Peak 29: Mulhacén

After Gran Paradiso and Mont Blanc (see this post), my plan was to rest in Switzerland for a week before returning to London. I quickly deviated from that plan when I joined Frankie and Basia on Grauspitz in nearby Liechtenstein. I had flights to the Tatras (Slovakia) lined up right after this, but I was unable to find a guided group to join, and private guiding is quite expensive. George (@geo.a.graphy) then reached out about climbing with him and his friend later in August, so I switched plans around to join my partner Scott on his visit home to Gibraltar. I was finally off to somewhere warm this summer!

With Mulhacén an easy drive away, this would have the added benefit of (with Grauspitz) making up for both missed peaks (Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze) this year. However, not only is this post not titled “#29: Spain (Mulhacén)”, but number 29 has already gone to Kebnekaise in Sweden.

So, what happened?

At 6am on the day I was meant to drive toward Mulhacén, I woke up very ill. You might remember from the this post that I nearly missed out on Carrauntoohil due to a very similar situation. This one was worse, and it wasn’t possible to salvage the plan. However, I did manage to hike up to Gibraltar’s highest point earlier that week, so that’s what this post is about: bonus high point #1. (:

The Highest Point

There are typically four ways to get to the top of the Rock: a cable car, a bus/shuttle, a taxi, or walking. The cable car closed in late 2025 and isn’t scheduled to reopen until late 2027, which makes for a crowded road up and down. However, there’s a path for hikers that wasn’t too busy on a Monday morning: the Mediterranean (Med) Steps!

The route officially starts at Jews’ Gate, already 180 meters above sea level. O’Hara’s battery is at 426 meters, and it’s pretty much all uphill, so there are somewhere around 250 meters of gain over less than a mile (with a half-kilometer milder incline before the steps begin).

I started up the path with Scott and his dad. About a third of the way up are a couple of caves. We stopped here for photos and shade…it was already pretty hot out just after 10am!

Views open early in this route, so there were many scenic points to wait for Scott, who had not been “blood doping” (high-altitude mountaineering) in the Alps just before this. Extra red blood cells do come in handy.

This path had reopened just 2 weeks before my visit, following major rockfall that had shut it down for nearly a month. It happened in the section pictured below. 3 weeks before that was the largest annual event on those steps: the Med Steps 5 Challenge, benefiting Cancer Relief Gibraltar. Thankfully, the loose rocks waited until after that and didn’t injure anyone!

Less than an hour after setting off, we were on top of O’Hara’s Battery.

From there, I looked across and saw another ‘peak’. I asked the locals (Scott and his dad) which side of the Rock was highest. Scott was unsure, and his dad suspected O’Hara’s battery. I was trying to Google, but signal was pretty poor. We took the flag photos there, which was later confirmed to be correct. The cable car ends on that opposite peak, around 14 meters lower, so you’d have to walk over half a kilometer from there (with some hills) to reach the true high point.

We weren’t alone on this summit: two monkeys, perched right on the corner, had taken over the best photo spot. I don’t think this was their first photobomb.

The monkeys look adorable, but they aren’t always. Their favorite pastime is stealing food from unsuspecting tourists. Even if you don’t leave bags unattended, they’ve been known to jump onto people’s backs and heads, boldly unzipping backpack pouches to help themselves to snacks. If you think seagulls are bad, add opposable thumbs and you have a Barbary macaque. There are nearly 300 of them, and while they are believed to have arrived to Gibraltar in the 8th century, their population was down to only 7 in 1942. Winston Churchill, believing the legend of “if the monkeys leave the Rock, the British will leave Gibraltar”, ordered more to be shipped over from Morocco, even sending a directive to the Colonial Secretary to get the population up to at least 24. With dedicated veterinary care and no natural predators, the monkeys could outnumber the human population, if not for contraceptives given to them since 1998.

We had no issues with them, though, and even saw some babies! We didn’t try to feed or pet them and didn’t get too close. Modern phone zooms are almost as sharp as their teeth, but much safer.

We started walking toward the cable car side, continuing the aerial tour of Scott’s homeland. Given that the entire land mass is under 7 square kilometers, it was easy to see most notable locations from there, including the spot we’d launch paddleboards from later that week.

The cable car side is currently much more built-up, with a glass Skywalk. We mainly stuck to hiking trails up to that point, but then we wanted to check out the café near the caves and the suspension bridge. This meant joining up with the masses and dodging taxis charging up and down the paved road. When cruise ships are in town and the cable car isn’t running (which is the case for at least another year), that road can be pretty packed, even on a Monday morning. I was grateful that the “high point” photo didn’t need to be taken there.

I had to start work that day at 3pm (9am in NYC), so after a quick lunch around Casemates, it was time to wrap up the day’s adventures.

The Lowest Point

We spent much more time at the lowest points of Gibraltar than the highest. The next morning involved paddling against currents sending us toward Morocco. Those conditions settled down just long enough to explore some sea caves and enjoy views of the Rock above.

There were no dolphins or whales out this time, unfortunately, but there was still more to see on land. Gibraltar is home to many old WW2 forts, some of which are (sort of) accessible.

The next day, free movement between Gibraltar and Spain went into effect. While I was rooting for England (my country of residence) in their World Cup semi-final, I was a bit relieved that their loss to Argentina meant no England vs. Spain final on the day I’d be crossing the border for my flight home.

THANK YOU ❤

Thanks for reading this first bonus Crown of Cureope blog post! At the time I stood on O’Hara’s Battery, we had raised $2,975 for the American Association for Cancer Research to fund lifesaving discoveries. As of publishing this post, we are at $3,160 raised. It would be incredible to hit 5 figures by the time I’m standing on the final peak!! Thank you so much to everyone who’s donated and spread the word to help hit the fundraising goal, and to fellow hikers for tips and company along the way to these summits. Back to the official summit posts with #29, Kebnekaise (Nordtoppen!!!), up next! (: