The first day of the Camino del Norte is the hardest of the whole walk. We did the Norte in 2018 and skipped the first stage. This year we wanted to try it out, seeing that we were six years older. To make it even possible we did two things. We took a taxi up to the Guadalupe Sanctuario which saved four miles and 600 feet of elevation climb. We also decided to stop before San Sebastián which saved four miles. Still it was very hard, harder than we expected.
There are two routes from the Sanctuario: the official route, which is mostly flat except for a descent of 600 feet at the end, and is pretty routine. The second is the Purgatorio route which goes to the top of Mount Jaizkibel.
Right after the two routes split we climbed a ridiculously steep trail. Here is a photo.
After that it goes up and up and on and on. Quite rocky. But the route has spectacular views. Some photos.
Once you pass the mountain top and its towers, you start down. This is steep and rocky and slow going. Finally it merges with the lower trail and it is pretty easy into Pasajes.
Numerous times on the trail we wished we had taken the lower route but when we were back in Pasajes, after checking in and having a lovely meal we decided it was worth it.
Yikes, is all I can say. Pretty impressive climb and gorgeous views.
My quick computation says that the trail is the same difficulty as the La Luz trail. That is a 12% grade. La Luz appears to be better maintained.
Good for you two. Lunch was a nice reward.
Yes, similar to La Luz in some ways. La Luz has its rough areas, but the downhill of this (no photos) was treacherous in spots. And then when we finally hit a smooth paved area (I was so relieved) it got soooooo steep. They just about never use switch backs on Spanish trails.
They don’t have switchbacks in Nepal either.
After the hike we looked at the notes on gronze.com which said it was for very fit hikers. We might be fit but not very fit. It also said to not take it in bad weather. The beginning very steep section if about 18 inches wide and dirt. I kept thinking that if it were raining we would be in big trouble. On the Camino forum people were saying how hard it was but one guy said it was a little steep but not that bad and did not require any technical climbing. Call me a wimp but I have a much lower standard for a hard climb than one requiring pitons, carabiners and ropes.
One difference between this trail and La Luz is that La Luz is a pretty steady incline whereas this hike had some very steep parts and many fairly level parts. It also has a lot of rock climbing which is hard on old knees, especially on the way down.
And they call that a vacation?
When comparing to La Luz Trail – I seem to remember that Wynette walked it with her mom and dad ‘once upon a time’ and that was during our vacation.
Aha, Mom. So you can relate.
It didn’t seem that you encountered many other hikers on that steep trail, so that must have been nice. Always an “upside” to everything!
Well, believe it or not, we did see a lot of other hikers. Mostly locals out for some exercise. We were really surprised to see so many, especially on a week day. Maybe 30 or 40, coming from both directions.