What to do in Huesca

The province of Huesca concentrates in its northern half some of the most demanding natural spaces of the Pyrenees: the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, organises its activity around Monte Perdido (3,355 m) and the Ordesa canyon, where the Faja de Pelay is a horizontal mid-difficulty via ferrata running along the cliff face several hundred metres above the Arazas river. The ascent of Aneto (3,404 m), the roof of the Pyrenees, starts from La Renclusa and requires crossing the largest glacier in the mountain range: an 8–9 hour itinerary that demands crampons and ice axe. The Sierra de Guara, in the Huesca pre-Pyrenees, holds over 50 inventoried canyons that have made it the world capital of canyoning. The gorges of the Vero, Mascún and Formiga are the best known: the Mascún features underground climbing passages and abseils of up to 60 m in a limestone erosion landscape without equal. The active season runs from May to October, though dry canyons like the Gorgas Negras are passable even in winter. Further west, Loarre castle (11th century) frames hiking routes through the pre-Pyrenean Sierras Exteriores, and the valleys of Hecho and Ansó connect with the Pyrenean GR-11, one of Europe's great long-distance routes. Cycle touring in the Hecho, Ansó and Tena valleys covers near-empty roads through forests of beech and birch that turn colour dramatically in October.