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Latest time of year to walk over the mountain from SJPDP

Sue Blue Mountains

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Time of past OR future Camino
Camino Frances 2016
What month is the latest you can walk from SJPDP over the mountain rather than up the road. I'm thinking perhaps starting late September or early October. Glad for anyone's thoughts. Last time I did the Frances I started late April so missed out on that mountain walk.
 
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If you're going all the way to Roncesvalles in one go (I've done it twice) then I'd suggest leaving about 8am. It may be a little dark the later into October you get but it soon brightens up on your way out of town. This leaves a good eight or so hours to get to Roncesvalles in daylight with hopefully some time for decent stops/lunch.
 
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If you want to stay at Orrison, (which I reccomend, it was a good decision for us,) I think they shut about 15 th October. You can e mail them , as I did, and they'll tell you and book you in. We were there about 2nd week of oct last year and had great walking weather going over, but take gear to keep you warm on top - gloves, hat, fleece, I wore all of them , if only for a short time.
 

Did you keep and need all of those cold weather items throughout your trip? I plan to start SJPP approximately Sept. 15. I'm more concerned about mid October temperatures farther west. Thanks.
 
whariwharangi said:
Route Napoleon is closed 1 November for the winter.
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Thank you

Excellent advice - yes I did want to stay there so looks like their closing time might be my deciding factor for start date. Thank you
 
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You can get snow up in the mountains after Leon, especially at O'Cebreiro. I would definitely advise you to keep your gloves and beanie at least. In Galicia it is cold first thing in the mornings with frost in late October
 
camino-david said:
You can get snow up in the mountains after Leon, especially at O'Cebreiro. I would definitely advise you to keep your gloves and beanie at least. In Galicia it is cold first thing in the mornings with frost in late October
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Good to know. Would be quite good to have snow rather than rain ... I think! Will ensure I take cold weather stuff for sure. It was pretty cold when I did my first C. Frances in March/April last year too.
What are crowds like in October/November?
 
Sue - Katoomba Snowgums said:
Good to know. Would be quite good to have snow rather than rain ... I think! Will ensure I take cold weather stuff for sure. It was pretty cold when I did my first C. Frances in March/April last year too.
What are crowds like in October/November?
Click to expand...

Check out the helpful tips in these earlier forum threads re walking in October/November--
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/anyone-doing-the-camino-in-october-november.33632/

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/walking-camino-frances-in-october-november.17421/

Happy planning and Buen camino!
 
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Sue - Katoomba Snowgums said:
Good to know. Would be quite good to have snow rather than rain ... I think! Will ensure I take cold weather stuff for sure. It was pretty cold when I did my first C. Frances in March/April last year too.
What are crowds like in October/November?
Click to expand...

I went from SJPdP to Fisterra end October to Early Dec 2012.

I had sideways blowing rain on route Napoleon.

There were perhaps a 100 at Roncesvalle.

There were rumors of snow on route Napoleon from people catching up as I really slowed down after Pamplona for a few days.

The last large crowd was Burgos around mid November. Mornings were getting frosty and many stopped their camino for the year at Burgos.

I encountered snow near O Cebreiro late in November. The snow was deep enough ... perhaps ankle deep ... to force walking on the road ... which was getting plowed every few minutes but had almost no other traffic than the plows. There was only one day with snow.

After that there were rain squalls ... black clouds giving about a half hour notice before opening the flood gates.

The 'crowds' got more numerous after Sarria ... though that might be because most albergues were closed.
 
Sue - Katoomba Snowgums said:
Thank you


Excellent advice - yes I did want to stay there so looks like their closing time might be my deciding factor for start date. Thank you
Click to expand...
Yes, I built our first four days around when we could stay at Orrison. We only did sjpdp to pamplona that time as had limited time available when we could go, but took gloves and hat again on next stage in March and wore them again then, and I wore my fleece at night as I often felt very cold when I got really tired. Mostly you may not need them but they feel like essentials when you do need them. I ended up giving my gloves to an Aussie in March who was really feeling the cold, so it's nice to have things to share too- we were going home again After Burgos and he was going all the way.
 
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