Barranco del Pas de Tancat
After lots of research with plenty of mixed / confusing information about the Barranco del Pas de Tancat (it even has about 3 names!), we have finally found it and made a complete descent.
The term 'adventure' is widely used, we do it lots for sure. Some adventures are bigger than others, this felt on the big side. Not because of any technical difficulty, we've been in many canyons and have enjoyed them all. No, it was more the not knowing the outcome or even if we would have enough rope to complete the descent! Without enough rope we would be in a pickle for sure and whilst we had 100m of it, one source had mentioned needing 2x70m ropes!
Rightly or wrongly we didn't heed that bit of info, but did keep an eye on possible escape routes should we need them. As it turned out the longest abseil was around 30-35m, phew!
An approach walk of almost an hour warmed us up, the scenery took our minds away from the intense heat of mid-morning (yes and it really is the end of October). Soon we arrived at the Col de Garx, with the castle remains towering above us on the right, this is a dramatic viewpoint and gives a sense of what lies in store. The approach now descends through well tended olive groves until a narrow channel is reached.
The initial 15 minutes or so is disappointingly easy and overgrown (we took some gardening equipment so less overgrown now), but soon more fun is to be had, with both technical and free-hanging abseils into impressive surroundings. More dry river bed brought us to the 'tube' abseil which could be done by sliding down on your bum (but still on the abseil rope!), this was the longest abseil at about 40-45m but it can be split into 2 short descents and we'd recommend this. Yet more amazing scenery and a few fun little abseils brought us to the exit and an easy walk back to the car.
A complete write up along with technical details will follow shortly and this will be published on the 'guides and information' page of the website. Update: Our recently published Cicerone guide 'Costa Blanca Mountain Adventures' features this and many more canyons and mountain adventures.
Thanks to Kate for joining me on this one 🙂
Mark
