| Montcabrer from Agres Montcabrer |
| Estimated net time | 3½-4½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route except a short distance through the forest (May 2009). |
| Parking | Room for a few cars along the road around trail head. |
| Start height | 780 metres |
| Vertical metres | 780 for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 12.2 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
 |
| Route photo |
Trail head for Montcabrer, above Agres. 
Turn left at junction at 1130 metres. 
Turn right onto path, 250 metres after joining forest road. 
Turn left after having descended to Refugi Montcabrer from Pico
Teix. 
Follow this road soon after Refugi Montcabrer. 
A little before you get to the base of the summit turn right at this
junction. 
Turn right
onto this path after having passed the east walls of the summit. |
From Alicante drive road E-31 towards Madrid. A little north of Villena turn right (east) onto road CV-81, approximately 55 km from Alicante, following signs for "Ontinyent". After approximately 28.5 km turn right onto road CV-700, signed for "Alfafara". Turn right again after 6.8 km onto road CV-7930, signed for "Agres". Then turn right after another 600 metres, this time signed for "Caves", "Refugi", "Santuari" and "Refugi Garrido". Drive 900 metres up the hill and park along the road where a road that is blocked for cars forks off to the right.
Start walking by following the concrete road uphill. The road zigzags it way uphill before becoming a gravel road. The a longer stretch followed by a right turn. Then some zigzags again. Then some more stretches before you get to a sharp right at approximately 1130 metres. Here you will see a forest road that goes to the left, and you follow this forest road. After 250 metres you see a path that turns right, uphill. Follow this path until you get to Refugi Montcabrer. From here it is well worth turning left and pay a visit to the small view point at Pico Teix; it is only 330 metres and ~40 vertical metres up there. From Pico Teix return to the Refugi Montcabrer, and pass it like you had turned right when you originally got to it. Then turn left immediately after, onto the mountain road, which soon becomes a path.
Follow this path towards the summit, which you can see ahead of you. When you get to a path junction down in the saddle at 1190 metres you stay left, obviously. At the next path junction, almost at the base of the summit, you stay right and proceed along the left (east) side of the steep east walls. Walk past the mountain, and head up a slightly vague path to the right before you get to a distinct piece of rock. Follow this path clockwise around the summit, and eventually up to the summit.
For your descent follow the ascent route, except for the visit to Pico Teix.
This Tuesday was our third full day outside Alicante, and with newly acquired maps I wanted to do a "proper" mountain today. I don't know exactly why I decided to visit Montcabrer, but I assume the fact that this was one of the mountains on the two maps I had bought, mixed with some coincident, is good enough reason.
After almost two hours drive I was ready to start my hike. The first few hundred metres I was uncertain if I had found the correct trail head, but after having compared the map and the actual route and geography the first 15-20 minutes I started to relax, realising I was on the correct route.
The route up to Refugi Montcabrer was easy going, with fairly gentle slopes on good gravel road and path. From here I did a quick de-tour up to Pico Teix, which is well worth the effort; you get an excellent view of the summit area of Montcabrer. What I had seen at Pico Teix, with the path passing below the summit's steep walls, I was a bit anxious about the final climb to the summit, so I was starting to prepare myself for some serious scrambling. Alternatively a de-tour to get onto the more gentle west slopes. But first I had to get myself to the base of the summit, which was done on a first class path. After having passed the east walls I was relieved; there was a much smaller path leading up to the south-east ridge of the summit, making me convinced that this was an easy route to the summit. And it was!
The views from the summit were slightly reduced by the haze, but it was still a nice place to be on a Tuesday in May. While I was at the summit two other hikers passed below me, but they didn't seem to care for the summit. Strange people ...
The descent allowed for running through most of the route, and back at the car waited a good drive back to base, before football, tennis and swimming with the boys.