Walking in Tenerife

Pico del Teide

Mountains :

Classic photo from the Tenerife national park of Las Canadas, the famous red rock called "Cinchado" to the left is said to be the world’s most photographed rock. It had the honor of appearing on the Spanish 1000 pesetas note.

Map of the national park:

I choose to make the summit tour on my 3rd day in Tenerife with some mixed emotions, I spent two weeks in Tenerife in total. It was like eating dinner and starting with the desert. I didn’t want to take any chances on a changeable weather forecast. It proved to be a wise decision! On the very last day I took another trip up there to go to the summit of mount Teide but in the mountains it was cloudy, rainy, foggy, snowy and windy all the time so I had to stay at the Parador hotel all day until the bus went back down to Puerto de la Cruz.

Whilst in Tenerife I stayed in Puerto de la Cruz and used the local bus co. (Titsa) to go to the national park Las Canadas.The bus arrived at about 11.00 and was to leave for the return journey at 16.00, only 5 hours of mountain hiking. If one wants to claim to have conquered Teide one does (of course) have to walk from the foot of the mountain up to the summit. It was hopeless trying to obtain a map of the area, I tried lots of stores, the tourist offices, the teide office and the parador information centre, none of them had any maps for the Las Canadas national park. On one of my last days I accidently found maps in a small book-shop. Going without a map was a problem, there were footpaths but it was hard to estimate the distances I remembered that I had heard of Montana Blanca (2748 m), and I saw some people marching up a path to the right. It did not seem far so I went the same way. Nearing the summit of this mountain there was no foothpath at all but I still went to the summit. What really was the main summit was not easy to comprehend, two or three peaks seemed about same height in an area of 100 x 100 m. I went onto them all to be sure. Later when I got maps I found out that this mountain must have been Montana Rajadas (2509 m). I had "lost" about 40 minutes on this.

 

Back on track to Teide. The footpath from the road follows a poor rocky road up to Montana Blanca, from here one can go either to the summit of Montana Blanca (left image below) or start the steep way up towards Teide (right image below). On my road up to this point I saw by my clock that I had used quite a lot of time and not even started on the tough part, time to take a little shortcut upwards. I had taken three steps when I heard an intense whistle. When I looked up I saw a man whistling, jumping and waving with all of his might, when I passed him later he just stared at me with the look of an alligator. I had seen and photographed the signs telling me to keep to the footpaths but I’m ashamed to say that in my haste I ignored them, the rangers in the national park are there to protect and preserve for future generations, so, I offer my apologies to you sir.

I was stupid enough not to pick with me the summit Montana Blanca (2748 m) on my way, I thought that I had to hurry up to reach my bus. So I had to go all the way up another day to have been to Montana Blanca.

 

About 3 hours from the road there is a cabin called Refugio Altavista. It is supposed to be open for tourists only in the summer months, but I have heard it was closed in August. When I was there in December it was open! It has an indoor toilet with water and about 10-15 beds.

   

From the cabin it's still at least an hour to the cable car station at about 3555 m where one must show one's permit for the last 200 m. It's a wonderful experience to finally reach the very summit of Tenerife ; that elusive peak that you've only seen as a dot from the rest of the island, is now there, under your feet. The footpath from the cable car to the summit is guarded by the "rangers". They stand there, from about 9.00 to about 17.00 (they go up with the first cable car in the morning and down with the last) whistles at the ready.

Mount Teide is on a list of 15 volcanoes worldwide, thought to have the potential to wake up during the next 50 years. It is wrongly credited (especially by lesser informed tourist guides) to having last erupted in 1909. This eruption was from Chinero well to the west of Teide. Pico Viejo, the crater clearly visible on the western slope of mount Teide was the last to erupt in this area Tenerife is the third largest volcanic island in the world after Hawaii second and Iceland which is the largest. Legend has it that Columbus in his famous journey in 1492 saw Teide belching fire. Since this was first written there has been an increase in volcanic activity on Tenerife but the authorities assure us that there is no danger.

At about 3600 m I saw a lizard! Tired from the walk and the low air pressure I made it to the summit at 16.05 well aware that I would have a hard time reaching the bus terminal on time. In the mountains there wasn't a cloud all day, but around the island at lower levels there were clouds everywhere, so sadly I couldn't see the other islands or any of the towns. Though the weather was incredibly clear and sunny it was very windy at the top. I had heard tales of the sulphurous gases emanating from and around the crater at the top, but I was surprised to see them so clearly and in such amounts, really exciting. For some reason I couldn't give up the idea of being able to catch my bus, so I stayed at the top for only 5-10 minutes and rushed back down. The cable car cost 1700 pesetas for a one way trip! I was down at 16.45 and clarified with the staff (who couldn't speak English...!) that the last bus had gone. So I had to start walking back to Puerto de la Cruz trying to hitch-hike, down at the road I put up my thumb, and amazingly enough; the first car stopped!