Thinking about the Primitivo in February

You wouldn't find me there in February, in the snow. I doubt the path will be flattened by snowmobiles the way are walking and cross country skiing trailes are, and with the small number of pilgrims at that time of the year my guess is that you would find yourself deep in snow.

Mind you, many of the albergues are open year round... Perhaps you could contact a few of the year round hospies amd ask them about what you could expect.

The uphills would be bad enough with a lot of snow, but some of of the dowhills would be dangeous, such as heading down towards the dam in Grandas. Other spots uphill that could be tricky: the Acebo, then the double peak into O Cadavo... Dowhill from Hospital as your way to O Cadavo. And there is no way I would attempt the Hospitales route, even with company.

Then walking on the side of the roads which may be slippery and where you have practically no space to get away from incoming traffic....

I have friends who have climed Kili and did just fine following their guide, with the rest time to get used to altitude. Sounds far easier to me than trying real snow in the mountains of Northern Spain.

Several people in the past have said that they intended to walk the Primitivo in winter December-February. They have never come back to say that they have completed this Camino at that time. Maybe they did succeed but the conditions could be very poor. Checking the road conditions alone we have found that the high passes are sometimes closed to all vehicles, or to large ones, meaning no public transport if needed. Puerto de Palo has snow poles on the road but the actual Camino signs, there and elsewhere, could be obscured even in lighter snow.
On the other hand a very mild winter with rain rather than snow could allow a winter Camino, but with decisions made 'on the day'.
Maybe some of our 'local' members can give some more insight before you make a decision.

Donna Sch said:

My 50th is coming up in 2019 and I still have long service leave up my sleeve and I'm seriously thinking about trekking Mt Kilimanjaro which has been on my bucket list for a long time. I live in sea level Northern Australia so I've been thinking that doing a short camino for 2-3 weeks might be a good way of training hills. I have to fly to Tanzania from Amsterdam anyway and fares to Madrid are cheap so going to Spain would be fun. The kind of gear I would need for Kili means that I would have the gear for a winter camino and really get a chance to test things.
So how hard is this route to do in winter and how good is the waymarking if it snows? And how doable are the harder uphill and downhill sections in bad weather?
I've done a Camino before but in summer so this would be a very different beast.

Donna

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Snow could be very deep. I think it would be foolhardy.

It might be both impassable and impossible. Check out this earlier Forum thread re the trail in winter. https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/primitivo-in-winter-impossible.23516/

Donna Sch said:

My 50th is coming up in 2019 and I still have long service leave up my sleeve and I'm seriously thinking about trekking Mt Kilimanjaro which has been on my bucket list for a long time. I live in sea level Northern Australia so I've been thinking that doing a short camino for 2-3 weeks might be a good way of training hills. I have to fly to Tanzania from Amsterdam anyway and fares to Madrid are cheap so going to Spain would be fun. The kind of gear I would need for Kili means that I would have the gear for a winter camino and really get a chance to test things.
So how hard is this route to do in winter and how good is the waymarking if it snows? And how doable are the harder uphill and downhill sections in bad weather?
I've done a Camino before but in summer so this would be a very different beast.

Donna

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I have done both Kilimanjaro, the Primitivo (in May 2016), and several other Camino routes. I would not recommend the Primitivo in February, but I do know someone who lives in Oviedo and did some of it then. That would be Helena Bernardo who is running the albergue at Grado; you can find her on Facebook and message her.
Some differences I see between the two trails. When we did Kili, we had porters who set up our large, heavy duty tents; if I were doing the Primitivo, I would want a four-season tent as insurance. Guides are required on Kili and they know the route well; the amount of waymarking on the Primitivo is adequate during reasonable weather, but would be harder to find during severe weather. There would be very few other people doing the Primitivo during the winter. Not saying it can't be done, but it would be a challenge.

Tia Valeria said:

Several people in the past have said that they intended to walk the Primitivo in winter December-February. They have never come back ......

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I read that completely wrongly .....