Winter pilgrimage

[graham ward]

Hello,this is Graham Ward in London. I walked the Camino Francais in 2005, and am planning to return to rewalk a section on the journey in December. Does anyone have any good, practical advice for such a journey during the winter months? In the main, were the refuges open, even in the generally out of the way places? I would like to rewalk the meseta area and o'cebreiro, and would hope that places were available to stay? Any advice for winter walking gratefuly received. Ultreia!

 

[michael]

Graham

Make sure you have the weather well researched. The actual weather is of course variable but weather stats will show you the past records. I am going ‘technical’ as I want to stay warm and dry and not turn it into a survival course. The two major factors will be the wet and the wind chill and also perversely the ability to cool down once you are zipped in to your thermal layer system and gore-tex should the weather turn warm and dry. You also need to be aware of sunrise and sunset re CET times as daylight hours will be reduced.
I am planning on full CF from SJJdP in January but I am expecting:

All refuges to be open unless indicated otherwise in official guides.
Refuges unheated – if they are it’s a bonus.
Hot showers available most days – but can cope without.
At least one hot meal a day – and availability of bread water fruit etc daily.
No drying rooms for wet gear so carry shock cord line and pegs and scrounge/buy newspaper to stuff inside wet boots but also taking nikwax for boots.
Work out how to enquire about weather and if locals say don’t go then be prepared to stay put or take alternative route.
One essential piece of equipment for me is ski goggles that fit over my glasses. I can see through goggles and wipe them but rain on my glasses leaves me blind.
Mud seems to be a problem in some areas so I shall be taking knee length gaiters.
Sillydoll has some winter notes for the Camino either email her or perhaps she will respond to this posting.

buen camino

 

[graham ward]

Dear Michael,

Thanks for your thoughts on winter pilgrimage. I am assuming that you were able to make the entire journey in winter, and I only wish that I had the time to repeat my full walk also. Your comments were of great help, and I suppose it is a case of good common sense also. The way in winter intrigues me, and I know it will be a vastly different experience than in the Spring and beginning of Summer, when I went last. there is bound to be less pilgrim traffic during the winter, which sort of appeals to me, and I am prpared for this factor. I am wondering wondering which is the best way to reach a starting point, and assume it will be somewhere like Burgos, but I will doubtless research this also. If you have any thoughts on this matter, I wold be grateful. Thanks again, and Buen Camino to you. Graham

 

[ivar]

Thank you Michael for some good advice. I hope you don't mind that I used some of your points to create this page in the wiki:
http://www.pilgrim-wiki.com/index.php?t ... t%22_to_go

Anyone that has something to add, please feel free to click the "edit" link (at the top of the wiki) and add their comments (remember to save). Also, files can be uploaded to the wiki by clicking the "File Upload" link (left side, a bit down in the wiki).
Un saludo,
Ivar

 

[spursfan]

Watching the Larry Boulting "Within the Way Without" DVD (available from http://www.csj.org.uk) was more than enough to persuade me to walk in the Spring rather than the snow seen with the Winter pilgrim - I have nothing but great admiration for Rob on his walk from Utrecht - and you'll realise why there are so few other pilgrims seen in his part of the film walking over Christmas and New Year

 

[katy06]

CAUTION!

One has to take great care over the Pyrenees as the snow can be deep and also, in Rabanal there was reportedly four feet of snow.. unimaginable given the scorching July summer.
Avalanches are not to be ruled out and the huge rocks can be ... some pilgrim deaths are recorded by such events..
STAY ALIVE!
Buen camino !
Pax et Bonum.
katy

 

[beckany]

winter walking

My only Camino experience was in the winter... also 2004/2005. I absolutely loved it, and am going back with three friends this winter. Every town we stopped in was deliberate, in that they had an open albergue. There's a great website that I have used to find out which albergues are open when, and also information about the towns, and what is open in the winter. It is

http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/

I hope this helps! We'll be on the meseta in mid-January. Maybe we'll see you along the way!

bethany

 

[beckany]

Graham,

If you go to

http://www.freetranslation.com/free/web.asp

you can paste the web link of any spanish website in there and it will translate the entire webpage for you. THere are only a few instances, so far, that I have had it refuse to do so. And it's free. You'll get what you pay for, however, because it is a rough translation, but it is a start!

beckany