Over the wild peaks

From the fertile plain of Granada one sees rearing in up in the distance the great bastion of the Sierra Nevada mountain range with its snow covered peaks. One would never imagine the treasures that lie up there in the seemingly bare rocks – a remarkable cache of nature’s diversity.

If the Donana National Park is best known for its fauna, the Sierra Nevada, the other Andalucian National Park, is outstanding for its vegetation; particularly its wild flowers, with fifty varieties unique to these mountains. This is due to the contrast between the close proximity of the Mediterranean and the great height of the mountains which create an exceptionally wide variation in climate at different altitudes and aspects.  For this reason, as well as for its extensive range of wildlife and geographical features, the area was declared a Reserva de la Biosfera by UNESCO in 1986, and three years later a Natural Park on 17 December 1988, with the upper half of the territory being declared a National Park (the 12th in Spain) which enjoys maximum protection.

Notwithstanding such international accolades, the Sierra Nevada has been acclaimed for centuries. The poet Zorilla arriving for the first time declared the mountains, “steeped in history and legend, where the African sun caresses the snows”. Washington Irving speaks lyrically of the ” fresh vegetation and temperate airs of a northern climate allied to the ardour of a tropical sun and the clear blue skies of noon” in his ‘Tales of the Alhambra’.

Irving writes fluently of the exceptional quality of the light; the winter clarity, the yellow hues of spring (June) when the high meadows are covered with an intensity of flowering shrubs. Many visitors to the Sierra used to spend the night there specifically to enjoy the sights and scents of the flowers and experience the majesty of the sunsets, and the spiritually uplifting dawns when the first rays of the sun shine on the jagged peaks of the summits. It is from these sunrises that in ancient times the mountains were known as the Sun Mountains – for the Romans ‘Mons Solarius’ and for the Arabs ‘Sulayr’. They were also called, as they are today, Snow Mountains, Yabal al Taly.

Sun and snow have defined these mountains throughout their history: As it is expressed in the popular song by Henrique de Jorquera in the 17th century:

“There are three things in Granada that last throughout the year: Snow in the Sierra Nevada,  rosy sunburn on the face, and mud slush in the calle Elvira”.

The sun shines more than 250 days a year, which means that little snow remains in the summer months except in the most hidden corners of the north face. And we musn’t forget that although we are speaking geographically of a glacial landscape, these ‘Snowy’ mountains are just a few miles away from the African continent. 

Before the advent of fridges muleeters went up into the sierra to collect snow and ice for domestic and commercial use in the city below. Every night strings of pack animals crowded the mountain highways laden with their valuable cargo. The main route, known as the ‘Camino de los Neveros’, still exists: leading upwards from the city it passes through ‘la Fuente de los Neveros’, ‘el Purche’, the flanks of ‘Domajo’, to the foothills of Veleta (the second highest peak on the peninsula). The city council has now designated this route a Camino Real (ancient right of way) thanks to a local and provincial campaign dedicated to conserving the ancient highways and bridleways. Local town councils let out to tender grazing rights in pastures under their jurisdiction. Sometimes the right to collect snow and ice are passed on from father to son, or are put out to public auction. One of the families that inherited such rights took the newly opened ski station to court in an attempt to get compensation for their loss of income.

One of the old customs that is being lost when the ice melts is ‘los careos’. This refers to a method of taking advantage of the snow melt that runs down into the rivers and is absorbed during its course into the aquifers and irrigation channels (acequias). These acequias transport and distribute the water, not only for irrigating the crops but also putting it back into the soil to maintain the numerous springs dotting the mountain sides, even at the height of summer when water is scarce. Sadly, what is happening now is that villages heavily dependent upon tourism, such as those in the Poqueira gorge, have practicually abandoned their agriculture and the concurrent irrigation practices: this results in dry unusuable land with a seriously increased risk of forest fire. So now those high mountain villages that used to have so much water they didn’t have need of water meters now find themselves having to restrict water use in the summer months!

The comparison and contrast between agriculture and tourism in villages such as Trevelez, for example, is best seen from the point of view of the young people – who are in no doubt about the economic advantages of the latter.