Pilar and I headed to the spectacular mountains of Northern Spain to climb some of the amazing adventure routes. The Picos de Europa is a small but dramatic range part of the Cordillera Cantabrica chain of mountains. They are made up of limestone, lots of it. In fact l don't think l have seen so much rock one place.
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We started the trip camping in La Arenas de Cabrales on the Northern side and warmed up on a relatively low lying cliff called Peña Fresnidiello near Sotres.
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| Fresnidiello |
Our route
Elixir Para Calvos (V+, 250m) was a slabby multipitch route with some bolts and gear placements ( but with some runouts on easy ground). The rock is absolutely superb to climb. Water worn grooves and pockets on perfect unpolished rock making even steep climbing very amenable. The route losses it's way a bit in the upper pitches as you can really climb anywhere and I got a bit lost due to having too many topo prints with me - it all got a bit confusing. However we dispatched the route with no dramas but opted to abseil rather than walk down. This resulted in a rope snag on a rock spike and I had to climb up some some very bold (but quite easy) ground to free it. A bit exciting! It came good in the end thankfully. A decent first day.
|  | Pilar on water worn Limestone
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|  | Nearing the top
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Me after freeing the ab rope
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What followed was 48 hours of rain! Solid drizzle. The mountains here are subject to a maritime climate and were living up to their wet reputation . We relocated to Potes on the eastern side but the rain still didn't let up. Managing to bag a short but very steep Via Ferrata (Peñarruscos K6, 160m) during a short gap in the rain salvaged the day.. A fun outing.
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Super Steep Via Ferrata
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Despite waking up to warmer and drier weather following day we made the decision to escape the Picos and head to the Basque Country for more stable conditions. We first went to Donostia San Sebastiàn and climbed on some Gritstone-like rock overlooking a beautiful bay.
Gokyo (5c, 280m) was an Alpine ridge coming straight out of the sea.
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The beginning of Gokyo
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The climbing wasn't exceptional but the positions more than made up for it. Such a contrast to the mountains and beautiful to do in the evening as we did.
|  | Pitch one belay
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|  | Pilar undertaking Pitch 3 - Crux
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|  | The amazing positions high on the ridge
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|  | The whole of the bay is beautiful
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After exploring the old town and the superb local cuisine we headed inland to explore the Urkiola park near Durango. Axtarte has dramatic peaks of bullet hard limestone. Whilst the landscape had been extensively quarried it's hard not to be impressed by the beauty of the place. The best routes we climbed were
Maria Y Chimenia (V+, 120m) and
Filibusteros (6b, 55m). Both bolted though we placed some cams here and there (especially when l went off route).
|  | The towers above an old quarry
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|  | Looking up at Maria
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The rock is polished and reminded me of The Verdon- stiff grades and techy friction moves. The routes are squeezed in tightly too and l went off route in more then one occasion, following the wrong line of bolts.
|  | We climb above an enormous quarry
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|  | Traversing
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|  | The final Chimney (Polished)
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|  | Me with the Basque Countryside
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Having to renew the hire car in Bilbao we took the advantage of climbing on Cabo De Ogoño. Ogoño is a massive 200m cliff overlooking and beautiful surf beach near Bilbao. We climbed
Gaviotas (V+, 120m) in the afternoon sun. Whilst being very hot and the route a tad polished we enjoyed it. I followed a team up the neighboring route by mistake on pitch one - Slightly harder but added to the adventure.
|  | Getting fried in the sun
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|  | Pilar at the 1st stance
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|  | Pilar with the best back drop imaginable
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|  | Pilar sets out on the final pitch
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Having had a lovely time on the coast and with the forecast looking (slightly) better we headed back to the Picos for week two. Our priority was Picu Urriellu (aka El Naranjo). One of the most beautiful mountains in Spain it was always on the list. We just needed a good forecast. The weather had improved but was very cold up at the Urriellu Refugio. We decided to camp rather then stay in the refugio as it would give us more flexibility.
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The start of the hard walk up
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Lugging 20kg of gear up to 2000m was hard and we started to regret this decision. It took 4 hours and when we arrived we were inside a cloud, cold and damp. Not looking good.
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| Cold!!! |
However we awoke the next morning in still cold but slightly brighter skies. We breakfasted in the refugio and hiked round to the south Face (about an hour). Here we climbed the easy
Martinez Direct (IV+, 250M) just to bag the summit (we were still not sure about the weather).
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| The 1 hour walk to the climbs |
|  | Pitch one fun
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|  | Pilar romping up easy ground
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We had the mountain to ourselves and summited in atmospheric conditions. The route had a couple of moves on the first pitch (canalizos - water worn grooves typical of the Picos limestone) but essentially it's easy climbing followed by 120m of scrambling. We descended quickly just getting rained on whilst abseiling. Back to the hut for Fabada and bread.
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The atmospheric Summit
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The next day we climbed
Amistad Con El Diablo (6a, 300m). We awoke to clear skies and sun.
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Early morning sunrise
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Though only about 5DegC we climbed pitch one in gloves. The route takes a direct line up the East Face, starting out slabby and gradually steepening.
|  | Easy pitch one climbed in gloves
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| Me on Pitch 2 (linked with pitch 3)
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The climbing is a sustained grade V with very little protection. So steady climbing is the order of the day. The crux (pretty much 6a) is protected by two bolts and a thread. Route finding needs to be spot on as going off route could end up on really poorly protected ground.
|  | Pilar on the crux pitch
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|  | Me on high on the wall
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Looking up at Amistad..
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The route finishes at a terrace where we continued up two pitches on Cepeda (another 80m with one very hard and polished 6a move) before being reborn though a small hole and deposited in the sun in the South face where three abseils are all that is needed to get down. Great!
|  | Heading to meet with Cepeda (6a)
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|  | We joined a team on the crux of Cepeda
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Crawling through the hole onto the South Face
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With this now in the bag we wasted no time and decamped and slogged down to the valley by headlamp. Some tinned fish sufficed for dinner then we hit the hay exhausted in a hostel in Sotres. A long but excellent day.
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Now the loooong descent
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We wanted to finish the trip on the local classic Espolon Sud on Cueto Agero. A massive towering crag in the valley near Sotres. We were far too tired for this and even bailed on a short route at El Resquillon which we attempted in compensation. Windy and gloomy weather and complete lack of motivation we abseiled from the second stance. One to come back too next time.
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Awesome Cueto Agero
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Below Agero before we bailed off
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