Traveling to Lose the Misery

El Naranjo de Bulnes is the most characteristic mountains of the Europa peaks, the most famous, most reproduced photographically, and his fame comes not only from the blood trail that ascends to the summit. Since Luis Martinez, “The Cuckoo”, died in the wall on 2 September 1928, many climbers have lost their lives attempting to climb it. But that wall is smooth, like an impregnable tower, it is tempting, and defeat is a real achievement. Beating winter Naranjo is the aspiration of all mountaineers, except the Count of Saint-Saud, who, in his meticulous and detailed tour of the Picos, scarcely noticed the Naranjo. One of the last road open about it has the poetic name of ‘Winter Sleep’ dream, this time, was happy to wake up. But veterans say the Pico Naranjo increasingly looks more like a hardware store by the number of pins and iron left on the mountain walls.

El Naranjo is not as high as Torrecerredo or a mass as great as Peña Santa, however, dutifully than in fame and legend of these two mountains. First, is unmistakable. In the translation of Benjamin Jarnés of “The Song of Roland,” we read, referring to the Emperor Charlemagne, “Whoever you look, there is no need to show it.” The same happens with Naranjo, who need not show it because it is not possible to be confused with any other Mt. No other mountain also stands in front of him, so he is among the mountains, lonely, majestic, as if the only monarch of the three massifs.

Moreover, seen from almost everywhere: from Pimiango, from the Well of Prayer, Poo de Cabrales, from Camarmeña, where they have erected a monument, from the town of Los Callejos, from the flat saw Lanes, from the main road, once past Naves, in the direction of Oviedo, from the coastal area of the parish of Pria, in Villanueva, from Orio and Picone, New. From all these places is, very dark, well covered with snow, or a hat of clouds, or orange, and is so peculiar, and has a personality, which is still covered by a gauze of mist, the silhouette is cut to the other side and is recognized.

Naranjo’s name, which is the most popular, and which is known outside of Asturias, said that proceeds from the notes of Schultz, who said so in the topographic map of Asturias because of an orange he received his limestone mass with the rays of the setting sun. I have seen the Naranjo from Asiego, the picturesque village Cabraliego Cuera notes that since the Picos de Europa, and, indeed, the dusk had pink shades. Traditionalists, however, prefer the name Pico Urriellu.

And Bulnes, is another story. The village of Bulnes Naranjo is not nearly, if not [69] relatively. However, it is the last town that lies before reaching the Naranjo on this route: between Naranjo Bulnes and there are only a stone desert, the tremendous Camburero channel.
A is reached by Poncebos Bulnes, a thriving catering, as it up a hydroelectric power station and several bars. However, this place deep in the mountains, is the key to the Picos de Europa. Part of the path he will Camarmeña in the way he ends hanging over the rock that follows the Cares Gorge from Cain, on the border with the province of León. Before Cares route was longer, now the road between Cain Valdeón Posada has shortened. On this path, which leads to the Canal Trea, you can enter in the western massif and in the mountains of Covadonga, on the way we left it up to Sotres, and from there to Tresviso and eastern massif. And by the middle path, after crossing the bridge’s Jaya, on the River Cares, one arrives at Bulnes in the heart of the central massif of the Picos de Europa, nestled in the stunning mole Peña Main. Below runs the river Bulnes, who took the Brit on the road. You have to climb and let down. In the background is Camarmeña, embedded in the mountains, and at one point, Camarmeña is below the view of someone who stands at Bulnes. Finally he sees a village in a tall, across the river, is Bulnes de Arriba, and communicates with Bulnes itself, or the Village, by a bridge. Above is Amuesa. Spanish Mountaineering Federation placed on a stone plaque stating that Bulnes is friendly people of the mountain.

A North Bulnes protects you Peña Main, which Lueje rock described as “overblown.” He writes Lueje elsewhere in his book “The Picos de Europa”: “Turned to the side of Cares, to pick up the intersection of Puente La Jaya, and undertake a path that climbs disadvantages by volugas and unevenness Valley of the Channel and the cliffs of the outputs, Bulnes is earned, divided into two districts, the Villa (650 m.) and the People (730 m). This is the last well and Denon remote village Cabraliego, boosted by the region of the Picos, who lives in seclusion in the world, because it is the very heart of stone and the Mountain. “

However, both Bulnes not want separation, but want road. With the snow, the town is incommunicado, and by the fall, stop receiving sunlight, not again reach the village until the 27th January.
If you leave Bulnes to the south to the stony desert, is soon Naranjo. The poet Celso Amieva he sang in his “Poems of Llanes” accents epic, and no wonder:
Hail, Urrieles of Urrieles, prop of the heavens of my land;
witness the exploits astures, epic milestone;
northern watchtower of Castile and the Cantabrian
Index of my people in infinite vacuum.
Monolithic Peak king called in Europe:
Europe can feed and water in your ancient song
Spanish monument oh!, The glory of Mount Vindio,
Covadonga sun, moon lake Enol.
All noble Tree, Godfather Urriello de Cabrales,
Naranjo de Bulnes in the sea when the sun bathes:
Die one day give me your reflection on shroud
my sleeping wrapped in the banner Asturias!

The conquest of Naranjo had something to become legendary. “Go to the Naranjo de Bulnes? “Writes Don Pedro Pidal, Marquis of Villaviciosa de Asturias, his conqueror feat climber What bigger!”. But Don Pedro was tormented that this feat is not carried out a Spanish: “What form my idea of myself and my countrymen if one day my ears came the news that some foreign climbers had tremolo, with its people, the flag from their homeland on the virgin peak of Naranjo de Bulnes, Spain, in Asturias and in my favorite hunting ground robezos ?…» To avoid this, carefully prepared, bought in London the best line he could find, and then went to Chamonix to train, making the ascent of the Dru needle, crag of 3,775 meters on the Mer de Glace. Naranjo, according to Saint-Saud and Labrouche, which also saw the orange streaks of limestone give 2,515, but their difficulties are not less than if measured thousand-odd meters. Don Pedro, as escalation, took as a guide to Greg Smith, the “Cainejo”, a “stocky man robezos eternal hunter who lives in the rock while not throw snow to the valley”: a typical “man suede” , a true natural of Cain, the people plunged into the depths of the cave, which according to Don Alejandro Pidal, the father of Don Pedro, “One can not enter or leave.” Both began their trip in early August 1904, based on Bulnes, “Bulnes” writes Don Pedro, a village of shepherds and hunters robezos, is the little village of Asturias more snuggles up to the heart of the Picos de Europa ” and adds: “It is sandwiched between walls of stone, and just to the east are seen the meadows that lead to [72] Camburero channel. Enter through the hellish channel without any path, and after a couple of hours walk you will find a huge rock, carved-to-peak on all four sides. This rock, the most famous peak of the Picos de Europa, is the Naranjo de Bulnes “.

The night of August 4, 1904, Don Pedro and “Cainejo” asleep, “a pair of goats” at the end of the channel Camburero. As day 5 out towards the peak and had lunch by a fountain which rises in its foothills. The ascent was rough, but managed to reach the summit. From there, Don Pedro, so fond of lyrical effusion, saw a landscape like no other: “The landscape that we could see was none other than the heart of the Picos de Europa, seen in their midst: glaciers, snow fields, rocky hills, towers, Shots, needles, canyons, slopes, pedrizas, wells, robezos empingorotados at some point, or herds of them grazing at our feet in the desert valley in deep pot hole in the vast, quiet and alone, some lost in the Picos clouds, passing other, and everywhere the abyss, the abyss, imprisoned in the rock that had been enchanted virgin forever … There we caught up, looking over a landscape so vast, so original and so to Gustave Dore, without exaggeration, and there would have been a long time if time is pressing for a fall, like all others, far more difficult than the ascent, and construction of towers or signs that give testimony of having been up there. “

According to the Conde de Saint-Saud at the summit also left other traces of their passage: two bottles of wine, one empty, and inside, the card [73] Don Pedro. On July 18, 1907 met Aymar de Saint-Saud, don Pedro Pidal, and Dr. Gustav Schulze, second in the Naranjo scale, the first to do it alone, in the Fonda de Velarde, in Bustio in border between Asturias and Santander, on the banks of the Cares-Deva. And Saint-Saud has in his book “On the Picos de Europa”, “Schulze told us how he had risen to Picu. At the peak of Naranjo de Bulnes found two bottles, one with a business card and the other with wine. In the card, which was the Marquis de Villaviciosa, the wine was read for the first I got a new escalation. The doctor drank a few drinks and transfer the rest to your canteen. The Marquis confirmed that he had uploaded a bottle, and Gregory the second. To celebrate his victory, drank one and left the other to his successor. Schulze thanked Pedro wine and, taking from his wallet the business card, handed it back to Don Pedro, who, surprised, could barely contain his excitement. “