Fleur de Rhodo (6a,400m), Ariege, France

One week in the French Pyrenees an absolutely amazing place with so much to do from Single pitch limestone cragging to long 1000m slabby granite mountain outings - and everything in between.

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Its difficult to squeeze everything in on a weeks trip to the Ariege and our trip started out with a terrible weather forecast. It was clear we probably weren't going to do our intended objective the 1000m South Pilar of the Dent D'Orlu.

Pilar on Pitch 1 of La roujas- Calames
We started out by camping down the valley near the huge limestone cliffs and spent a couple of days cragging on short multi-pitch routes at Calames like La roujas (6a+, 100m). The humidity was off the scale and the temperature in the high 20s. We were suffering although afternoon thunderstorms and heavy rain cleared the air somewhat.

A look ahead revealed the weather was improving. At least afternoon rain was only a slight possibility and  storms only occurring in the evening. We shifted to a lovely campsite up by the North of the Dent D'Orlu. An Alpine start (silly early in order to avoid being caught out) had us heading up to the slabby easy angled East face of the Dent and we bagged Fleur de Rhodo (6a, 400m)

Pilar negotiating wet rock
The route was soaking! The previous days storms had saturated the route and our early start (7:30am at the base) hadn't given it time to dry. Still with two very easy pitches at the start on low angled slabs we decided to set off . By the time we reached the upper pitches a lot of the seepage had gone leaving just major drainage lines still soaking wet. This meant the two crux pitches were wet. Still close bolting here meant we could still climb on through the wet rock reasonably confidently.

 

Pilar passing an overlap

 

Pilar leading off high up on the final pitches

We topped out and sunbathed on the summit at mid day with just the Bearded Vultures as company.

Sunbathing on the Dent D'Orlu
With only a handful of days remaining (one of which was forecast for rain) we decided to go for a half day outing on Sinsat. Sinsat being an enormous limestone cliff of Dolomite proportions it had well bolted routes of varying lengths.

Our climb was the route Peppermint (6a, 280m) and with an arduous steep approach we didn't actually get to the climb until quite late in the morning. The climbing on limestone here certainly feels a notch harder than on the Granite and the bolting keeps you highly focused on your climbing (if you know what I mean). Still we enjoyed the route, summited, and started the abseils.

 

Pilar starting out on Peppermint

 

Sinat main cliff.....Massive!

 

Pilar following a steep pitch


We abseiled down a line much further left than intended. I missed an Ab station at one point and abseiled over a roof but couldn't see another bolted abseil point.  I was forced to prussik up 20m.  The wind had suddenly picked up and the rope was getting blown all over the cliff and the large terraces were snagging the rope. It was turning into a bit of a nightmare. Still we did manage to retrieve the rope each time (with a bit of faff) and got down in 5 long rappels. It was about 5pm! So much for a half day outing. And we still had to slog down the hill.

 

Starting our decent

 

The abseils proved tiring


We spent the remaining time cragging with Le Pujol being the most memorable crag. Le Pujol is a subsidiary buttress of the Dent D'orlu and gives great slabby granite fun of about 100m. The slog up to the crag is about 35mins if you don't get lost like we did ( total time over 2-hours) however the solitude and breathtaking scenery more than made up for it.

 



Pilar enjoying solitude and granite at Le Pujol

 

Perfect Granite