Tuesday 11 August 2015

Picos De Europa

Back from a very hot and sunny Picos De Europa and a great few days climbing in this fantastic area - Ben had only driven past these impressive mountains before and was keen to return to climbing amongst them. Fuente De seemd a good place to start, with the cable car top station within easy walking distance to some excellent mountain crags. There was such a queue we headed to Camaleno a quick Via Ferrata to blunt the frustration of waiting ( there is a new ticket number system in place ) eventually we got the uplift to the top station and easy access to Ajuila Oisteaochea and a good introduction to multi-pitch climbing for Ben. Next day we set off early for a walk in to the South face of Naranja de Bulnes and enjoyed a relaxed ascent of the Sur Direct to attain the summit and a multi-abseil descent. After a surprisingly quiet night in the JDU refuge ( which was pretty full ) we headed up to the East face of Naranja with the hope on doing the classic La Cepeda - it had been very busy the day before and we didn't want to end up queuing again, luckily it was empty and remained so all day, so we could relax and enjoy this fantastic route in perfect condition. Ben was keen to try out some ' sport ' climbing back up at La Vuelta, so to avoid the crowds we set off early to Fuente De and enjoyed this great little crag all to ourselves as a wind down to a successful trip - thanks Ben - a great few days in a fantastic mountain area.