Estimated net time	4-5 hours
Difficulty	No difficulties. The whole route is hiked on a fine path.
Drinking water	No stable access to running water, except for the fountain at trail head.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (May 2010).
Parking	Room for several cars around trail head.
Start height	995 metres
Vertical metres	745 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	15.2 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Trail head.   Turn left at mountain road junction 400m from trail head.   Start of path towards Aitana.

Assume your starting point is Alicante. Drive the motorway (toll road) north-east towards Valencia, approximately 30 km from Alicante. Exit right when you see signs for road CV-770 and "La Vila Joiosa". Pay the toll at the toll booth, and continue to the round-about. Turn right here, following signs for "Sella" and road CV-770. Approximately 12.6 km from the round-about you get to the village Sella. Drive through the village, and from where you exit Sella continue 4.1 km along road CV-770. At the apex of a sharp left curve you will see a road heading off right (east); turn right here onto this road. Follow this road east for 6.4 km to where the road ends, at a small car park. There is a water fountain on the right hand side. Park here.

Start walking by following the mountain road in the same direction as you were driving. After a little more than 400 metres the mountain road forks, and you should follow the left leg. Continue another 3.7 km, until the forest road starts to descend considerably, at height 1254 metres. You will see a couple of cairns on the left hand side of the road, and a path heading off left by the first cairn. Turn left here, onto the path, and follow this path all the way to the summit.

Note that the very highest point of Aitana is not accessible since it is behind the fence of the military and/or telecomm area covering the summit area. If you walk all the way to the small rock close to the barbed fence you can confidently claim the summit. If you now head back east along the ridge 250 metres you get to point 1548, which is marked by a cairn (a pile of stones), and is a fine view point.

Descend by reversing your ascent route.

10. May 2010

Aitana had been on my list since my failed attempt last year, when I was stopped by men with machine guns at what I thought would be a good trail head. This year I had done more research and found an adequately documented route, and this Monday I was on the road around 06:30. I found the trail head without any problems, and started my hike 07:45.

After a little more than 1:30 hours I was as close to the summit as possible for those of us who don't have permission to enter the heavily guarded military and/or telecomm area around the summit. I walked all the way up to the barbed fence, noting that the actual summit probably is within the fenced area, but where I got to was good enough for me to claim this mountain. From the highest rock close to the fence I could see two small tops along the east ridge of Aitana which are probably as high as the point where I was standing, and I noted one of them had a pile of stones marking the summit. Hence I walked across to this top, which probably serves as the summit for hikers to Aitana. This point is a good view point, and was where I decided to take most of my summit photos.

After the photo session and drinking some water I started my descent, partly jogging when I got back down to the mountain road. Back at the car I changed into dry clothes before driving back to Gran Vista for tennis, swimming and some lunch.
Photos 10.05.2010