Traverse of Tenerife's SE crater rim (02.07.2006)

I had climbed El Sombrero and Roque de los Almendros a couple of times before on vacations at Tenerife, but never Montana de Guajara. This time I intended to make a traverse of the crater rigde from Montana Guajara via Roque de los Almendros, finally ending my traverse on El Sombroro. Images are from a trip back in the 1990-ies; scanned dias, and subsequently definitely not supreme quality...

I parked my rented car at the Visitor´s Centre close to Roques de Garcia. From here I headed for the western face of Montana Guajara and soon I discovered a trail to be followed. No difficult passages, but on approaching the summit plateau I followed a somewhat exposed, but not narrow legde formation leading to the left(north) before arriving at the relatively flat summit area. From here splendid viewes to eastern flank of El Teide in the north west and the southeastern part of lowland/coastal Tenerife to the southeast, and of course the crater ridge to the south and southwest. From the summit of Montana Guajara I descended, still on well marked trail in a southern direction, about 3-400 vertical meters to a col before several small ascents and descents along the ridge further on. The terrain was for the most part relatively easy, with a few places easy scrabling. Eventually I gained some net elevation and after some km I could ascend the relatively distinct peak of Roque de los Almendros. Descending from this one, I had just about one km before I could stand on the third and last peak of today´s traverse; El Sombrero. I ascended via the eastern rigde(easy scrambling;as far as I could assess the easiest, and only? access to El Sombrero without climbing)
Also magnificent views from the summit of El Sombrero to El Teide and (from this perspective) the flat summit of Pico Viejo, as well as down the steep slopes to the road running far below on the crater floor. From El Sombrero descent via the east ridge and just 20 minutes down to the road. But, my car was parked far away at Roque de Garcia area, and I had to make the rather boring walk along the road some 6-7 km back to my parked car.

I will recommend this trip to anyone enjoying not too difficult ridge traverses, with magnificent views to the High Points of Tenerife as well as the coastal areas in the south and east almost all the way. I can also recommend it as an accimatization hike prior to a climb to Pico del Teide; (not mandatory, but will definitely make a climb to El Teide more pleasant and less strenuous) If you have two cars available, the one can be parked at the Roque de Garcia area and the other some place close to El Sombrero, to avoid a rather boring walk along a dusty and sometimes highly trafficed road on the crater floor.