Pico de las Nieves

On a clear morning the platform sits above the cloud and the island falls away on every side. Roque Nublo stands up out of the ridges below, and across the sea the cone of Teide rises on Tenerife. Half of Gran Canaria is in view at once. Behind you, the army's radar sits on the summit like a giant golf ball.

The name, 'peak of the snows', goes back to the snow trade. From 1694 labourers shovelled winter snow into covered pits on the slopes and packed it in rows between layers of straw. In June the ice went down to Las Palmas on horseback, a ride of five or six hours, to cool drinks for the upper class and bring down fevers in the yellow fever and cholera epidemics. The pines on the slopes are Canary Island pine, reintroduced in the 1950s.

After dark, with the coast lights far below, the stars come out sharp over the summit.

• It is cold and windy at nearly 2,000 m, even when the coast is hot. Bring a warm layer.
• There are no toilets and no drinking water at the viewpoint or nearby. Come supplied.
• Cloud decides the visit: on a broken day some directions are clear and others are a white sea below you.
• The road up winds tightly along the mountainside, and drivers uneasy with heights find it hard going.
• The car park at the top gets busy, and late arrivals end up parking down the road.

You arrive by car, on a road that twists up through the pines to the summit. A free car park sits right beside the viewing platform, and a second free one lies about 470 m away. When both are full, cars line the road further down and the last stretch is on foot along the tarmac.

Near the top, the Caldera de los Marteles opens beside the road, a crater worth pulling over for on the way up or down.

The nearest bus stop, Cruz de los Llanos, is about 1,850 m away in a straight line, so arriving without a car leaves a walk of at least that distance to the top.

Best: a cloudless day, either early in the morning before the car park fills or after dark for the stars. Avoid: days when low cloud sits on the peaks.

The whole point is the view, and on a clear day it reaches from Roque Nublo to Teide; in late afternoon the sun drops towards Tenerife, on the western horizon.

Most of the summit plateau is occupied by a military base, crowned by its ball-shaped radar, and it is closed to civilians. Visitors are allowed onto the viewing platform that sits below the base, and that platform is as high as the public goes on this peak.