Pagasarri

Pagasarri is one of the many small mountains circling Bilbao. The 570m climb from sea-level Bilbao to Pagasarri's peak has always been a popular hike, and no day more so than December 21st. For the last 18 years on Santo Tomas day a group march leaves downtown Bilbao and walks up the mountain to the wine, soup, sandwiches, tortilla ( and scenic views) that await at the summit. ( Oh, and don't forget your free gift- a rugby jersey!)

I couldn't believe our luck. After a month and a half of rain almost every single day, the 21st was warm and sunny. I dragged my roomates out of bed, and though we missed the 9am start time for the official march, we figured that leaving at 10:30am we'd still make it up and down the mountain before dark.

The advantage of leaving later was that there were very few people going up at the same time as us. The disadvantage is that they were all coming down, and so we had to fight our way upstream through the crowds. (Ten thousand people were expected to reach the summit that day.) Old folks, spandex-clad joggers, and tons and tons of families braved the mud to walk half a kilometre uphill. I ran into a couple of co-workers on the trail - Bilbao's a small city after all, and even after a couple of months you start having smalltown moments.