The secrets of Ripollès, the Costabona and its surroundings

This month, taking advantage of the opportunity that this blog offers me, I want to show you my favorite corner of Ripollès, the Costabona and its surroundings. In fact, in the exit that I am going to tell you, we do not ascend to Puig del Costabona, but we could say that the objective of the day is Roca Colom (2,506 m), further east. Still, I don't really like to talk about a peak as the objective of a hike through the Pyrenees (or wherever), since the whole hike is worth it.

In our case, because we only had one morning (since we had a table to eat at Can Jordi, something essential in all our visits to Espinavell), we left the Refugio Los Estudios by car, to Collada Fonda. There we left the car and began to climb, quite hard, following a cattle fence that is on the right hand side. We continue climbing up to the Coll de Pal, passing a little over the Refugio de Jaume Ferrer, with its Balma de Tòfol, looking back at the wonderful views of the Ripollés Pyrenees in September.

We arrived at Coll de Pal , where we have fantastic views of the Costabona and the Grietas de Rojà.

We, however, turn left and turn our backs on the Costabona; and all crest, we arrive at Roca Colom. Once there, we cannot continue our route without sticking our heads out to see the Channels of the Camera Obscura, which for a moment transport us to a much more typical place in the high Pyrenees.

From there, we go down the French band to go see the Fuentes del Tec, where a young gray wheatear surprises us in the middle of the road.

Finally, we ascend again to Coll de Pal and go down the same path that we have climbed, just in time for lunch.

Post written by , Èlia Bautista