We’re very excited today as we’re headed for the cable car at Fuente Dé. We hoping to be able to go for a walk when we reach the top and take it some stunning views but it’s all weather dependent. However, it’s raining so we pack lots of kit and have a suspicion that we’re going to encounter some snow when we reach the summit. We drive the 23km through a twisty mountain road and gorgeous alpine-esque scenery. Its really quite beautiful. We park at the cable car station and buy our tickets. It’s 17 Euros return each and in less than four minutes, the cable car whisks us up from the valley floor to the top of the 600m-high sheer southern wall of the Picos’ central massif – an ascent of 753m in a horizontal distance of just 1.45km. It’s not busy and we have the cable car to ourselves. We ascend in the rain which very swiftly turns to snow. Yikes we have to remind ourselves it’s actually 11th May.
It’s b****y freezing. We layer up and add hats and gloves, thank goodness we packed them. We walk up from the cable car station and take some pictures. We see a pathway and decide that we’re going to take a walk it’s not like we’re in shorts and flip flops or anything, it’ll be fine.
Initially the sun comes out, there’s even a bit of blue sky as the clouds swirl around so we crack on with our walk. However, as we start to ascend and turn around a bend we’re greeted by the beginnings of a snow flurry and retreat to the restaurant at the cable car station that serves excellent chips and hot chocolate. We’re shrouded in mist and the windows offering a panoramic view are made completely and utterly redundant.
Below what we should’ve seen vs what we actually saw!!
It stops snowing and the clouds start to make a move. We walk out onto the viewing platform and finally the valley floor is revealed, it’s quite spectacular. The unpredictability of the weather forces us to descend we’re not going to be walking up here today. We descend in the cable car.
When we reach the bottom it’s raining and we spot a collection of climbing walls. There is a European Cup bouldering and speed climbing event taking place which we stay and watch. The flexibility and athleticism of the climbers is quite something to behold as they work out how to ascend the boulder courses and they only have 4 minutes to achieve it.
We return to Potes for dinner of pizza and red wine. We walk back to our hotel in the rain grrrrr. We’re on the move tomorrow so we’ll need to pack, again.
Travelling renders you speechless then transforms you into a story teller 
Shame poor weather for this trip . Looks spectacular. Oh well you will need to revisit sometime at a later stage.
LikeLiked by 1 person