A route through the highest neighbourhoods in the Freser valley. Route 16 Ripollès

  • Modality
    • By foot
  • Region
    • Ripollès
  • Towns
    • Queralbs
    • Ribes de Freser
  • Time
    • More than 4 hours
  • Difficulty
    • High
  • Estimated duration
    • 6h 30min
  • Distance
    • 15 km
  • Hide elevation maximum
    • 1.411m
  • Hide elevation minimum
    • 920m
  • Ascent
    • 729m
  • Descent
    • 745m

The route begins at the R123 Itinerànnia sign Castell de Sant Pere located at the exit of Ribes de Freser next to the road to Pardines and the rack-rail. Follow the paved track passing underneath the ruins of Sant Pere castle, which was the residence of the lords of Ribes. You found the crossroad RF3 Sobre Castell de Sant Pere and goes to Serrat.  You must follow a dirt track that goes up to the left, it is the Ventaiola road, we find the RF11 Ventaiola intersection . After a couple of big curves on the way up, the track will lead you to the Collada de Can Nadal pass, R118 sign. Go direction Serrat. The views over the valley are spectacular, a wide panoramic view of the scattered neighbourhoods with the Estremera mountain range and the Puigmal massif towering behind.

Goes through a dense hazel and pine forest until the crossing RF5 Bosc de Ribes.We'll go left, and then right to go down to go downhill through a scree following a little path which will lead you to cross the Maçanell river twice by wooden levers. Go up through the sunny side of the valley following a pathway that will lead you to Serrat. Enter to the small village passing by its church and cross it following its cobbled streets until you arrive at the R117 sign, right at the end of Serrat.

Leave the village by the old path parallel to the current road. You will pass by the chapel of Sant Antoni and a little further ahead you must leave the wide path that would lead you to the road to take a narrower path which after a short but quick descent will take you to the road. Follow it for one hundred meters to leave it afterwards for an old path amid thickets. You will see the little village of Fustanyà very close now. Once you arrive there, follow a paved track going downhill to your left until you arrive at the R116 sign. Follow the track passing by the church of Sant Sadurní de Fustanyà with its distinctive wooden bell.

Leave Casanova on your left to continue downhill through the track,you will pass under an aqueduct, the crossroads RF12 Camps de la Quintana and RF13 Pla de Rialb and arrive at the main road that connects Ribes de Freser and Queralbs. You must go left and follow the road towards Ribes for a few hundred meters. After crossing the rack-rail you will arrive at Rialb, the gathering place of all the iron and other minerals mined in the valley.

Leave the main road to take the old trail that connected Rialb with Batet. The trail climbs up offering a beautiful panoramic view of the valley. Once in the small village of Batet,crossroad R119,  you must follow a trail downhill for a few hundred meters to afterwards take a track that will lead you to the Can Possons farmhouse. Before arriving there you will pass byan iron ore mine, one of the remnants of the intense mining activity that there was in the valley. Follow the paved track to Can Possons and Can Segura to finally arrive at the Collada de Can Segura pass, R120 A and B signs.

From here you just have to follow the path that rapidly descends to Ribes de Freser, going around a rocky mountain on top of which once stood the castle of Segura. After passing by the Sant Cristòfol fontain, sign RF15 and  chapel of Sant Cristòfol, R122 sign, you will arrive at Ribes de Freser entering by the Cerdanya street.

Additional information