Hacha Grande - Lanzarote

For the last two weeks, Rich S has been sunning himself in Lanzarote with the family. On arrival at the resort there was an unexpected surprise in the form of a stunning mountain range dominated by Hacha Grande (‘Large Axe’ if you’re not Spanish).

With the mountains just within walking distance from the hotel, all that was stopping an attempt on the summit was the weather. At 35 Celsius and clear blue skies each day, a cloudy day would be best to give a little rest from the heat but unfortunately by the start of the second week it was just sun, sun, sun, everyday!

Time to bite the bullet and get on with the job in hand. The choice was either a dawn start or late afternoon and, this being my holiday, I went for a 4:30 pm start! With the sun setting around 9:00pm and no map or information available from the locals to gauge journey time, I decided to travel light and run the first couple of miles along the road to the start of the range.

As the road disappeared and the range was within clear view it was obvious there were no visible footpaths on the mountain and a little route finding was in order. As my normal mountain technique is to follow someone or a path, my plan was to attack the summit head on and take the shortest route to the top. The start was harder than expected as the terrain that looked like a grassy plain at the start was actually a field of volcanic rocks, each about the size of a football.

Undeterred, I carried on with the gradient getting steeper and steeper until walking turned into a light scramble followed by a little climbing. Maybe a longer ridge route would have been easier than the head on assault; lesson learnt!

With the summit achieved and stunning views absorbed I took a more gentle descent back to sea level. By 8:00pm I was back at the hotel and a quick check of the GPS revealed a total ascent of 1041m with a maximum height of 560m and just over 10 miles covered.

Rich S.