Area: Gipuzkoa, Euskadi/Basque Country
Unlike the peaks around Riano, I have long been aware of these mountains in the heart of the Basque Country and wanted to visit them for cultural reasons alongside the usual scenic and sporting reasons. It seemed to make sense, and to complete a rewarding loop at the end of our week-long trip. From Leon, we'd driven to Euskadi and stayed in Maturana near Vitoria-Gasteiz. The main spine of the Basque mountains is to be found above the sanctuary of Arantzazu in Gipuzkoa, which has some case to be considered the heartland (although Kate and I stayed in Gernika in 2000, which is another). Certainly, Arantzazu had a powerful sense of place, with little visible Spanish and was a wonderful place to spend the night (in the Gipuzkoan interior, even an ill-informed visitor would realise they're not in Spain!). We left the hotels and restaurants that have grown up around the Catholic sanctuary, then headed up the very well worn path to the meadows of Urbia, where there is an uber Basque refuge complete with political slogans. The low valley of the Urzabalerreka opens out into green meadows, close cropped, below the sidepeak of Elorralaka Haitza. Above, the limestone ridge we were aiming for. The main peak is Aizkorri, where 90% of walkers head for (although it is not the highpoint). The path contours rightwards across the hillside, very worn and polished limestone. It was all quite a contrast to the untrodden mountains of Leon! The summit is surprisingly well-defined and has a tiny hut just below it (bearing the slogan 'free Basque prisoners' in English). Then, the ridge just unfolds in front (Aizkorri it the far end, although there are some lower peaks like Umandia further down still). To the north and east, green Basque valleys stretched out with little towns like Onati nestled among them. The full ridge crest from Aizkorri was always the plan, although Peter had dropped behind and unfortunately gone up the wrong peak first. We sorted ourselves out eventually, and kept religiously to the crest for the wonderfully enjoyable trip across a galaxy of minor peaks, all of which had attractive Basque names. In other environments, not all of these would have been named, but in a region of mountain enthusiasts, they had been. Highlights are hard to pick out, but Aitzabal was rocky and gave a scramble, while Aitxuri was notable as a distinctive peak (especially when seen from Aizkorri) and also the Basque highpoint. The most impressive and enjoyable of all the summits, however, was Arbelaitz, which looked hard from a distance, but wasn't. It was gained by shelves of limestone and a narrow ridge which dropped to a col before rising via runnels of limestone to a small summit. After Arbelaitz, the ridge loses its definition and becomes a jumble of sinkholes, meadows and beautiful archetypal limestone scenery. We did two further peaks in this complex and very distinctive terrain, finishing with a handshake on Andreitz, the final peak of the trip. It was then a simple matter to jog down springy turf to the refuge for lunch of beer and an enormous sandwich of hot chorizo with roasted red peppers. The journey down was enlivened by a griffon vulture convention - at least 40 gathered around a carcass with the little hill of Gorostiaran beyond. We ran flat out back to Arantzazu from Urbia (22 minutes), which was nice after all the slow progress. A storm blew in just as we got to the car - the first unstable weather of the trip! We couldn't locate a nearby campsite so ended up spending a memorable night at the Hotel Sindika overlooking the gorge and sanctuary, with a balcony each and a great little bar. It poured down in the early evening.
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