Montaña Corona, Lanzarote 18-October-2013

Well this was a different kind of walk and one that only took up a few hours on a hot Friday morning. We had decided to go to Lanzarote for a few days after my daughter had got married on the Sunday, a very very proud and happy chap I was that day :-) Such a beautiful day.

A very proud day indeed

 A few days in the sun, lazing on the beach, round the pool and a few beers in the evening was just what the doctor had ordered after a hectic few weeks at work and also the big day. From our appartment balcony  we had a good view of one of the many extinct volcanoes that litter this Canary Island, Montana Corona

View from our balcony

Zoomed in showing the paths & ridge

This was a fairly easy walk that started straight from the hotel front door, across the road and onto a man made path through a catcus garden, onto another road that went past the big hotel you can see in the above photo, Beatriz Costa & Spa Hotel, which is where we used there pool to get away from all the kids in our pools :-)

Path from our hotel

Looking back to our hotel

Road past the Beatriz with Corona in the distance

Once past the hotel I turned right on a well defined rough track that took me into a desert like enviroment with no vegetation apart from dried up heather. You could sort of visualize it being quite colourful after a spell of rain but at this time it all looked as dried as anything you'd find in the desert.
Montana Corona came into view and you could see all the different tracks going in all directions but quite easy to follow the one that was to take me where I wanted to go

I had decided at ths point to take the track off to the right and go the longer way round rather than go straight up the zig-zag path in front of me. This made a far better option as the it was a more steady climb and I was in no hurry, plus I didn't fancy two zig-zag climbs in the heat. The path I took went round the side and a gentle climb up to the first cairn where two other people were just ahead of me

The path I followed going round to the left

Two other walkers on the ridge

View down towards Costa Teguise from the cairn

Up the 2nd part of the zig-zag path

From the top of this path is where the great ridge walk really begins with quite steep drops on both sides, not scary drops as at times the ridge is quite wide, about ten feet or so, but it did remind me of some of the col's you find in Snowdonia & the Lakes. The views were great as well and you could certainly get a sense of what some of the more bigger deserts are like in the world. At least I had a good bed and board just down the road :-) The ridge went all the way round the rim of the crater to the highest point at just under 2000ft (609mtrs) Although it was dusty and with a lot of loose scree, I was quite comfortable but you could see it would be a bit different in any bad weather they had round these parts.

Start of the ridge walk

Looks like this volcano has just erupted

The rocky ridge top

The summit provided some great views all round to the coast and all the other volcano's in the area

There was a few people on the top, all coming straight up onto the summit, and also I could see a big group just coming up from the zig-zag path that I came up. I later found out that the hotel Beatriz does guided walks to the summit and back. It ended up a bit like Snowdon on a good clear day :-)

The crowds at the top of the zig-zag path

I stayed on the summit for about half an hour before I retraced my steps back along the ridge as I didn't want to go straight down as the ridge was just a good way to go.

Pano of the ridge from the top of the path

The way down then turn on the left hand path just before the cairn

Pano of Montana Corona showing the barren landscape

Old ruins above the Beatriz Hotel

If you find yourself in Costa Teguise I can recommend this good ridge walk. All in all I was out for about three and a half hours taking it easy. A great way to spend a few hours and burn off some cold lagers. All that remained was a dip in the pool :-)

 A short video from the summit