimistic of getting up to the high point so early on in the season.
The rough idea for the European Peaks challenge was to travel to the far West of Europe first. Starting at Portugal and working our way East by car, ticking off the peaks as we go. But since we would be driving straight past Andorra on our way down, it made sense to us check the place out on-route.
However, we instantly knew the mountain was not ready for me. It was snowing, visibility was pretty poor and it wasn't something that I felt comfortable doing by myself. So, we made the decision to continue the drive and head towards Portugal's La Torre mountain instead.
About 3 weeks later... we were ready to head back to Coma Pedrosa, but things were not going to plan. We managed to get to Valencia after completing the highest point in Spain, then our car broke down! After an initial panic, it turned out to be a fairly simple repair but as it was late on a Friday evening it would cost us three days before we could get the car back on the road again.
When we finally reached Andorra for the second time I had a good idea of what I was doing. I knew where to start, where to park, what trail to follow, what I needed to take etc, all because I had already figured it out (and I even started the hike) on our first visit. Some of these small simple things can really take up a lot of unforeseen time and research on certain peaks.
The hike starts off immediately right after a tunnel by following a road winding around the last few residential buildings in the town of Arinsal before the mountain. It then transitions into a vehicle track surfaced with loose stone before spurring off onto a hiking trail through the woods. From here the trail is marked quite clearly all the way up to the summit with a mixture of yellow lines and red/white stripes. Very easy to follow.
After passing through the wood and over the two bridged river crossings the path works its way up into an open valley and continues up behind the mountain. From this point, there were still remains of some deeps snow patches in places and it was taking me longer to pass in parts. I kept thinking that I really must buy myself some crampons as they would have defiantly of helped me for this bit! Anyway, it wasn't for a lot of the trial, and the snow seemed to get easier to walk on closer to the top.
Upon getting near the top of the last valley I reached a near-frozen lake. From here I had a choice of two routes up to the summit Firstly, I could either go to the left of the lake and go through the snow up to the summit or the second option was to take the trail up the along the ridge where the snow had for the most part cleared but I would be more exposed. I opted for the ridge as the wind was light and I wasn't well equipped for walking over too much snow.
I'm sure that I was the only person to go up to the top of Coma Pedrosa that day. There were no fresh tracks in the snow and I didn't pass anyone in the whole 8 hours I spent walking up there and back. It made me be extra careful when going over the ridges. Even just a poor foot placement resulting in a sprained ankle would be far from ideal on my own. But I had plenty of clothing, food, water and daylight left in the day. So there was really no need me to rush anything.
This is one of the more picturesque peaks that I've done. It's very easy to fall in love with this beautiful little country tucked in the mountains. The landscape and scenery are just amazing. We could have easily spent a little longer here, but because of our car breaking down, we had to keep this to a flying visit to make up some of our lost time.
Our next destination was calling and nearly upon us. It had been something that we had all looking forward too. But it wasn't something that was going to wait around for if we weren't ready for it...
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