timmus
A2OC Donor
As many A2OC folk will know from previous posts, I like mountains. Unless I'm visiting friends in the Netherlands, holidays for me frequently feature mountains.
I recently went to the Sierra Nevada range in southern Spain. The Sierra Nevada is a range with a very small footprint. However, relative to its area, it rises quite high. It is home to three major peaks: Mulhacén, Veleta and Alcazaba ("The Fortress"). The screenshot below from Google Maps shows the three summits.
Whilst the screenshot shows a lush green, the reality couldn't be more different. The uppermost sections of the Sierra Nevada are a desert of rock. The summits are covered in thick snow in winter and are baked by the Spanish sun during summer. Other than a few small pools where snowmelt collects, water is difficult to come by.
I decided to climb Mulhacén, the highest of the three major peaks, at 3479m above sea level (approximately three-and-a-half times the height of any Lake District summit). I initially thought I'd do the ascent on my own, but Jessica was eventually persuaded to join me. Jessica's brother Joshua (who was on holiday with us) wasn't going to be left out.
Altitude is a simple measure of how much vertical height there is between the surface of the ocean and the summit of a mountain. Prominence, on the other hand, is a measure of how much a mountain protrudes above the landscape around it. The city of Lhasa in Tibet is approximately 3600m above sea level simply because all of Tibet is at high altitude. As such, even small hills just outside the city are of much greater altitude than Mulhacén, but their prominence is very small because they don't rise far above the surrounding landscape. Prominence is therefore a very handy measure of how good the view will be from the top. Although Mulhacén is only 40% of the height of Mt Everest, it is the 64th most prominent mountain on Earth. Mulhacén is the highest mountain in all of Europe outside the Alps.
The photo below was taken from Mulhacén's southern ridge, still some way from the summit, looking due south over the Mediterranean Sea. That thin white line on the horizon is the north coast of Africa. Throughout the day, the haze came and went, but during the clearest moments, you could easily identify individual buildings in Morocco. I find that the sense of scale is often lost when photographing mountains. To give a better idea, that small hill in the top left corner of the photo, down by the Mediterranean coast, is 500m taller than Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain.
As you climb higher, all remains of life and greenery are left behind. The photo below shows the summit of Veleta to the west.
The small pool of snowmelt is the only water between Veleta and Mulhacén. As the summer sun shines, the pool gets smaller and smaller. It is, unfortunately, undrinkable without being boiled. A small stone building stands just by the pool as a refuge to anyone caught out or attempting to summit all three major peaks in one expendition.
The photo below shows the view from the summit of Mulhacén, looking down the north-east ridge towards Alcazaba. Again, all scale is lost. The pool in the bottom left of the photo looks to be almost at the base of the mountain. It is in fact only 700m below the summit, meaning it's 2800m above the Spanish plains in the distance.
Joshua stands on the summit, overlooking Mulhacén's sheer north face.
Jessica sits against the summit marker, admiring the view towards Alcazaba, whilst contemplating the 740 million people across Europe who are beneath her feet!
Looking back at the screenshot of Google Maps, you can see that Veleta's northern ridges are sheer cliffs. The photo below shows the view of Veleta as seen from Mulhacén, highlighting these cliffs.
All three of us suffered from early symptoms of altitude sickness, caused by the reduced oxygen available. Joshua developed a headache and Jessica felt nauseous as soon as we got above 3000m. I was fine until 3400m, at which point I started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Climbing any higher than this would require acclimatisation to altitude. Anyway; job done. Now starts the walk back down!
Whilst a long way from anything A2-related, I hope this thread is interesting.
Cheers,
Tom
I recently went to the Sierra Nevada range in southern Spain. The Sierra Nevada is a range with a very small footprint. However, relative to its area, it rises quite high. It is home to three major peaks: Mulhacén, Veleta and Alcazaba ("The Fortress"). The screenshot below from Google Maps shows the three summits.
Whilst the screenshot shows a lush green, the reality couldn't be more different. The uppermost sections of the Sierra Nevada are a desert of rock. The summits are covered in thick snow in winter and are baked by the Spanish sun during summer. Other than a few small pools where snowmelt collects, water is difficult to come by.
I decided to climb Mulhacén, the highest of the three major peaks, at 3479m above sea level (approximately three-and-a-half times the height of any Lake District summit). I initially thought I'd do the ascent on my own, but Jessica was eventually persuaded to join me. Jessica's brother Joshua (who was on holiday with us) wasn't going to be left out.
Altitude is a simple measure of how much vertical height there is between the surface of the ocean and the summit of a mountain. Prominence, on the other hand, is a measure of how much a mountain protrudes above the landscape around it. The city of Lhasa in Tibet is approximately 3600m above sea level simply because all of Tibet is at high altitude. As such, even small hills just outside the city are of much greater altitude than Mulhacén, but their prominence is very small because they don't rise far above the surrounding landscape. Prominence is therefore a very handy measure of how good the view will be from the top. Although Mulhacén is only 40% of the height of Mt Everest, it is the 64th most prominent mountain on Earth. Mulhacén is the highest mountain in all of Europe outside the Alps.
The photo below was taken from Mulhacén's southern ridge, still some way from the summit, looking due south over the Mediterranean Sea. That thin white line on the horizon is the north coast of Africa. Throughout the day, the haze came and went, but during the clearest moments, you could easily identify individual buildings in Morocco. I find that the sense of scale is often lost when photographing mountains. To give a better idea, that small hill in the top left corner of the photo, down by the Mediterranean coast, is 500m taller than Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain.
As you climb higher, all remains of life and greenery are left behind. The photo below shows the summit of Veleta to the west.
The small pool of snowmelt is the only water between Veleta and Mulhacén. As the summer sun shines, the pool gets smaller and smaller. It is, unfortunately, undrinkable without being boiled. A small stone building stands just by the pool as a refuge to anyone caught out or attempting to summit all three major peaks in one expendition.
The photo below shows the view from the summit of Mulhacén, looking down the north-east ridge towards Alcazaba. Again, all scale is lost. The pool in the bottom left of the photo looks to be almost at the base of the mountain. It is in fact only 700m below the summit, meaning it's 2800m above the Spanish plains in the distance.
Joshua stands on the summit, overlooking Mulhacén's sheer north face.
Jessica sits against the summit marker, admiring the view towards Alcazaba, whilst contemplating the 740 million people across Europe who are beneath her feet!
Looking back at the screenshot of Google Maps, you can see that Veleta's northern ridges are sheer cliffs. The photo below shows the view of Veleta as seen from Mulhacén, highlighting these cliffs.
All three of us suffered from early symptoms of altitude sickness, caused by the reduced oxygen available. Joshua developed a headache and Jessica felt nauseous as soon as we got above 3000m. I was fine until 3400m, at which point I started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Climbing any higher than this would require acclimatisation to altitude. Anyway; job done. Now starts the walk back down!
Whilst a long way from anything A2-related, I hope this thread is interesting.
Cheers,
Tom
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