Istán - La Concha - Marbella

Start and End:
We meet at the End Point: La Mantua, Marbella the parking area by the "La Cascada (Kaskada) Restaurant" (From La Canada take the road up to Ojen and turn left to pass the back of the cemetry after 300m.)
Part of the cars drive afterwards with all participants to the start point, the disused hotel at the top of Istan.

Walk Description:  This is a tough mountain walk mainly on narrow stony paths. There are a couple of short scrambles, and some exposed drops where care is required. Walkers with a “respect” for heights will cope with these. Vertigo sufferers will not.
We set off at the Hotel, passing the peak of El Pichaco, and climbing steadily at a slow pace until we reach a small shoulder that gives us access to several valleys after about 1.5 hours. We walk in and out of the gullies, which are fairly remote and very pretty, for about 2.5 to 3 hours.
Now we get our first real view of La Concha.  Next we have a scramble, up a marked path and follow a crest to a small plateau before ascending amongst small palms to intersect the Juanar to La Concha traditional route.  The summit is about 30 to 40 minutes from this point.
We then begin our descent on the usual path from the summit i.e. "Cerro del Lastonar" and "Cerro del Lobo" until just before the Cruz de Juanar.  (There are now chain handholds fixed securely to the rock at “the ledge”, and around the jutting rock on Salto de Lobo.) Here we take a path to the right "Loma de la Gaceta", "puerto de La Allaná" and a fairly stony path, steep in places "Canada de los Monjes", back down to Marbella.
This is one of the absolute classic walks on the coast and should be on the “to do “ list of all FIT Walkers.