The Camino de Invierno: 13 measured stages, and what avoiding O Cebreiro costs

By August Frederik Kramer, who has walked the Camino twice · Last updated 14 September 2026

Everything written about the Camino de Invierno contains the same sentence: it avoids the climb over O Cebreiro, which closes with snow. That is true, and everywhere it is where the analysis stops. Nobody measures the detour. At Ponferrada, which is where the decision is actually made, the Francés has 204.5 km left to the cathedral and the Invierno has 263.1.

Measured along our own tracks, that detour costs 58.6 km and 1,507 m of climbing, and it climbs more per kilometre than the road it replaces: 18.8 m against 16.8. The Camino de Invierno is not the gentle option. What it buys is a lower ceiling, and in February the ceiling is exactly what matters.

The decision at Ponferrada

The two routes part at Ponferrada and both finish at the cathedral. Here is what is left of each from that point, measured the same way: our own stages, the same elevation profile, the same accumulator for both.

The ceiling is the whole reason the Invierno exists, and the real difference is 272 m: 1,349 m at O Cebreiro against 1,077 m. Under snow that difference decides it, and no amount of daylight arithmetic replaces it. Everything else is what you pay: 58.6 km and 3 more days.

One distinction almost nobody draws, and it qualifies a figure we publish ourselves on the winter guide. The number in circulation is 1,505 m on the Francés against 1,077 on the Invierno, a gap of 428 m. That is true route to route, but the 1,505 m point sits 18.8 km BEFORE Ponferrada: by the time you can choose the Invierno you have already walked over it. What is still in front of you is 1,349 m, so the difference that actually decides anything is 272.

The 13 stages, measured

Generated from the route itself rather than copied from a guidebook: 13 days averaging 20.2 km. The right-hand column is the one to read, because the longest day and the hardest day are not the same day.

As Lamas to Chantada is the hard day: 26.6 km and 704 m, which is 26.5 m per kilometre. As Lamas to Chantada is the longest at 26.6 km and climbs 26.5 m per kilometre. Pick your rest day off the distance column alone and you will pick the wrong one.

The route’s high point, 1,077 m, is not at the start but on stage 9, Chantada to Rodeiro. That is a surprise on a route with a reputation for staying low: the Invierno follows the river well into Galicia and then climbs.

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Does it actually work in winter?

The test we can run is the light. In mid-December at Santiago’s latitude there are 9h 03m of daylight, and at 4 km/h with 1h 30m set aside for stops that carries about 30.2 km.

Not one of the 13 stages is longer than that: the longest is 26.6 km. The route built for winter fits inside a winter day, which is not something every route can say.

By January the light is 9h 21m and the budget 31.4 km. The comparison against the other nine routes is in our guide to the Camino in winter.

What this page does not tell you

Whether there is snow. We measure neither snow nor temperature, and a page that invented them would be worse than no page: what we publish is the height, which is the input. Nor which albergues are open, because on this route that changes every season and a list here would be wrong within a year. And for the Compostela, the 100 km line falls at Chantada: that is in our guide to the last 100 km.

The full Camino de Invierno route page: stages, profile and the app

Common questions

How long is the Camino de Invierno?

263.1 km from Ponferrada to Santiago along our track, in 13 stages averaging 20.2 km. From the same point the Francés has 204.5 km left, so the detour adds 58.6.

How many stages does the Camino de Invierno have?

13 in our plan, generated from the route. The longest is 26.6 km, As Lamas to Chantada, and the hardest is As Lamas to Chantada at 26.5 m of climbing per kilometre.

Is the Camino de Invierno hard?

Harder than its reputation. It climbs 4,941 m in 263.1 km, or 18.8 m per kilometre, against the 16.8 the Francés still has from Ponferrada. It is longer and it climbs more; what it has in its favour is the ceiling, 1,077 m.

Can you walk the Camino de Invierno in winter?

On daylight, yes. Mid-December gives 9h 03m at Santiago’s latitude, which carries about 30.2 km at 4 km/h, and the longest stage is 26.6 km. Snow is a different question and we do not measure it.

Where does the Camino de Invierno start?

At Ponferrada, where it leaves the Camino Francés at that route’s kilometre 564.1. From there it is 263.1 km to the cathedral.

How much higher is the Francés than the Invierno?

It depends where you measure from, and that is the trap. Route to route the Francés reaches 1,505 m and the Invierno 1,077, a gap of 428 m. But that point is 18.8 km before Ponferrada: from the fork, what lies ahead is 1,349 m at O Cebreiro against 1,077, which is 272 m.

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