Descent of the Artazul Canyon (Navarre)

Level: III–Advanced.
Adventure Sports: Canyoning

To descend the Artazul ravine, we will go to the municipality of Ultzurrun, Navarre, specifically to the source or spring of the village. The Arteta spring is located in the Ollo Valley and is one of the natural outlets of the aquifer in the interior of the Sierra de Andia. This is why the ravine is also known as the Arteta ravine.

In these surroundings we find a limestone plateau at an average altitude of around 1,000 metres with abundant water outlets and typical forms of karstic relief such as dolines, chasms and lapiaces. The Artazul and Lizebar ravines can be found in this enclave.

We will use a combination of vehicles, i.e. some vehicles will stay in the car park at the spring, next to the river Udarbe and with another vehicle we will go up to the head of the ravine where we will be equipped with a wetsuit, harness with descender and anchor ropes and helmet. We will take a very short walk that will introduce us to a technical, dynamic and very aquatic descent.

The initial area of the canyon is very aquatic and fun, with 3 abseils, 6 jumps and 3 slides, some of them very spectacular, in a fat canyon full of constant surprises. Throughout the descent we will experience strong emotions, as the Artazul is very sporty and entertaining, full of jumps to overcome of between 1.5 and 4 metres in height, not being obligatory to jump. We will continue through narrow corridors with polished rock that make this canyon have beautiful scenic corners.

In the final stretch of this marvellous canyon, not suitable for everyone, we will abseil 45 metres, of which the last 30 metres are completely aerial, a vacuum that will run through your whole body and will place us at the base of the beautiful glacial cirque that joins the waters of the Lizebar and Artazul canyons.

Try it and you won’t regret it, in fact, you’re sure to come back!