Torrecilla hike: route, water, food and fire rules

Quejigales to Torrecilla: the figures

The Junta de Andalucía, the regional government that runs the park, rates the path difficult and stony, with frequent shade, and asks for no special permit.¹ Torrecilla, 1,919 m, is the highest point in the park and in western Andalusia.² The way climbs through the old firs of the Cañada del Cuerno to the Puerto de los Pilones, passes the Sima GESM, a pothole more than 1,100 m deep, drops to the Pilar de Tolox and ends with 100 m of steep ground to the top.¹

To reach the start, take the A-397 from Ronda towards San Pedro de Alcántara and turn left onto a track, asphalted at first, after about 15 km; the park’s leaflet puts the turn-off at km 13.6. Keep left at the fork after about 8 km, and the car park, with room for about 100 cars, is 800 m further on.¹³ From the coast it’s the same road, coming up from San Pedro.

From 1 June to 15 October no fire may be lit for food anywhere on the mountain,⁴ and in winter snow, frost and blizzards are frequent.⁵ The last stretch is shared with the longer route from Puerto Saucillo,¹ whose trailhead panel says to turn back in fog, blizzard or bad weather.⁶

Carry every litre from the car

The one water point on the way is the Pilar de Tolox, a spring-fed stone trough just below the summit. The Junta’s panel there calls it one of the few water points in the high sierra; it was built for livestock, and ibex and birds drink from it.² Plan the day as if it weren’t there.

FEDME, Spain’s mountaineering federation, asks for at least 1.5 litres per person per day, and a good deal more in summer.⁷ The Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s safety adviser put it at about 2 litres over a six- to eight-hour hill day,⁸ which is this walk.

Why the stove stays at home

Andalusia forbids lighting a fire on forest land all year, except to cook in places built for it.⁹ From 1 June to 15 October it goes further: no fire to prepare food on forest land or within the 400 m zone the forest-fire law draws around it,⁴¹⁰ even at picnic and camping areas built for barbecues. Gas stoves appear in that order only as an exception for authorised tourist accommodation.⁴ Every trail sheet carries the line: “Starting fires is strictly forbidden.”¹¹

What all this protects is a tree. The Sierra de las Nieves became a national park in 2021¹² for the pinsapo, the Spanish fir, an endangered species found nowhere else, and the park’s woods hold 72.5% of all pinsapo woodland, by its own leaflet’s count.³

A day’s menu, and a weekend’s

So lunch is made with cold water. Most of our Large pouches can be made either way, and with cold water they take 20–30 minutes depending on the meal: Chicken & Rice needs about 20 minutes instead of 8 minutes. Cold, meat and potato stay a little firmer and a little liquid may be left; stir it in. Pour the water in when you sit down and stand the pouch on a rock, not on your knee, while it works; freeze-dried meals with cold water lists the pouches that need the kettle.

For the summit day one pouch does it, 834 kcal, with bread, fruit and something to eat on the climb.

For two days with a night out, take four: Thai Beef & Prawn Noodle Salad for the first lunch, made with cold water in about 20 minutes, which is how it’s meant to be eaten; Lentil & Vegetable Stew for dinner; the Porridge & Fruit in the morning; and Chicken & Rice again for the second lunch.

The two-day menu: weight, water, cold-water time and energy

Pouch	Net weight	Water	Cold water	Energy
Thai Beef & Prawn Noodle SaladLarge	200 g	520 ml	about 20 min	826 kcal
Lentil & Vegetable StewLarge	200 g	490 ml	about 30 min	731 kcal
Porridge & Fruit	90 g	250 ml	about 20 min	341 kcal
Chicken & RiceLarge	200 g	370 ml	about 20 min	834 kcal

The two-day menu: weight, water, cold-water time and energy

• Thai Beef & Prawn Noodle SaladLarge

  Net weight

  200 g

  Water

  520 ml

  Cold water

  about 20 min

  Energy

  826 kcal

• Lentil & Vegetable StewLarge

  Net weight

  200 g

  Water

  490 ml

  Cold water

  about 30 min

  Energy

  731 kcal

• Porridge & Fruit

  Net weight

  90 g

  Water

  250 ml

  Cold water

  about 20 min

  Energy

  341 kcal

• Chicken & RiceLarge

  Net weight

  200 g

  Water

  370 ml

  Cold water

  about 20 min

  Energy

  834 kcal

If your water is very cold, give the stew a few minutes more. For a longer walk, food for a multi-day hike does the same sum for three, five and seven days. Bring the empty pouches home: the park’s rules for a night out say the rubbish leaves with you.⁵

A night out: tell the Junta first

There’s no hut to sleep in: the park’s current plan, drawn up for the natural park in 2018, lists no refuge among its facilities.⁵ Under it, a bivouac on a mountain traverse has to be notified to the Junta’s environment department before you go; groups of more than 15, or with more than three tents, need an authorisation.⁵ The conditions: at least 2 km from a village, tourist accommodation or refuge, no more than one night in one place, and the shelter up no earlier than an hour before dusk and down by an hour after dawn. Pitching a tent to stay is a different thing: the park’s leaflet lists acampada libre, free camping, among the things not permitted.³

Ask first: the trail sheets give the visitor centre at Cortes de la Frontera, 952 15 45 99.¹ AEMET, Spain’s weather service, has no mountain forecast for this sierra;¹³ the Junta’s trail page shows its forecast for Tolox and warns that your phone may have no signal. In an emergency, call 112;¹⁴ how to signal if you lose the path is in what to do if you get lost on a hike.

The same fire rules cover the shorter walks nearer the coast, Los Reales de Sierra Bermeja and La Concha from Refugio de Juanar. The big one, further east, is Mulhacén over two days.

From our range

Chicken & RiceLarge

Lunch for the summit, made with cold water in about 20 minutes.

€16.90€84.50/kgHear from us before the shop opensSee the pouch