Aitana among the clouds from Font de Partagat
With 1557 meters of altitude, the rocky mountain range of Aitana constitutes the highest point of the province of Alicante and, consequently, one of the classic places of the senderismo in the south-east of Spain.
The starting point is located in the recreational area of Font de Partagat, which can be easily reached by car from Benifato and, to this, from the CV-70 road (La Nucía – Guadalest – Benimantell – etc). From the asphalted road, that joins the town with the picnic area, there is a spectacular panoramic view of the northern slope of the Aitana mountain.
The route, of about 10 km (around 4 and a half hours), begins in the wide path that we find to the left of Font de Partagat and, later, it connects with a narrow path. There are signals of the PR-CV 21 route, although we only follow them until Font de la Forata. In our case we decided to go up through a scree (the Cantalar) located southwest of the recreational area, which is crossed by the aforementioned narrow path. Already in it, the itinerary is quite clear: we follow the most marked path, following the PR marks and always on the rise. The upper part of Aitana is on our left, by now.
Before arriving at Font de la Forata —the source placed at highest altitude in the province of Alicante, at about 1380 meters above sea level— we pass through Font de l’Anouer, next to which there is a small rectangular pond. In front of La Forata we find an old snow pit. At this point the forest zone begins and extends towards the west, although we leave this behind us to continue towards Passet de la Rabosa, with the highest part of Aitana, now, on our right.
It is necessary to be agile to get to Passet de la Rabosa (litarally, little step of the fox) ), since it is necessary to climb up a small area of detached rocks. We just have to follow the route marks and, in a few minutes, we arrive at the incredible Simas de Partagat, wich are incredibles cracks open at the top of the mountain that, in the long term, will increase until the gigantic rocky blocks will fall slope dawn.
In the area of chasms we go to a small depression of the terrain, following a somewhat imperceptible path, but that can be guessed. Soon we find sign with indications to Benifato, although, first, we go to the highest part of the mountain (towards the west, that is, towards the antennas).
The highest point, located at 1557 masl, is inside a military enclosure (Air Station), in which the Air Surveillance Squadron No. 5 operates, so we can only reach Peña Forata (1549 masl), accessible to hikers and located next to the enclosure fencing, at its eastern area.
From this point, we retrace our steps to the Benifato sign (next to the chasms) and follow it, with the cliffs on our left and the mountains of Ponoig, Puig Campana and the Mediterranean Sea in front of us. After a not short time we arrive to Pass of Tagarina, which crosses a path through which we descend to the left, following the marks of PR-CV 10 route, until reaching Font de Partagat, where the route ends.
