Lakora

Overview

Lakora (french: Lakura) is a very popular mountain in Belagua's valley for having a very direct route in the south face without technical difficulties, but that cannot be considered to be easy by the pronounced slope. The nearby road that joins Navarre with France and the parking of Belagua's refuge (nowadays closed) they do that is very visited but for the mountaineers the spectacular east ridge is more advisable this one that is the one that really has interest for us.
Another good possibility, for trained mountaineers, it’s the route of full ridge/cirque of Lakora and Lakartxela.

The Three Summits of Lakora:

Really this mountain has 3 summits for the majority of the mountaineers and writers about the routes:
-Lakora East (1825m, difficult to recognize, even many maps do not indicate it)
-Lakora North (1877m, the main summit with a pre-summit, in French territory)
-Lakora West (1847m, with the geodesic vertex of IGN of Spain)

A very prominent curiosity of this mountain is that the border between France and Spain passes rightly on the edge of the ridge for what of 3 tops that compose really this mountain, the East and West concerns to 2 countries and the North that is the highest concerns to France.

This mountain is probably the best point of observation of all valley of Belagua.

The ridges of Lakora

Many trained mountaineers climb some summits of the long ridge of Lakora in the same hike because the line of summits are evident in the little cirque.

-Western summits of cirque (west from col of Arrakogoiti): Keleta (1902m), Lakartxela (1982m) and Bimbalet (1755m).

-Eastern summits of cirque (from col of Arrakogoiti to col of Eraitz in the east): Larragoiti (1683m), Cortaplana (1781m), Lakora west (1847m), Lakora North (1877m), Lakora East (1825m) and a last summit without name (1662m).

Getting There

Not to repeat the indications of access of other mountains of the zone of valley of Belagua you can to consult the pages: Mesa de los Tres Reyes, Anie, Petrechema, Acherito or Rincón de Alano

In the road from the village of Isaba you must to follow the indications in direction to France and Refugio de Belagua (Angel Olorón). According of your intentions you can park the car in the parking of refuge (1428meters) or following the road you can reach the Col of Eraitz (1573m). This last possibility forces this one to return for the same route whereas departing from the refuge there are nicer options crossing the ridge descending from other parts what makes it more interesting.

Red Tape

Not permits required. Not national park. The parking is free.

The road: some days in winter a part of the road is closed by the snow, specially the access between France and Spain across the Piedra de San Martin.

When To Climb

All the year generally is possible the climb of south face (take care in winter with the wind and the avalanchs).
For access of north face of the ridges west and east the best time are from may to november. In winter (december to february) the east ridge is a little complicated because the ice and you must descent generally in some parts to the snow of south face (the north is dangerous and only for the summer)

Camping

-Refuge of Belagua or Angel Olorón: just under the south face of Lakora (closed nowadays 2004)

-Camping Asolaze in the village of Isaba

Mountain Conditions

I.N.M. (see CCAA and search the province of Navarra: Lakora is in the north of province)

External Links

• Comunidad foral de Navarra
  official page of government of province of Navarra with information of tourism (spanish/english...)
  
• SITNA
  maps in 2D and 3D of Navarra with pictures from satellite in model 3D (text in spanish)
  
• Campings of Navarra
  the list of campings (#6 to #8 are in the zone)
  

Images

View Lakora Image Gallery - 43 Images