Cresta dels Bardals
Yesterday we went exploring on the nearby Serrella mountain range. We have walked extensively on these mountains, but hadn't done any climbing or mountaineering, until now that is.
Last year we'd walked up to the Cresta dels Bardals to see if it would be worth trying a traverse of it. What we saw we liked, but the hike up was less appealing! However, we have since discovered a much easier way to approach the ridge, meaning the approach walk is only about 20 minutes. That makes this mountaineering trip possible in a half day, how cool is that!!!
We arrived at the base of the ridge around lunchtime, had a lazy start before getting down to business. The ridge starts easy, well actually is mostly easy. But very quickly the exposure arrives, and wow that comes by the bucketload. The ridge lies at about 1300m altitude so even being at its base there is a feeling of airiness. Stand on the crest and begin to negotiate the extremely narrow sections and that exposure really does take over.
There are occasional bolts along the crest, but a trad rack of gear is needed (thankfully we had this with us). And whilst the climbing is never difficult, definitely more like scrambling, it felt very worthwhile having the rope and proceeding with caution. There is plenty of loose rock up there and the drops off either side are rather big!
A brilliant day out and the ridge traverse only took us about 2 and a half hours, so an easy day out too.
Thanks to Kate for joining me on this one.
Please get in touch for information or guiding enquiries for either the Lake District or Costa Blanca, we'd be delighted to help. If visiting the area and looking for inspiration please see our New Cicerone Guidebook here
Mark
