Maladeta Traditional Geocache
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Maybe the highest cache in Spain. Always surrounded by the snow... it resides in the top of "La Maladeta", a summit with 3308m.
REACHING THE CACHE
In winter, it can be hard to find due to the amount of snow covering the cache location.
From Benasque, follow the paved road North till 42 40.408N 000 35.360E, you will find a smaller paved path to the right that leads to smaller road in 42 40.933N 000 36.655E ("Plan del Hospital"). Keep in this road (which follows Esera river) and you will find a parking spot at 42 40.650N 000 39.101E (1916m). You can leave the car here and start gaining altitude for about 45 minutes going S. At 42 40.167N 000 39.079E (2140m) you will find "La Renclusa" refuge where you can sleep or eat something... there are nice rooms and a good meals to enjoy before you start the long part of the climb. It is a good choice to check the availability of beds before getting there (phone +34 - 974.55.21.06). From here you have to reach "El Portillon" (~2800m at 42 39.234N 000 38.640E) following a S-SW bearing. At this point, you have to keep in the W side of the cliff (going left, would lead you to "Aneto") and follow S-SW crossing the Maladeta's glacier untill you reach the base of the cliff at 42 38.838N 000 38.302E and 3195m. From here, you have to climb a 60º snowed path and ~50m long between the rocks placed about 200m W of the summit and find the cache near the top of the mountain (3308m).
The whole ascencion from the refuge should be about 4-5 hours.
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
First conquerors:
F.Parrot & P.Barrau (29-september-1817)
"Montes Malditos" is the spanish expression for "Damned Mountains". According to some books this terrible-sounding name has its origin in the primitive local name for the massif: Mala hita (meaning "bad rocks" or "bad upper regions"). The first french travelers in the area translated this local name into the french "Maladette", thinking it had something to do with the italian term "Maladetta" (feminin for "damned"). After that, Maladeta was a logical evolution and from the name of a single peak it came to be the term to know the whole massif. (info add for "eza")
The Maladeta Massif constitutes the most important and emblematic set of summits of the whole Pyrenees, not only for contains the highest point (Aneto, 3404m), but for the category and quantity of tops over 3000 meters that it contains. For centuries this range has astonished the mountaineers that for many years of legend have managed to conquer the summits. Great report of the history of the French and Spanish mountaineering has been written in these mythical summits.
For a long time the massif was removed from the civilization and was a hard task for the first conquerors to come up to him for what was adapted the name of Montes Malditos ("Damned Mounts") that still is correct to refer to this mountain range.
The Maladeta Massif is located in valley of Benasque in north of Huesca, just in the middle of the mountainous chain of the Pyrenees (Pirineos).
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