Urrieles Massif

The Urrieles Massif or the Central Massif is a mountainous massif in the north of Spain, one of the three massifs that make up the Picos de Europa, and in turn, one of the stretches of the Cantabrian Massif belonging to the Cantabrian Range. The other two massifs are the Cornión and Ándara. Of the three, it is the tallest.

Administratively, it belongs to the autonomous communities of the Principality of Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y León.

Located between the valleys carved by the rivers Cares and Duje is the Central Massif, without doubt one of the most rugged and vertical of the Picos de Europa. Possessing the greatest height of the three massifs, as 38 of its summits rise above 2,500 meters, 14 of them being over 2,600 meters. Only Peña Santa, on the Western massif, would be in that group of 38 mountains above 2,500 meters.

Although less extensive than the Cornión massif, the Urrieles massif has more high-mountain area than the previous, crowned by the Torrecerredo with its altitude of 2,650 meters. However, it is not at that point where the legend of this massif in particular and the Picos de Europa in general were concentrated. To find it we must head east, to the heart of the Urrieles, towards the Naranjo de Bulnes or Picu Urriellu, authentic symbol of the Asturian mountain and the place where they have written, since its conquest in 1905, the most beautiful chapters of Spanish mountaineering. Serving as examples Alberto Rabada and Ernesto Navarro opened up, in 1962, the first route on its west face, 500 meters of vertical limestone, or the "Sueños de Inverno" [Winter Dreams] route, which required José Luis García Gallego and Miguel Ángel Diez Vives to hang from said wall for 69 uninterrupted days.

Like Cornión, the Central Massif can be divided into different zones for an easier and more understandable analysis.

From north to south, the first summits are those of the Main Rock group; highlights among those are the Redondo Cueto [inaccessible peak], the Cabeza la Mesa (which with 1,605 meters is the highest in this group) and the Cabecina Quemada. From any of them, one can find some spectacular views of the heart of the Urrieles.

To the west one finds Bulnes, a village that, as much for its location as for the isolation that geography has subjected it to for centuries, perhaps best represents man's presence in this hostile environment. From Bulnes, through the Balcosín channel first, and then the Camburero channel, one comes to the base of the peak that shares the same name, the Naranjo de Bulnes.

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Wikipedia