What IFCN’s register says today
Quoted from IFCN’s classified-routes register, updated July 24, 2026, and its notices feed, updated July 14, 2026. We read both on July 26, 2026.
Open
Listed as passable, and fully so between the Pico Ruivo shelter and the summit.
This is a dated quotation, not a live mirror. Closures here are set off by weather and by works, and they change between our checks — so the date above is the whole of the promise. Open the notices feed on the morning you walk.
What the register publishes
- 2.8 km out and 2.8 km back — 5.6 km in total. The register prints the return leg separately, and it is the half most people forget.
- Achada do Teixeira and Pico Ruivo.
- Madeira
- IFCN — Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza
The thing people get wrong about this route
It is the only route in the register that reaches Pico Ruivo and returns you to your own car. It is also the busy one, because everybody finishing the PR1 crossing leaves this way — the stream of walkers you meet coming down is walking off a mountain, not up one.
The PR1 rule that governs this route
PR1 reopened in full on May 1, 2026 and runs one way beyond the Pedra Rija viewpoint, in the direction Pico do Areeiro → Pico Ruivo. Since June 26, 2026 it opens every day of the week rather than Friday to Sunday. That is why this route matters: it is part of how you get off the mountain, and you cannot walk the crossing backwards to undo a mistake.
What the register does not publish, for this route or any other
No difficulty grade, and no walking time. The official table has six columns — panel, code, name, distance, the places the route passes, its state and who manages it — and that is all of it. Durations exist on the physical panel at the trailhead; grades exist nowhere official at all. So a time or a “moderate” you read elsewhere came from a person, not from IFCN, and we do not repeat either.
IFCN publishes no difficulty grading for any Madeira trail. We checked three ways: the official register, the trail information panels, and the governing law — which contains no occurrence of the words for “difficulty” or “grade” at all.
Booking and fee
Booking is compulsory and a slot costs €4.50, paid on the SIMplifica portal and nowhere else.
Also covered by the €10.50 full PR1 ticket, which admits you to PR1.1, PR1.2 and PR1.3 without paying again. On its own it is a €4.50 slot like any other route.
Two or more routes in a day cost €9.00; in three days €22.50; in seven days €52.50. None of the three includes PR1, and none can be bought directly — the system applies the cheapest price once you have booked the routes.
Residents of Madeira, children of 12 and under, and walkers with a disability of 60% or more with one accompanying carer pay nothing — but every one of them still has to hold a booked slot. Exemption is from the money, not from the reservation.
The 1, 3 and 7-day rates are not passes, and IFCN’s own FAQ is emphatic about it. They grant no free or unlimited access, every trail still needs its own slot booking, and there is no way to buy a multi-day rate directly — you book the trails and the system applies the cheapest pricing at checkout. “Pass” is the searchers’ word, and no other page corrects it.
Where every figure on this page came from
Distance, waypoints, state and managing entity are IFCN’s classified-routes register, updated July 24, 2026. Closure detail is IFCN’s notices feed, updated July 14, 2026. Fees are IFCN’s own fees FAQ. Nothing here is a blog’s summary of any of those.
IFCN classifies 42 routes: 39 on Madeira and 3 on Porto Santo. The numbering has gaps — there is no PR24, PR25 or PR26 — which is why counts copied from other sites disagree.