Picos de Europa·Spain
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
Nowhere else in Atlantic Europe do mountains this sharp rise this close to the coast. The Picos give you a genuine high massif — cable cars, refuges, exposed ridges — with a green, wet character all its own.
In season: Jun–Oct · Peak: Jul–Sep
Fast weather and pale, trackless-feeling limestone; navigation matters when the cloud drops. The Cares gorge is busy and easy; the high traverses are long, waterless and serious.
Cable car up and the long descent through the Áliva meadows
The gorge path cut into a cliff, the most famous walk in Spain
Up to the balcony above the Cares gorge, night at the refugio
The full high circuit of all three massifs, refugio to refugio
The highest summit in the range, from the Fuente Dé cable car
Base in Cangas de Onís or take the Fuente Dé cable car for quick height. Book refuges (Vega de Urriellu, José Ramón Lueje) ahead in summer and carry water on the tops.
TrekkingNorway
The single most photographed viewpoint in Norway.
Trekking4 routesNepal
Eighteen days in the Khumbu taking the high circuit rather than the base camp highway.
Trekking7 routesPoland
The high route in summer — Orla Perć's chains and ladders, then Rysy and the top of Poland at 2,499 m.
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