MOUNTAIN rescuers and volunteers have hauled around a tonne of decades-old rubbish from a remote chasm in Spain’s spectacular Picos de Europa.
The extraordinary clean-up uncovered chairs, gas cylinders, plastic bags, glass, metal and other waste hidden deep inside the mountain.
Teams packed the rubbish into eight huge sacks after reaching the difficult site in the Cantabrian section of the national park.
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The narrow cavity lies near Cabaña Verónica, at around 2,300 metres above sea level.
Some of the rubbish lay around 35 metres inside the rocky chasm. Much of it had apparently remained there for decades.
And the job is not over. Organisers say more waste remains hidden in the area, despite already removing roughly 1,000kg.
A difficult mountain operation
The Cantabrian Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing (FCDME) led the operation.
Experts from the Cantabrian Federation of Speleology also joined the clean-up, alongside experienced mountain volunteers.
The teams used ropes, anchors, pulleys and specialist safety equipment to reach the rubbish.
They then pulled the waste out manually before workers transported it away for treatment.
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The original operation around Cabaña Verónica aimed to tackle as much as 2,000kg of historic waste spread across cracks and chasms in the area.
Sara Novoa, from the FCDME, said the team quickly realised this was ‘not a conventional clean-up’.
The federation’s new management team first learned about the rubbish from experienced mountaineers after taking office in 2024.
When specialists finally entered the cavity, they found far more waste than they expected.
Some bags remained closed because of their age and condition.
Rubbish hidden for decades
The discovery highlights an unusual problem in one of Spain’s best-known natural landscapes.
Picos de Europa stretches across Cantabria, Asturias and Castilla y León.
Its dramatic limestone peaks attract hikers, climbers and tourists from Spain and abroad every year.
However, its karst landscape also contains countless cracks, shafts and underground cavities.
That can make abandoned rubbish extremely difficult to find and remove.
The clean-up took place under Project LIBERA, an environmental programme run by SEO/BirdLife with Ecoembes.
The project uses the Spanish term basuraleza to describe rubbish abandoned in natural environments.
Since its launch, LIBERA says more than 200,000 volunteers have joined its campaigns across Spain.
Together, they have removed around 800 tonnes of rubbish from natural spaces.
New rules for Picos de Europa
The operation also comes as Cantabria introduces new management rules for its section of Picos de Europa.
The regional government published its new Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión, known as the PRUG, on August 4.
The plan sets rules for conservation, visitor activities and management of the protected area.
It also strengthens controls on waste and calls for the removal of rubbish from damaged natural sites.
The rules will come into force later in August.
For the volunteers at Cabaña Verónica, however, the work has already started.
They have removed a tonne of rubbish from one of Spain’s most beautiful mountain landscapes.
Now they hope to return for what is still buried below.
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