Valle de Tena by International Mountain Leader Hannah Evans
The Valle de Tena, in the Spanish Pyrenees is a 30km long valley that stretches from the French border all the way down to a small village called Biescas. From this big and very accessible valley there are many, many side valleys and within them there are many low, medium and high level hikes; from hiking around one of its beautiful mountain lakes to reaching the summit of one of 1000s of peaks in the area. There seems to be a walk to suit every level of ability and, due to the height of the peaks, many are achievable in a day. Once stood on a peak, the views are vast due to the elevation of the surrounding peaks. One of the more challenging sections of the GR11 also passes through here so we have a few mountain refugios we can visit or stay in. The weather is pretty favourable too, the French Pyrenees gets most of the rain and we get most of the sunshine which really helps when it comes to planning my day!
How easy is it to get to?
You would need to fly to Barcelona (4 hours away), Zaragoza or Pau (both 2 hours away). If you’re happy hiring a car, then it’s easy to get here from these airports. If you’re trying to get here using public transport, it will be possible but once here, you’ll struggle to get around unless you’re happy hitching. I recommend hiring a car or driving down.
Can you tell us about the most memorable moment of a recent trip?
– Watching a group of about 60 or so Pyrenean Chamois play on a big patch of snow with some lovely clients including some returning clients who first hiked with me back in 2013.
– Being very excited to spot my first Fly Orchid but none of that week’s clients were into flowers!
What are your top tips for anyone travelling to this area?
Editorial Alpina print the best map for the area, but do not trust it implicitly. Research your planned hike before doing it or you could end up on a 24km walk instead of 13km (yep, this happened to me!).
What else is there to do, other than mountaineering, in this area?
Loads! Rock climbing, small via ferrata, road cycling, mountain biking, electric biking, paragliding, 980m zip line, canyoning, history tours and then in winter snow shoeing, skiing and don’t forget about all the tasty wine there is to drink!
Are there any dangers or annoyances here?
Not really, there are a couple of venomous snakes and thunderstorms catch the odd person out but that’s it really.
What one piece of kit could you not manage without on a trip like this?
Being a Celt, it is, most definitely sun cream!
How do people contact you if they want to find out more?
If you want to find out more, my boss, Phil James who runs Hike Pyrenees is pretty awesome his website is – https://www.hikepyrenees.co.uk/
Thank you Hannah!
