Climb to Peñalara peak

The highest summit in the Sierra de Guadarrama, at 2,428 metres according to the National Park. The official route, the PNSG-032, climbs from the Los Cotos pass by forest track and a final path: 10.2 km there and back, about 610 m of cumulative ascent and 3 h 50 for an average walker. The National Park classifies it for advanced walkers.

The route

You set out from the Peñalara Visitor Centre, next to the Cotos car park, along the forest track that climbs gently among pine woods, leaving the Gitana viewpoint and the Depósito shelter on your right. After several bends, the track forks: you keep straight on and climb a steep slope to the 2,100 m junction. There you leave the turn-off to the Zabala refuge on the right and take the left-hand track, which climbs in zigzags to Dos Hermanas. From there you follow the ridge to the peak. The descent is by the same way.

On the way the landscape changes from mountain pine forest to scrub and high pastures, with views of the glacial remains of the massif. The average gradient is around 13%, and on the MIDE scale the Park gives a 3 out of 5 for environment severity and effort, a 2 for difficulty of travel and a 1 for orientation.

Before you climb

• The quota. The Peñalara massif admits 945 visitors a day, counting climbers and bivouackers too. Once it is full, no one else is let in until the next day. There is no online booking: at weekends, phone the visitor centre beforehand, on 918 520 857.
• Parking. Cotos has 250 free spaces, open 24 hours. On weekdays it almost never fills, except with snow; at weekends and public holidays it usually fills between 9:00 and 11:00, and earlier if it has snowed.
• Winter. With snow and ice it is a high-mountain route, which the Park advises against for anyone without experience, knowledge and technical equipment. Ask at the centre before setting out.
• The rules. You must not leave the path to take shortcuts, especially on the zigzags, an area of heavy erosion under restoration. Dogs always on a lead. You may not enter any lake or stream, pick plants or stones, or camp; bivouacking without a tent is only permitted next to the Zabala refuge, and never with dogs.

Getting there

By car, take the A-1 to exit 69 and the M-604 to the Los Cotos pass, or the AP-6, the M-601 to the Navacerrada pass and the SG-615. By bus, line 691 leaves the Moncloa interchange for Valdesquí with a stop at Cotos, and the 819 goes up from Rascafría at weekends and public holidays. The C9 Cercanías train has been closed for works since May 2024 and is replaced by a bus between Cercedilla and Cotos. More at buses from Madrid and on the page for the Peñalara Visitor Centre.

What to combine

If the day or your legs do not stretch to the summit, the short route to the Laguna Grande de Peñalara shares the first stretch. On the way down to the valley, the El Paular monastery is about 15 km away on the M-604.