The final hikes + going home…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 22.12.23 | Montaña Bilma | 1371m | 126m | Tenerife, Spain | MAP |
| 22.12.23 | Montaña de la Cruz | 1521m | 98m | Tenerife, Spain | MAP |
| 23.12.23 | Going home | – | – | – | – |
Montaña Bilma (1371m), Dec 23 2023
Friday: This was our last full day on Tenerife, and we agreed to go up to Montaña Bilma – above Valle de Ariba. Anne wanted to hike a volcano top, and we guess ALL of the tops on the island are volcanic tops in one form or another, but this top looked like a volcanic top.
But we couldn’t go anywhere before Anne’s morning yoga and breakfast…
After breakfast, we drove up to Valle de Ariba and located the mountain road that we had planned to follow. But we couldn’t find parking and located another trail that a) offered parking and b) eventually would connect with the mountain road.
As for the mountain road, there were no signs saying it was prohibited to drive up the road, but it just didn’t feel right. The road was quite rough also.
The trail was quite alright, though, and eventually we joined the road we had planned to follow.
After a few shortcuts, we were on the mountain road proper and followed it up to a trail junction, next to … I don’t know what to call it – a memorial place of some kind.
There were multiple trails going from here, but none of them were apparently taking us up the mountain.
So, we decided to head in the direction of Santiago del Teide for a little while, until we went off-trail.
The bush was not too unfriendly, and we had steady progress up the volcano.
Unlike our past days on the island, it was raining (lightly) and the wind was quite strong. Actually, the wind was so strong that we decided to seek out a sheltered route upwards.
Eventually, we reached the top and the wind was just nuts.
But, without precipitation, it was just windy, and we survived a couple of minutes on top.
For descent, we agreed to hike across the east top and take it from there.
It was quite amazing to see the lava rivers coming off Pico del Teide.
Below us, we could see a trail that went through the lava, and we decided to follow this route back. But the descent down the mountain side felt a bit … not totally legit. There were no signpost saying this was illegal, but it kinda felt that way.
The descent didn’t take long, and we stayed closed to bushes to minimize our visual footprint. And eventually, we were on the trail that would take us back to the … memorial place …
From here, we took the same route down to Valle de Ariba…
Trip statistics 5,9km, 385 vertical meters, 1h:49m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max/Samsung Galaxy S21):
Montaña de la Cruz (1521m), Dec 22 2023
Friday: The rain had stopped, and we both felt like taking another walk, after coming down from Montaña Bilma. We chose to take the road to Teide, and hike Montaña de la Cruz on the Sendero del Chinyero trail.
We found parking along the main road (Mirador de los Poleos) and soon found the forest path and we were told by signposts that any off-trail escapades were strictly illegal. We respected that.
It was a really nice walk through a gorgeous pine forest.
After a little while, we had Montaña de la Cruz in view. Fortunately, the map showed a path (or road) leading to the top. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been hiking here.
After the rain in the morning, it was now a gorgeous day with beautiful light.
We passed a cute bird, not knowing what it was. Later, we learned that this is a Tenerife blue chaffinch (Fringilla teydea). Really beautiful! And – it only exists on this island!
The hike up to Montaña de la Cruz was really, really nice! The trail encircled the mountain 3 times!
And then we reached the top!
This top is also known as Montaña del Estrecho, or Volcán del Estrecho. There are two tops. Maybe Estrecho is the western top and Cruz is the eastern top. I don’t know.
We had an awesome view towards the tops surrounding the Tamaimo and Santiago del Teide region.
We felt this was a really nice ending to a content-rich vacation on Tenerife.
After a short stay on top, we headed back down to the pass between Montaña de la Cruz and Montaña de los Poleos and then took a new path – east of Montaña de los Poleos.
Back at the trailhead, I did the usual math. We had done 9 tops with a prominence of 100m or more, plus Montaña de la Cruz and plus the unforgettable hike through the tunnels in the Los Gigantes region. My tally after two trips to Tenerife was now 20 tops with a prominence of 100m or more. There are still tops I haven’t been to, so perhaps we’ll be back one day. But, the high point on Gran Canaria has top priority.
Back at the hotel, we went for a swim in the ocean, protected from the rugged sea by cliffs.
And then we enjoyed our final sunset for now…
Trip statistics 9,1km, 270 vertical meters, 2h:18m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max):
Going home, Dec 23 2023
Saturday: Our flight to Oslo didn’t leave until 4:05pm and so we had plenty of time to kill before we eventually left the hotel around 11am.
Returning the rental car went smoothly, although they sure know how pack a lot of stuff into a small space at the airport. Check-in went equally smooth and so now it was just a matter of crossing fingers for the flight to take off on schedule.
It did, and that’s when I could really relax. Tenerife isn’t the worst place to get “stranded”, but we had a dog back home and we wanted to spend Christmas Eve in Norway.
I mentioned in a different post that I always get a headache when we’re going on vacation, but I never get it when we’re coming home from one. So, I had a good flight, wondering how conditions were when we got to Oslo airport Gardermoen.
Gardermoen was a cold place. The temperature was 24 deg. C. when we left Tenerife, and it was -20 deg. C. when we finally had scraped the ice off the car and sat course for Årnes. It was a 44-deg. drop and we weren’t exactly dressed for winter when we got off the plane.
The ~45-minute drive to Årnes went just fine and we arrived there not too far after midnight. Karma was exstatic, to put it mildly. We spent a little time with our friends before going to bed. We would have a busy day tomorrow…
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max):
