[jwi]

I'll go on a shortish trip to Naranjo de Bulnes in Picos de Europas in July. Two things:

1) What kind of rack should we bring. We have tons of stuff but will fly in to Madrid so we'll only bring what we think we'll need.  I am thinking:
* Half ropes. Possibly a 9.4 - 8.1 mm combo. 60 m.
* 6 shoulder length trippled draws, 10 quick draws, and two 120 cm slings.
* One set of wires and one set of offset wires
* One set of mircros (offset)
* Two set of friends from tiny to red camalot, one yellow and one blue(? to big for lime?)
* One set of tricams 0.25, 0.5, and 1
* Skyhooks? Ballnuts?

2) Suggest some classic routes for us.

[andy popp]

Out on the faces, where probably all of the best routes are, a lot of the rock is very compact and often takes very little gear - in fact I did a five pitch new route carrying one crab of wires (max 8 in total?) and half a dozen draws. Admittedly this wasn't really deliberate but on several of the pitches we wouldn't have got more than a couple of pieces in anyway, no matter what we were carrying. Perhaps things have changed but when I was there even the bolted routes were definitely not sport climbing.

[jwi]

 
Thanks!  That sounds great: no pro – no worries.

[neil h]

I made the mistake of taking loads of gear with me, in the end all you need is a small rack of wires, several slings and 10 quick draws, most of the routes on the main face have enough fixed gear in them, the routes on the east face are easy enought that you dont really have to worry about gear and most of the gear on these faces are just slings and the occasional wire

Dont bother taking any cams or friends or micro's you wont need them, and the walk up there is a bitch, go light as possible that's my suggestion

Routes to do are

www.paredesdelmundo.blogspot.fr/2010/08/naranjo-de-bulnes-martinez-somoano-360m.html

www.paredesdelmundo.blogspot.fr/2010/08/naranjo-de-bulnes-martinez-somoano-360m.html


also on this topo, route no 8 is a must, its hard going but well worth it, its probably the best route in the area, but you get a lot of traffic on there

http://szkolawspinania-adur.pl//pages/toporejony-wspinaczkowe/naranjo-1.php

[account_inactive]

We only managed to climb the rabada (sic) which was excellent though with slightly annoying rope work on the 'swing' at half height. Don't offer to guide a one legged spaniard on a right to left traverse when the leg that's missing is a left one...... Small 1-9 wires is on the money. We spent a while in the refuge waiting out the mist with the guarda.....look out for our deranged drawings in the guest book!

You'll have a great time. Very jealous

[jwi]

Thanks all!

[jwi]

OK, now I have an opinion of my own...

Bring double ropes, 55 m or longer, one set of camalots from blue (#.3) to blue (#3) or similar, one set of DMM offset nuts, a few threads, some long slings and 15 quickdraws.

We had one week of great weather and did:

Sagitario, west face, 200 m ED- (only up to the amphitheater on the right). 6a oblg move 10 m out from a bolt if you don't carry a smallish friend or have advanced nut-craft.  One 5c pitch that basically did not have any fixed pro, I placed some really solid cams though.

Murciana 78, West Face, 500 m, ED-. I did the moves on the magnificient crux-pitch but ultimatley decided it was too hard to free for me and pulled on bolts on the hard part. Great effort from Popp and Nixon.  The crack (easy part) on the crux pitch had two threads and one piton in laughable conditions, two solid threads, and a few super solid placements for hand sized friends.  People who plan to pull on gear on the crack (6c+) should bring cams for sure, and maybe one alpine ladder. After the bolt ladder on pitch 3-5 there is *very* little fixed gear, and the threads left where generally in bleak condition. A few really solid cams, super solid bolted belays.  We did not place more than perhaps 1-2 nuts on this route, a set of cams and 2 slings for threads would have sufficed.

Pecadillu, South Face (some bit left of the decent route), 300 m TD.  More or less a clip up.  A rack of draws and a few long slings for threading chickenheads would have sufficed.

Rabadá-Navarro, West Face. 750 m, ED-. Not a clip-up. Most, but not all belays fixed.  Various spanish sources recommend a rack consisting of friends from fingers to fist with doubles in thin-hand to wide hand. My suggested rack is quite fine for people not expecting to have problems with 6c - dihedral; again without friends some belays and most parts of the 6c pitch rely just on decaying fixed pitons and bad threads.  We did some modest simul-climbing on the upper part, but if I would climb it again I would have done the upper part (from the rappel to the top) in two pitches, with a change-over after the downclimb/down-walk after the upper dihedrals/chimneys.

Then we looked into Direttissima 500 m, ED, which was said to have some pitches and a few belays without any fixed pro. I guess cams would have come in handy there as well.  But people, don't ever drink from the sink in the bathroom.  Got the stomach flu, the weather also crapped out, will hopefully be back next year.

Gear-wise we also brought some tiny cams which we placed but once, a red tri-cam we placed twice and some regular nuts we placed 2-3 times.  Will not bring any of these next time.

[andy popp]

Why, thank you 

Glad you had a good trip, wonderful place eh?

[T_B]

Great info Jiwi

So you reckon cams are a must? We're going at the end of this month and I was thinking not bothering taking any. I generally don't carry them on limestone...

Getting well excited 

[jwi]

Thanks! You'll have a great time, the climbing is really fantastic!

I have not done any routes on the East- or the North-face and only one on the South face.

I plan to go back next summer and do a few more routes on the West face, Direttissima in particular looks very nice, and the spanish guide book says that the crux pitch is the best pitch in Picos! I will bring at least 7 cams, a set of 6-7 nuts, and two slings for threads with me, possibly 9-10 cams for Direttissima since it doesn't have fixed pro on all belays and most pitches are 50-55 m long.

I suspect pitons and threads don't get replaced much anymore. The spanish climbers doing routes on the West face had more cams than we had. (They all had retractor cords on their smaller cams too.)

Take my advice as you will though, on long routes I am always favouring cams. Berndt Arnold would cruise the routes with a few quickdraws, a monkey fist, and some knotted slings.

[T_B]

Quick question: Did you guys take the Furnicular to Bulnes and walk in from there? Or from the roadhead above Sotres and over the Col de Pandebano? Thanks

[jwi]

The hike in from Bulnes looks awful, absolutely awful. Steep scree forever.  Also, the path the first bit from Bulnes is far from obvious according to some guys I talked to.

We did the approach from the roadhead above Sotres (from "Collado de Pandebano") as described here
http://www.summitpost.org/naranjo-de-bulnes-picu-urriellu/151378

The road was really bad the last km up to the trailhead. If you rent a small car for the drive it may very well be worth it to take out full insurance, or park the car and walk the last few hundred meter up to the regular parking place.

[T_B]

P.S. are you going to put any pictures in your UKC gallery?

[jwi]

 

My photos where either a bit shit, or not really climbing photos.

This was the better of the two climbing pics I took before the batteries ran out on my antediluvian compact.
 

[yorkshirewarcry]

Just back from a trip to the Picos.  Stunning area.  In addition to doing a few routes on and around the Naranja de Bulnes we were also VERY impressed by some of the local sport crags. 

For anyone planning a trip, who fancies doing some single pitch stuff as a break from the bigger routes check out this site for info on some of the crags/topos etc.

www.fernandozamoraguiadepicos.com

We visited Rumenes, El Salmon and Poo de Cabrales.  All absolutely superb!

[yorkshirewarcry]

   Forgot to add:  Check out this page for Poo de Cabrales and other crags around Arenas:  http://entretenimientovertical.blogspot.com.es/2011/12/croquis-escalada-cabrales.html

On the fernandozamora site you'll need to select croquis from the main menu to find topos and crag info for the "La Hermida" crags.

[T_B]

Just back from a trip to the Picos.  Stunning area.  In addition to doing a few routes on and around the Naranja de Bulnes we were also VERY impressed by some of the local sport crags. 

Same here. We climbed to the west at Taverga and Ceuvas, as well as in deepest darkest Basque country (Araotz has a sector like two Kilnsey north buttresses). Did Soy un hombre neuvo on Naranjo, but v cold up there.

[jwi]

Did Soy un hombre neuvo on Naranjo, but v cold up there.

How was it? It certainly seems popular, there was someone climbing it almost every day we were there.

Lots of teams had problems with the 7a+ and the 7a higher up (above the traverse on R-N).

[T_B]

It was really good. The 1st pitch is a bouldery 7b+ so that was quite hard at 8.30am! That 7a+ pitch was the best pitch on the route. Super technical and sustained, but never desperate. It was very, very cold though. Apart from the 1st pitch, I climbed every pitch in a duvet jacket and even when the sun came round it was cold as the wind got up. We decided to head down the following day as it was windy and even colder! Amazing cliff and great to do such a direct line up the w face. You must have had brilliant weather to tick all those routes. A team were aiding Directissima to our left. That's still v much an aid route in terms of gear - lots of golos, which they were having to do some skyhook moves between. I suspect it would feel a lot more traddy than Soy to free.

[jwi]

Good to know.  Soy is mostly a clip-up then?

A pity (or maybe lucky?) I got the stomage-flu the night before Direttissima.

[Wood FT]

Tom (and jwi) - I was planning on going early septemeber, do you think it would be too cold given your experience?

[Probes]

Went last 2 weeks of august last year, totally fine temp wise. A bit chilly on the west face on the belays but no different to anything in the uk that time of year.

[Wood FT]

Right, cheers. August is sort ring fenced for civilian holidays so was hoping to push it into September.

Which routes did you do by the way?

[jwi]

Tom (and jwi) - I was planning on going early septemeber, do you think it would be too cold given your experience?

I've no idea. Went there once for a few days in July. We had great weather. I've noticed that the first free ascent of El Norte Oculto on the north face was in late August.

However, in PdL they say that the season for the west face is June-October with most stable weather in September-October.

[T_B]

We did Soy un hombre neuvo right up the centre of the west face, on 1 September.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=235670

We'd been told by Spanish friends from Bilbao that late August/early September was the time to go. It was very cold, despite the sun being out. So cold that we did just the one route then bailed (windier the following day, so even colder). Graham Hoey's article in Climb also talked about it being cold, though not sure what time of year they were there. I'd certainly risk early September, but don't skimp on the clothing. We climbed the entire route in duvet jackets.