Pic De St. Cugat, Arista Southwest
This route, maybe the oddest I've ever done is located in the
Alta Ribagorcia region of the Leridean Pyrenees; A limestone area
of deep canyons south of the main cordelliera in western Catalonia.
Being from Yosemite, and lazy, it appealed to Bill and
I because it started from the road and didn't look too hard.
As it turns out the Pic (Peak) wasn't a Pic at all but
a steep limestone fin that rose 3500 feet vertically from the river to
end on a plateau where cows graze. The climbing was only about
5.7
but that was okay because it was steep, continuous, rotten, exposed and
unprotected. Fortunately it was only about 50 pitches long so we
started
in the early afternoon. There were places where the ridge
was
only several inches wide and fell off about a thousand feet to
each
side. There being few credible anchor points, we decided to
treat it like an alpine snow ridge and agreed that if the leader fell
off
one side, the belayer, if awoken by the scream, would simply
launch
himself off the other side to counterbalance. : )
'Could work.
Especially if
the belayer remembered to jump off the opposite
side.
Looking up the valley to L'Pantano de Escales from low on
the route. The first pitch leads up a bolted slab out
of a local climbing area. There was a condom tied to the first
bolt, about 25 feet up. A Spaniard on a nearby short route
looked over and explained simply, "The French".
Bill, engaged in the custormary pre-climb stare-down.
The forshortening effect makes the route look deceptively short from
here. Bill's head is about the right size though.
The hours wear on and I consider the possibility of flying.
"Hey! This one looks OK !"
......Bill finds another condom.
Bill. Summit in background. The absence of a register
was understandable. Why admit you've climbed this?
Maybe the longest and strangest rock (sorta) climb we've ever
done and it ended up in a goddamn cow pasture. ......I liked it
though.
The descent was via a mile long scree chute.