What you can see on the Collado Jermoso webcam
The picture takes in the stone hut, the broken rock around it and the cliffs behind, with a marked pole in front that shows how deep the snow lies. The figures on screen come from the refuge's own weather station and add what the picture cannot show: temperature and wind.
The Collado Jermoso refuge at 2,064 m
This camera belongs to the Collado Jermoso refuge, a stone mountain hut at 2,064 m (6,772 ft) in the central massif of the Picos de Europa, in the municipality of Posada de Valdeón, and looks out over the wild limestone around it. On the left stands the hut itself, on a grassy shelf; ahead, grey rock, scree and gullies drop away and rise again to the cliffs and towers of the massif, and in the foreground a red and white pole measures the depth of the snow.
A panel in the corner, updated every hour, gives the temperature, wind, gusts, humidity, pressure, rain and snow at the refuge. It is the camera to check before a climb or a hut-to-hut walk: clear rock, cloud boiling up the gullies or fresh snow.
A hut below the Llambrión
The refuge stands above the Asotín gully, under the towers of the Llambrión, which at 2,642 m (8,668 ft) is the second-highest summit of the Picos de Europa and the highest that lies wholly in León. The site was chosen for a spring that never dries, a spot just below the col and out of the westerly wind, a patch of meadow and freedom from avalanches. Since 1979 it has officially carried the name of Diego Mella, the León mountaineer whose idea it was. Opened in the summer of 1942 and enlarged several times since, it now belongs to the mountain sports federation of Castilla y León.
Mountain weather at the refuge
Conditions here can be far harsher than on the valley floor, more than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) below. The refuge has recorded winds of up to 200 km/h (about 125 mph) and temperatures of −17 °C (1 °F), and in winter the snow can bury the building. The national park asks walkers to come fit and properly equipped, and to take extra care in snow or fog.
When to watch Collado Jermoso
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. A look the evening before a walk and again that morning shows which way the weather is going, and early or late in the season the snow pole tells you whether snow is still lying at the hut.
Getting to Collado Jermoso
The refuge can only be reached on foot, or by helicopter. The gentlest approach starts where the Fuente Dé cable car arrives, at El Cable in Cantabria: about 700 m (2,300 ft) of climbing and 3½ to 4 hours on a cairned path. From Fuente Dé itself, a path climbs by the Vega de Liordes, about 1,150 m (3,770 ft) up. On the Valdeón side, the national park's waymarked PR-PNPE 16 starts at Cordiñanes, on the road from Posada to Caín, and climbs through beech wood and the Asotín gully: 4.1 km (2½ miles) and 1,214 m (3,983 ft) of ascent one way, graded very demanding by the park. There is no water on the way, so carry plenty, and book beds and meals before setting off. The Posada de Valdeón webcam shows the village down in the valley.