Viso-Lechugal

Peaks: Montana del Viso (997m), Montana Lechugal (993m)

Area: La Aldea, Gran Canaria

Two contrasting mountains: Viso, which was very striking from my hotel room in La Aldea, is runnable and popular along a marked trail, while Lechugal was an obscure but striking peak that caught my eye and formed an interesting though arduous extension to the day. I parked at the Tasarte col, enjoying the complete contrast with the first two days: the mountains above La Aldea reminded me of Jordan or Morocco: baked and arid. First, I headed to Viso along a fabulous path that contoured along a distinctive terrace that offered a way through what is a very steep hillside festooned with crags. It rose gently along the contour to a slightly exposed section which gave way to a shallower hillside and upward climb. This gained an open plateau that led west to the trig point on Viso (45m from road). Although it is little more than a spur of the much bigger Inagua mountain, Viso is poised directly above La Aldea and its valley: superb views down to the Atlantic and across to the rocky peaks that had surprised and impressed me from the hotel, like Hogarzales and Cedro. Lechugal was not quite as striking but still looked very good from Viso, and dominated the head of the valley, so I decided to append it to the day. The descent was superb, perfect gentle running with fabulous downward views. At the col I took on water from the car then ran down towards Tasartico before taking a steep side valley that I calculated would lead me to the east ridge. It was completely untravelled, festooned with the usual scratchy vegetation and loose volcanic scree. The ridge above was more troublesome still, much steeper than it looked, with scree and cacti barring progress. I did spy a way through some of the crags which gave some good scrambling but prospects looked bleak. I was just about to give up when I found a tiny path, which I assumed was a goat track but turned out to be human! It was tenuous, but led south to a much more comfortable route, which reached a col and then headed up to the summit enjoyably. The top was small with magnificent views in all directions: Inagua was impressive, as was Mogaranes, a pyramidal peak above the sea. I took the path all the way down, losing it at times (I doubt the peak is ascended more than a few times each year), which avoided some of the unpleasantness of the ascent.