Peñon Bermejo

Overview

From a hiking, scrambling or climbing perspective Gran Canaria’s central range, Cumbre Central is the most interesting destination. Mountains reach close to 2000m and the west faces of the range offer vertical faces of several hundred metres height for climbing. Yet, the character of the wildest range of Gran Canaria will surely attributed to a small mountain range in the west of the island. Barely 700m high, the range isn’t even named on regular maps. However, as the name Güi-Güi occurs for two barrancos, a beach and a farm building, let’s name it Güi-Güi Range. The range stretches between La Aldea de San Nicolas in the north to the Tazartico Valley and can be extended to include the ridges which separate the Valleys of Tazarte, Veneguera and Mogan. There is a two branched hiking trail leading through the range, which connects San Nicolas with Tazartico. A common trail leads through Baranquillo de las Canales to Degollada de Peñon Bermejo deep inside the range before the split into a coastal and a mountain branch. High above the saddle you find two summit objectives, Peñon Bermejo to the north-west, Montaña del Cedro to the south-east. Of the two the former is the far easier summit, even though it requires a pathless and unmarked scramble across brittle slopes.

Peñon Bermejo got ist name from ist colorful slopes. It is is a flat topped mountain with a large summit plateau. And the highest summit of the ridge, which runs out into Barranco de Güi-Güi Chico which itself drains directly into the Atlantic Ocean. It offers one of the best views of neighbouring island Tenerife with mighty Pico del Teide towering 3700m above the south coast of the island. A second ridge runs out north towards San Nicolas with three more sumits nearby, Amurgar (790m), Los dos Picachos (662m). Due to the very brittle material of the range, however, none of these are decent summit objectives.

Getting There

The closest trailhead to Peñon Bermejo is at Cuermeja, a village to the south-east of La Aldea de San Nicolas on the west coast of Gran Canaria. If you start from the airport you have to get to the direct opposite side of the island, a half circle drive along the north or south coasts of about 90 minutes. The alternative across Cumbre Central takes much longer. As most people stay in the south at Playa del Ingles or Maspalomas, the following itinerary starts there:

• Take motorway GC-1 all the way to its end at Playa de Mogan.
• Switch to GC-200 through Mogan all the way to the restaurant Asador Grill el Valle, where GC-200 makes a sharp turn to the left.
• Stay on the road which winds across Degollada de la Aldea before descending to San Nicolas
• Stay on GC-200 until you reach Los Espinos
• Just before you reach a gas station turn into Paseo de los Espinos, which takes to Cuermeja

Route

The route to Peñon Bermejo is easy enough to find. From Cuermeja a long but well marked trail leads through the Güi-Güi-Range to Tazartico in its south. The trail crosses Degollada de Peñon Bermejo Barancillo de los Canales which end in the saddle. Here turn north-westward onto the brittle but considerably broad ridge of Peñon Bermejo. Up to the summit cone it is an easy scramble, afterwards, pass into the north slopes to tackle the summit from there.

Red Tape

I’m not aware of any red tape in the Güi-Güi Range. However, there are only few actual trails and the rock is very brittle. I’m only aware of two mountains being climbed, Peñon Bermejo and Montaña del Cedro, both close to each other, separated by Degollada de Peñon Bermejo.

When to Climb

Thanks to the "everlasting spring" of the Canaries, Peñon Bermejo can be climbed all year round. Don't go after or during heavy rainfall or in stormy conditions.

Accommodation

Gran Canaria has a lot of options for accommodation. Most visitors book hotel rooms from their travel offices or over the internet. However, you will most certainly end up in the ugly tourist centres along the south coast. Therefore a much better solution is to rent a holiday home, most often a rural finca. This can also be done by travel office or internet.

Weather Conditions

Teide on Tenerife with a small cloudcap as seen from Peñon Bermejo

The following table gives a rough general overview over the weather on Gran Canaria, at sea level.

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg. day temp.[°C / °F]

21 / 70

21 / 70

22 / 72

22 / 72

22 / 72

23 / 73

24 / 75

25 / 77

25 / 77

25 / 77

24 / 75

22 / 72

Avg. night temp.[°C / °F]

16 / 61

16 / 61

16 / 61

17 / 63

16 / 61

17 / 63

18 / 64

20 / 68

20 / 68

18 / 64

18 / 64

17 / 63

Water temp.[°C / °F]

19 / 66

18 / 64

19 / 66

19 / 66

19 / 66

20 / 68

22 / 72

23 / 73

23 / 73

23 / 73

21 / 70

20 / 68

Rainy days

4

3

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

3

3

3

The Canary Islands (as well as Madeira) are located in the trade wind zone. You almost always encounter northeastern winds which carry a lot of humid air. Being forced to climb to higher altitudes this moisture condenses into clouds. This in return means that most of the time the northeastern part of the islands is covered in clouds from altitudes of 1000m through 1500m.



The mountainous region in the centre of the island is of the same alltitude and higher and thus stops the clouds. While the northern parts of the islands can be foggy and rainy the southern parts most often are sunny and hot. On Gran Canaria the north-eastern part of the island collects almost all moisture. However, unlike on the other Canary Islands no cloud forest remains. The laurisilva fell victim to the agricultural development of the island.

Maps & Books

Regular Maps

• Gran Canaria
  Kompass Map WK237
  Kompass Verlag
  1:50000
  ISBN 3-85491-114-9
  
• Gran Canaria North
  Public Press Map 442
  1:50000
  ISBN: 978-3-89920-442-1
  
• Gran Canaria South
  Public Press Map 443
  1:50000
  ISBN: 978-3-89920-443-8

Digital Maps

Kompass is the only company known to me which offers GPS digital Maps. In addition for those of you with Garmin GPS receivers there is a map source map set of all Canary islands out there.

• Gran Canaria
  Kompass GPS4237
  Kompass Verlag
  ISBN 978-3-85491-219-4
  
• Islas Canarias
  Garmin Map (many islands including Gran Canaria)
  downloadable files

Books

My recommendation is a guidebook by Rother Verlag, available in English and German. The book is an excellent hiking guide covering all the interesting areas of the island. Since it comes with small maps for each excursion it might even be used without a map to support them.

• Gran Canaria
  Izabella Gawin
  Rother Verlag
  ISBN 978-3-7633-4816-9 (English)
  ISBN 978-3-7633-4000-2 (German)

Images

View Peñon Bermejo Image Gallery - 16 Images