'Pared de los Alcoyanos' main face
Yesterday we enjoyed a big mountaineering day with Stig from Norway. Being well accustomed to 'big walls' Stig was keen for one of the longer routes in the area. With temperatures still quite high we opted for Via Gene on Cabezon d'Oro as this face stays in the shade for longer than many. We remained in shade until 1pm and almost at the top of the route.
Despite it being over 300m in length and of a wandering nature, we managed the whole route in 6 pitches, one of these being about 65m though, wow!
The Costa Blanca may be most well known for sport climbing, but there's a huge amount of trad here too, this route was trad, about VS in grade and sustained until the summit ridge. Care with route finding is required as this is a massive face of rock and getting 'lost' is a real possibility. Not that this was an issue for us, we cruised up in no time at all, only stopping for lunch once on the ridge shortly after 1pm.
A short scramble in a tremendous setting brought us to the abseil station and the beginning of our descent. 2 long abseils got us to the scree, then a fun and fast scree run down the gully, seemingly starting a number of landslides along the way!!
Under 7 hours car to car this time, so pretty speedy. Good day, no a Great day, thanks Stig :-)
Mark
Despite it being over 300m in length and of a wandering nature, we managed the whole route in 6 pitches, one of these being about 65m though, wow!
The Costa Blanca may be most well known for sport climbing, but there's a huge amount of trad here too, this route was trad, about VS in grade and sustained until the summit ridge. Care with route finding is required as this is a massive face of rock and getting 'lost' is a real possibility. Not that this was an issue for us, we cruised up in no time at all, only stopping for lunch once on the ridge shortly after 1pm.
A short scramble in a tremendous setting brought us to the abseil station and the beginning of our descent. 2 long abseils got us to the scree, then a fun and fast scree run down the gully, seemingly starting a number of landslides along the way!!
Under 7 hours car to car this time, so pretty speedy. Good day, no a Great day, thanks Stig :-)
Mark
On the summit ridge
The fun scree run back down
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