Descensos de barrancos de la Vall Fosca con Mundocanyon:

The canyons of the Vall Fosca

The canyons of the Vall Fosca surprise with their spectacular natural beauty and maintain a significant flow almost throughout the year. The Vall Fosca canyons are very fresh, aquatic, and fun, offering short but intense and complete descents with rappels, jumps, and slides.

Next, we will tell you a bit about Vall Fosca to introduce you to this beautiful place where we carry out our canyon descents of Les Espones, Flamisell, and Roi.

Vall Fosca is a glacially formed valley located in the Pyrenees, north of the Pallars Jussà region, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia. It is the valley through which the Flamisell river flows. Vall Fosca is a narrow valley with spectacular natural beauty. It offers numerous routes to enjoy its high mountain landscapes, forests, lakes, and rivers.

The name of the valley comes from the word “Fosca,” which means “dark” in Catalan. It is called this because the high surrounding mountains have steep slopes that prevent sunlight from reaching the valley floor for almost the entire day, especially in winter.

Description of the Vall Fosca

Vall Fosca is formed by three small valleys: Filià, Riqüerna, and Flamisell. They join at the village of Capdella forming the Flamisell river, which acts as the valley’s axis and flows to La Pobla de Segur, where it joins the Noguera Pallaresa river. Along the river’s course downstream, we can enjoy the changing landscape: from ash and poplar trees, pine forests, holm oaks, oaks, and birches to alpine meadows.

During its course, the Flamisell river passes through 19 small and charming villages where time seems to have stopped: La Pobleta de Bellveí, Estavill, Envall, Antist, Castell-estaó, Beranui, La Plana de Mont-ros, Astell, Obeix, Aguiró, Paüls, Pobellà, Mont-ros, Molinos, La Torre de Capdella, Aiguabella, Espui, La Central de Capdella, and Capdella. These villages make up Vall Fosca.

Capdella is the highest village in Vall Fosca, located at 1420 m altitude. Capdella is one of the gateways to the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, which can be accessed by cable car from the Sallente reservoir to reach the Gento reservoir at 2,160 m altitude.

In the northern part of the valley, there are more than 20 lakes connected by tunnels called the Cabdella lakes. These lakes are used to supply water to the Sallente and Cabdella hydroelectric power plants.