1st, 2nd, Previous, Next, 6th, Last
Spain 2005 - continued
Thursday March 10th
JALON VALLEY
Font D'axia is a crag set in a small, but truly beautiful valley. The serene silence of the area is only broken by the soft, constant humming of honeybees, going about their day’s task. It’s strange that you don’t see any visible signs of them when you can’t help but notice, their distinctive drone, yet, this only interruption to the silence of the valley’s ambience, wasn’t unwelcomed and unwanted. As we walked up to the crag, it felt perfectly natural that the multitude of bees busied themselves, searching out the delights of the rosemary blossom nectar.
We had decided to go to Font D'axia, because we wanted to have a rather restful day after the rigours of yesterday. It would be too tiring to attempt long, hard days, back to back. Rose and Joyce had remembered that there were good routes to be climbed on the left-hand side of this small, yet pleasant crag, so veered that way on our arrival. John and I went on to the right-hand side of the crag and started our days climbing on a route called ‘Les zapatelles del pastor’, which was a one star, grade 5+ route. After dinner we climbed ‘El drak’, another one star route, this time graded 5. We finished this shortened day by doing the first pitch of a route graded 6c, called ‘La ley del Canto,’ but don’t think that we did the hard bit. The first pitch is a good route in its own right, graded only 4+. Altogether another very pleasant place to go to on this brilliant coast.
Friday 11th March
THE CASTELLET RIDGE
The weather forecasts that we had been getting from the Spanish television channels were quite favourable for Friday, so on Thursday evening, the four of us decided to meet up early the next morning and drive up to Finistrat to do this superb three star scramble. If I had to give it a grade then I would definitely say that it was the hardest grade of scrambling that you could do, without actually being a named, graded climb.
Friday dawned as predicted and, as arranged we were up bright and early, sandwiches packed and hopefully everything in the sack that might be necessary for the day. Rope, a few old slings, prusik loops, head torch, map, compass, whistle, cuddly toy, bottle of wine, etc. The list seemed endless, yet it was important not to forget essential items because I knew that when were up on the crest of the ridge there would be nothing we could do if some part of our equipment was missing. Rose was again our chauffeur for the day, and whilst sitting in the back of the car, it was a welcome change to look out of the window as we cruised along, away from the coast and into the very scenic Costa Blanca countryside. The journey didn’t take long and soon after passing through the small town of Finistrat we came to our starting point, which was a small discrete parking spot just off the road on the right. From here you could clearly see the first objective which was the summit of a peak called Mount Castellet, and from where we stood it looked a very impressive, sharply pointed peak and altogether a bit daunting. Yet I knew from experience that this first summit, was in fact not such a hard slog, as it seemed. We first followed a dirtrack road away from our objective, passed a small quarry and at a shallow gully started to gain some serious height as we aimed towards the start of the ridge proper and the summit of the Mount. There is no definite path to follow, but simply following one’s nose and the terrain, ensures that you eventually end up at the right place. The real crest of the ridge can be followed as it steepens or some easier tracks can be taken slightly off to the right as one gains height. Finally whichever route you take, you reach the summit and staggering views from all the points of the compass. To the right there’s the magnificent, pinnacled west face of the Puig Campana. Early on in the day the whole face is in shadow but as the sun advances round, the shadows on the complex face make it seem to change its appearance at every glance you take. When one looks to the left, the upper half of the Divno can be seen, with routes up to the dizzy heights of 535 meters. You can’t see its lower half though because the top of the long ridge of Sella in the foreground masks it.
Joyce down-climbing the first part of the ridge