Magical days at Camp Valle de Tena with Team Arduua
A fantastic adventure, a memory for life and many new beautiful friendships were made.
Last season in the end of June we started up a new tradition, where Team Arduua meets up for a Camp in Tena Valley, in the Spanish Pyrenees. This is coach Fernando Armisén’s home arena, and we go here to run, enjoy and also to train for the big race Trail Valle de Tena which usually takes place in the beginning of September.
This blog is from the camp in June/July 2022, and next season we will have a similar Tena Camp in the end of June.
Blog by Katinka Nyberg, Arduua Founder.
One of the great part with Team Arduua and this camp, is that it is a mixed team of runners, of different levels from many nationalities, with runners from Spain, Sweden and Norway.
To get to the camp the closest airport is Barcelona. The runners from Sweden and Norway met at the Barcelona airport, and from there we had round 4 hours drive to Panticosa village.
Panticosa is a beautiful, very small and picturesque mountain village located in the Spanish Pyrenees, close to the French border. This is also the village where Trail Valle de Tena takes place in the beginning of September.
We arrived to Panticosa in the evening, and it was soooo great to finally meet Coach Fernando and our new coach David Garcia, after many months of meetings Online in Teams,
We had rented a big apartment for all of us, where we were also cooking our own meals. A great way to hang out getting to know each other a little bit closer.
The plan with the camp was to train for and to do parts of the route of Trail Valle de Tena, that we were all going to attend in September, and Fernando had a short brief in the evening about the routes.
Day 1 – PICO MUSALES, 2654M
Musales is the the third climb of Trail Valle de Tena, and this was the first route we did at the camp. Starting off at Lasarra to Respomuso and then ascending to the Pico de musales, 2654m and back to Lasarra. 18KM / 1200m D+ (difficulty: medium).
The first section up to Refugio de Respomuso was quite easy, but still uphill. Runnable for the stronger runners, but for me everything that is uphill is hard, and it’s not possible to run 7 km uphill. Therefor I did that part power-hiking with sticks in a good and steady pacing.
The second section from the Refugio Respomuso to Pico Musales was a lot steeper, which suited me better. When it’s very steep, it means that everyone is doing hiking with sticks, and it was a lot easier for me to keep up with the team. We also did some climbing using our hands.
Reaching a peak is always a special feeling of satisfaction and happiness. Especially when you do it with Sylwia, the lovley girl from Norway who is always smiling! 🙂
I hope you understand that running on a peak like this was only a very short part of the route, and we just wanted to feel how it felt.
Of course, it was great, getting our few moments of fame feeling like Kilian!
Then, enjoying a very long and nice 8 km downhill, running almost all the way to the bottom.
A cold swim after a long day of running is never wrong!
Summing up the day in the Arduua appartment with a nice home cooked meal, having a great time together, all these runners from different nationalities trying to communicate, sometimes with help from Google Translate. 🙂
DAY 2 – PICO GARMO NEGRO, 3064M
Garmo Negro is the first climb of Trail Valle de Tena, and also the steepest and hardest one. 1500 meters of climb in only 4 km says it all. Today we were starting off at Refugio casa de Piedra to the peak of Garmo negro, 3064m, down to Refugio Bachimania and then back to the Refugio casa de Piedra. 12KM / 1600m D+ (difficulty: high).
If you are not used to steep mountains and if you are a little bit scared of heights this section could be a little bit challenging, and it is super important to takt it easy, making sure that the stones that you are holding on to while climbing are not loose stones.
Yeeeaaahhhh!! Reaching Pico Garmo Negro 3064 meters of altitude, after a very long and steep climb!
The area close to the peak is very stony, and quite fun surfing down from stone to stone, and also requires a certain technique and mountain habit to do it well.
The rest of the downhill section from Garmo Peak was also very beautiful, but quite technical and demanding, as we were running almost all the way down to Refugio Bacimania.
Summing up a great day at Refugio Bacimania, having lunch, all of us super happy and tired.
DAY 3 – Panticosa Route (part of Tena 2K race)
After a hard day yesterday reaching Pico Garmo Negro, the last day of the camp was more of a relax day, with many rests and baths 🙂
This route is part of Trail Valle de Tena 2K race, and it’s also very beautiful and relaxing.
Cecilia introduced me to trailrunning swimming, which was great, and today we had many great conversations and laughs! 🙂
Summing up the day taking a beer in Panticosa village.
Summing up
For me (and I hope for everyone else too) this camp has been so great! We had so much fun, and I enjoyed a lot! Also, this camp has been a super great preparation for Trail Valle de Tena and other upcoming races later this season. As usual I’ve been learning so much running with faster runners than me. Especially the technical downhills, keeping up with the pacing of the fast Spanish runners. 🙂
And about my fitness everything went fine, and I shouldn’t have anything to worry about!
I think that we all agreed about that it was a great camp overall, and some lessons learned for next season when we are arranging a bigger camp for all the runners in Team Arduua.
Will you join us for the next season?
If you are interested in joining us for next season you are super welcome! We are an international team with different levels of runners, and we welcome all runners that are interested in trail-running in mountain environment.
If you are interested in the Camp, click here.
If you are interested in our Online Training, click here.
If you like our mountain style Outfits, click here.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions katinka.nyberg@arduua.com.
Great welcome to our team!
/Katinka Nyberg, Arduua Founder