Refugio de Vega Huerta

The place

Unmanned refuge at 2039 m in the Picos de Europa National Park, near Posada de Valdeón (León, Castile and León, Spain). Original refuge built between 1931 and 1936 for park rangers, a rustic stone barrel-vaulted structure designed by mountaineer and architect Julián Delgado Úbeda, inspired by the Tucarroya refuge built in 1899. Weather and lack of maintenance degraded the building; its vault collapsed in the 1970s. The National Park, co-directed by Esperanza Martínez Puebla, undertook its reconstruction. Capacity 4 people: two concrete bunk beds, a table and two benches. Water source nearby year-round. Difficult access through beech forests, stream crossings and passes, toward the Peña Santa and the Cuba and Mesones passes.