Baños de Benasque-Ibones de Alba

Overview

This is a long but nice route to climb the Pico de Alba. The path to Ibones (lakes) de Alba is very good but after that the route is a little confuse.

Getting There

The access to Baños de Benasque is very good signaled in the road from Benasque to Llanos del Hospital. If you don't have car you must walk from the road of Llanos del Hospital for 1 or 2 km because the bus don't reach the trailhead. In this case is advisable to choose the normal route from La Besurta with bus from Benasque or Llanos del Hospital on summer.

Route Description

We begin in Baños de Benasque (1.680m), the former balneary of XIXth century walking across GR46T in direction to Hospital de Benasque following the path with red and white paint until a small ravine. We take on right side the yellow paint with the name “Alba” in a stone. The ravine has a hard slope walking near of the small river always on right side to reach a plain in the upper side. We turn to left following the cairns to ascent to right side to a shoulder descending a little bit to the beautiful Ibon (lake) de Alba (2.255m).

The peak Alba is just over the lake very high from here in left side. We turn to left bordering the lake to the other side climbing across the small terraces of stones and grass to reach the second lake. We turn to left across a long ramp with attention to the cairns but without path to reach the base of our peak. This area is a little confuse and the cairns are very useful. In the upper sea of rocks we walk to left side in direction to the spun of the left ridge of Pico de Alba. We reach the base and we turn to right searching the entry of a channel of stones and ground to walk slowly to the fore-summit. After that we cross the narrow ridge to the main summit of Pico de Alba (3.108m).

Essential Gear

A map is very useful because it's not a very popular route. On early Spring is useful the use of crampons and ice-axe. On winter the climb it's not advisable because this route has risk of avalanches.

External Links

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Images

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