Mulhacén

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.

Sierra Peaks.jpg

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.
IMG_8302.jpg

As you climb higher, all remains of life and greenery are left behind. The photo below shows the summit of Veleta to the west.
IMG_8311.jpg

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.
IMG_8339.jpg

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.
IMG_8323.jpg

Joshua stands on the summit, overlooking Mulhacén's sheer north face.
IMG_8336.jpg

Jessica sits against the summit marker, admiring the view towards Alcazaba, whilst contemplating the 740 million people across Europe who are beneath her feet!
IMG_8321.jpg

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.
IMG_8325.jpg

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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'I like mountains'...
Clearly never has a truer word been spoken.

Looks beautiful and I hope to experience more of the world's wild sloping landscapes myself in the future. Hurrah!


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Great write up and wonderful photos Tom. We're off up the west coast and to the north of Scotland in September but I doubt whether your noting that you were climbing at several times the height of anything in the UK will convince Brenda that she ought to try Ben Nevis!

See you when you're next nearby.

Jeff
 
I was going to make a smart comment about you not being able to climb mountains in the Netherland, but I thought I should google it first because I have heard that it is not as flat as people would think.

This picture just about sums it all up !!!!!!!!

Dutch mountain.jpg

Steve B
 
I was going to make a smart comment about you not being able to climb mountains in the Netherland, but I thought I should google it first because I have heard that it is not as flat as people would think.

This picture just about sums it all up !!!!!!!!

Steve B

I certainly never saw that bit of the Netherlands when I lived there! It really is a giant's snooker table. I'm now intrigued to know which mountain has been Photoshop'ed into that photo.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Great write up and wonderful photos Tom. We're off up the west coast and to the north of Scotland in September but I doubt whether your noting that you were climbing at several times the height of anything in the UK will convince Brenda that she ought to try Ben Nevis!

See you when you're next nearby.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.
Start sewing the seeds now and maybe Brenda will be up for a trip to the top of Ben Nevis. From the south, it's very straightforward. The biggest obstacle is usually the weather!

Cheers,

Tom
 
I certainly never saw that bit of the Netherlands when I lived there! It really is a giant's snooker table. I'm now intrigued to know which mountain has been Photoshop'ed into that photo.

Cheers,

Tom


There are certainly mountains (as I am sure you know) in the Netherlands, such as

[h=2]Vaalserberg
netherlands.jpg
[/h]
Country The Netherlands
Height 322 metres (1056 feet)
Vertical Elevation 0 metres (carpark)
Rank 207/243
Location Limburg Province (Southeast)
Nearest town Gemmenich
Start/Finish Vaalserberg carpark
Climbing time <5 minutes
Distance <100 metres
Grade 1/5 Drive
Other peaks None
I am not sure about the one in the picture though but I have seen others of the same windmill with the same mountain in the background, from different angles!!!!

Steve B
 
Mulhacén is the highest mountain in all of Europe outside the Alps.
It's not that I'm jealous that you've gone to 3,479m without me but... my Seven Summits include Elbrus :p (because whom am I to argue with Messner?)
I'll post my riposte in a fortnight hopefully, albeit only a measly 3,298m and the highest peak in the French Pyrenees.
 
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but... my Seven Summits include Elbrus :p (because whom am I to argue with Messner?)

Eh, yes, I decided not to confuse the issue by bringing the Caucasus into the equation. Personally, I struggle to think of Elbrus as being in Europe. It's just north of Iraq and Iran. It's 1000 miles further east than Istanbul, where they already no longer even speak a European language. Saying that Elbrus is in Europe makes as much sense to me as including Azerbaijan in Eurovision! On whose map is that part of Europe?
My list of the Seven Summits does include Elbrus, but more because of convention. I'd obviously like to climb Elbrus, but if (when?) I climb Mont Blanc, I'll have a hard time not declaring that I've climbed the highest mountain in Europe.

It's not that I'm jealous that you've gone to 3,479m without me...

Don't imagine I didn't wish you could join me. :)
 
I was going to make a smart comment about you not being able to climb mountains in the Netherland, but I thought I should google it first because I have heard that it is not as flat as people would think.

This picture just about sums it all up !!!!!!!!

View attachment 30180
Steve B

I am not sure about the one in the picture though but I have seen others of the same windmill with the same mountain in the background, from different angles!!!!

So, I've done some digging into this and have found that it all started as a joke. The Netherlands is famously flat, so a farmer proposed building a mountain from scratch. The image in Steve's post is one of many Photoshop mock-up images that were made to show what a mountain in the Netherlands would look like. Various engineering companies were contacted and the final cost estimate was 200 billion Euros to build a hill that wouldn't even be high enough to catch snow.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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There are certainly mountains (as I am sure you know) in the Netherlands, such as

Vaalserberg
netherlands.jpg


Country The Netherlands
Height 322 metres (1056 feet)
Vertical Elevation 0 metres (carpark)
Rank 207/243
Location Limburg Province (Southeast)
Nearest townGemmenich
Start/FinishVaalserberg carpark
Climbing time <5 minutes
Distance <100 metres
Grade 1/5 Drive
Other peaks None

Steve B

Vaalserberg is a small bump in the landscape...
Vaalserberg.jpg

That's it! That's the highest point in the Netherlands, and most of it is in Germany or Belgium (the national borders run over the 'summit')! It's barely any higher than that tower block. :p

Cheers,

Tom
 
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So, I've done some digging into this and have found that it all started as a joke. The Netherlands is famously flat, so a farmer proposed building a mountain from scratch. The image in Steve's post is one of many Photoshop mock-up images that were made to show what a mountain in the Netherlands would look like. Various engineering companies were contacted and the final cost estimate was 200 billion Euros to build a hill that wouldn't even be high enough to catch snow.

Cheers,

Tom

I read this, and was immediately reminded of a reference from The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by the late great Douglas Adams...

[h=2]Effrafax of Wug[/h]A sciento-magician who bet his life that he could make an entire mountain invisible within a year. Having wasted most of the period of time failing to create a cloaking device, he hired a company to simply remove the mountain, though this course of action lost him the bet, and his life. This was all due in part to the sudden and rather suspicious presence of an extra moon, and in addition, the fact that you could never touch anything when you walked near the supposed invisible mountain. It is remarked that he should have established a simple Somebody Else's Problem field, which would make the mountain totally invisible even if it were to be painted bright pink.
Referenced in: the novel Life, the Universe and Everything.
 
I read this, and was immediately reminded of a reference from The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by the late great Douglas Adams...

Effrafax of Wug

A sciento-magician who bet his life that he could make an entire mountain invisible within a year. Having wasted most of the period of time failing to create a cloaking device, he hired a company to simply remove the mountain, though this course of action lost him the bet, and his life. This was all due in part to the sudden and rather suspicious presence of an extra moon, and in addition, the fact that you could never touch anything when you walked near the supposed invisible mountain. It is remarked that he should have established a simple Somebody Else's Problem field, which would make the mountain totally invisible even if it were to be painted bright pink.
Referenced in: the novel Life, the Universe and Everything.

When I was in primary school in the Netherlands, a classmate wrote a short story about how the Netherlands became so flat. It all started with a little country called Nepal that was in serious danger of flooding due to being so flat and at such low altitude. The Dutch, who had huge mountains, volunteered to help and so started moving vast amounts of earth from their country to Nepal. In the process, they built Mt Everest and instead ended up exposing themselves to the flood risk that had threatened Nepal.
Maybe his mum was reading him The Hitchhikers Guide at the time!?
 
Personally, I struggle to think of Elbrus as being in Europe.
Me too, but I was brimmed with jealousy so I decided to be pernickety ;)
Interested to find out how my body copes with the altitude, being an FSi owner I might find myself wanting forced induction!
 
Great thread Tom, love a bit of fell walking myself. Some great photographs too, these are mountains different ball game altogether. A bit bigger than fells in the lake district I may add. Thanks for sharing, regards Spud

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Me too, but I was brimmed with jealousy so I decided to be pernickety ;)
Interested to find out how my body copes with the altitude, being an FSi owner I might find myself wanting forced induction!

When you get back from the Pyrenees, don't expect me not to have similar feelings of envy! :)
 
Great thread Tom, love a bit of fell walking myself. Some great photographs too, these are mountains different ball game altogether. A bit bigger than fells in the lake district I may add. Thanks for sharing, regards Spud

Glad to hear you enjoy the Lake District too, Spud. :)
 
Glad to hear you enjoy the Lake District too, Spud. :)
Had many happy holiday up in the lakes Tom, just a fantastic place. Glenridding is my favorite place in the lakes, right next to Helvellyn and camped at Gill side farm. Also stayed in a few cottages dotted around the lakes. A great place to escape too and get out of the rat race. Regards Spud

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Had many happy holiday up in the lakes Tom, just a fantastic place. Glenridding is my favorite place in the lakes, right next to Helvellyn and camped at Gill side farm. Also stayed in a few cottages dotted around the lakes. A great place to escape too and get out of the rat race. Regards Spud

Absolutely! Myself and forum member Tagscuderia climbed Helvellyn from Glenridding a few years back. I've climbed Helvellyn 5 or 6 times, but that occasion was particularly noteworthy. See here: http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?26714-Two-Toms-Tackle-Windy-Winter-Wonderland

My favourite spot in the Lakes is the less-accessible western side, around the Duddon Valley, Eskdale and Wasdale. It's got the biggest mountains, the greatest feeling of remoteness and the fewest tourists! :)
 
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