Drinking water at Mulhacén
✍️ 2 Sept 2024
⛰️💦
If you want to climb the Mulhacén and spend one or more nights nearby, you will certainly want to know if you can find drinking water there. I recommend 2 water sources...I list 5 sources here, of which I only recommend the first two or three. The information is based on our Mulhacén Walkabout and internet research:
Fuente del Mulhacén
If you enter ‘Fuende del Mulhacén’ in google, you will find it, also in googlemaps. But how do you get there? The spring is located on the north-west slope of the Mulhacén, roughly halfway up the summit. I entered the coordinates in my hiking app - a hiking trail leads past the spring! But halfway there, I was disillusioned: 
‘Mountain pass closed due to landslide’. I feel quite confident in the mountains, I also like small challenges and wanted to get to the water. I walked the path, but I can't recommend it. Again and again on a 1km stretch you have to be careful not to slip and possibly lose your life. I will suggest to the app that this route be cancelled. However, I believe that the water can be taken from below the slope, near the ‘Laguna de la Mosca’. The water may seep away there (and feeds the lagoon underground), but it can probably be taken from the slope. mapy track from the summit of Mulhacén to the slope
Río Mulhacén, under the dry section
You can walk down a path along the riverbed of the Río Mulhacén from the very top. At the very top there is a wet area from which I would not take drinking water in summer (see 4 below). Below this, the river is dry until water emerges again. This water seems quite safe to drink. Admittedly, a small amount could come from the upper area (see 4), which is contaminated by animal faeces. But it is heavily diluted along the way and probably also purified in the soil. However, on 24 Aug 2024 we had to descend to an altitude of 2680m - 3.8km from the summit of Mulhacén, 2.4km from Refugio Vivac la Caldera. The spring mentioned above is therefore easier to reach.
Coordinates: 37.037402, -3.325003
Location on Google Maps
(on 25 Aug 2024)
youtube video
Río Mulhacén, top of the river, western branch
The linked page says that hikers often draw their water (probably drinking water) from this spring in summer. In the photos you can see the spring and a stream with flowing water. But the page is from 2012. On 25 Aug 2024, I went over it on the way and didn't see a source. But maybe I missed it. You can have a look at the location and then report back to me.
Coordinates: 37.051881, -3.328175
Location on Google Maps
Río Mulhacén, top of the river, eastern branch
It is the easiest water source to reach if you go down westwards from Mulhacén. You can recognise the green area from far above. When Murielle and I were there on 24 Aug 2024, there was only stagnant water, which was partly algae-covered. We had a rather uneasy feeling. A little further on, the water appeared clearer. The smell was ok. We filled our bottle and soon wanted to look for better water. We tried a little - but it was already too much. The next day, Murielle had to vomit. The water was probably contaminated with faeces from grazing animals. Not recommended.
Coordinates: 37.051600, -3.324321
Location on Google Maps
Laguna de la Caldera
Someone suggested that I drink the water from this lagoon. But if I understand the linked page correctly, the lake is fed solely by rainfall. In wet years the water is up to 14 metres deep, but after several dry years it is only 2 metres deep - and even then there is no visible spring feeding the lagoon. The water therefore stands in it for a very long time and does not circulate. This means that any contamination caused by humans or animal faeces remains for a long time. Although there are hardly any grazing animals or birds there, there are people. So, I won't drink unfiltered water from the lagoon.
Coordinates: 37.054633, -3.329203
Location on Google Maps
Further links
Risks of drinking stream water (University of health, Utah) - however, I occasionally drink from streams in nature reserves without civilisation.
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