Trail running on the Montsant
A guide Kai made himself, not a list of suggestions — his own routes, run and built by him, 19 of them from a standard 10k out the door to the full 100k UTSM circuit around Montsant. Every route has one thing that makes it worth doing.
Three: Alforja Ridges (“nothing for companions — best find some other plans”), the Puigcerver tempo route (“nada”), and Pont del Diable (“loads — a very nice park, the aqueduct is legendary”). Kai doesn’t oversell the ones that don’t have it. The full guide and the routes themselves are for booked guests — see the manual once you’re signed in. Training camps can have any of them adapted for a group, on request.
What to do
Booked guests get the full route list with GPS tracks, distances and elevation for all 19 — see the manual once you’re signed in. Training camps and groups can have any route adapted, on request; Kai has done this for his own training partners before. No guide fee: these are self-guided routes on public trails. The route list itself has a device in it that is Kai’s own and is better than anything a guidebook does: every route says what is in it for whoever is not running. Some of them have a village, a swim or a good lunch at the far end and the answer is obvious. On a couple of them the honest answer is that there is nothing, and the note says so and suggests the companion makes other plans. Training trips get lost on the partner rather than on the runner, and a list that admits which days are no fun to be driven to is worth more than one that pretends they are all scenic. The geography is worth getting right before you plan a week, because the obvious answer is the wrong one. The Montsant is the dramatic massif and the one people have heard of, and it is where the big days are. But the training ground is Vilaplana, which is closer, and which is well known among runners for exactly that. If you are here to put in a block of consistent weeks, not chasing a famous route, Vilaplana is where most of those miles should go. Above the village the trails climb to La Mussara, which is the destination that makes the area worth describing rather than just listing. It is an abandoned village on the lip of the Prades escarpment, a little over a thousand metres up. The last residents left in the 1950s; eight buildings stand in ruins and the church survives, its bell tower dated 1859. At the highest point there is a stone refuge put up in 1926 by the Catalan hiking club, which tells you how long people have been coming up here on foot, and not because they had to. The views are the reason everyone goes. From the cliff edge you get the whole plain of Tarragona laid out, and on a clear day the Ebro delta and, they say, the Balearics on the horizon. Sunset is the time, which for a runner means timing the climb rather than the descent, and taking a light for the way down. It has a reputation as well as a view. In January and February a dense white fog called the Peluda rolls over this stretch of the range, and the village has collected the sort of stories an abandoned place in recurring fog always collects: people walking into it and out somewhere else, a bell heard from an empty tower. Nobody needs to believe any of it to enjoy arriving in cloud at a ruin. There are a couple of good restaurants up here too, so it also works as an evening out that happens to involve a mountain. Between the two you get a rhythm that suits a real training block: Vilaplana and La Mussara for the repeatable weeks, the Montsant when you want the day that hurts, and the Gorgs for the recovery swim in summer when the massif is too dry and too hot to enjoy. The house sits in the middle of that triangle, which is the whole reason it was bought as a running base before it was anything else.
19 routes he mapped himself
Every one ridden or run from this door, written up with what the ground is actually like — where it is rocky, where it flows, where there is water, and where to stop.
Arbolí & Waterfalls
Visit the ruins of the Galligant village and the waterfalls of Febró, Riu Siurana and Arbolí. A quite long run through diverse terrain with nice water features. Arbolí has a water spot, plus some bars for supplies and nice places to have lunch.
If you came with someone: Arbolí is small but worth checking out. The first waterfalls are just 4km away from there, easy walking there and back.
Vilaplana Full
The three key routes up to La Mussara from Vilaplana in one — an old ruined village on top of a cliff with amazing views. Up the left side, down the centre, up from the right, down from the centre again. Lots of vert. Well protected from north winds except at the top; can be very sunny and hot. A swimming spot on the rightmost part and a fountain or two on the left route. The village has water spots and some services.
If you came with someone: There is a swimming spot on the rightmost trail, only 2–3km into the route, that’s pretty nice.
La Morera — Toll D’ou — Montsant Circuit
Classic Montsant. Swimming spots at Toll D’ou, otherwise quite remote and rugged, so carry plenty of water.
If you came with someone: Stay in Cornudella, take a wine tour, or explore Morera. Morera has a nice shop with local products and some nice bars for a drink or snack.
Alforja Ridges
Technical half-loop around the ridges of the Alforja valley. Rugged trails for true explorers — a mix of steep, nearly off-trail parts, rocky trails and some nice flowing forest trails.
If you came with someone: Nothing. Best find some other plans.
The routes themselves come with the house
Book a stay and you get the lot — the GPX files, the turn-by-turn notes, and the ones that are only worth doing in the right month.
They are not for sale separately, and they are not published: half of them cross ground where a wrong line matters, and he would rather hand them to someone who is staying here than to the internet.