The sound of thunder working its way up the valley kept me awake last night. In the morning the skies were black, so we hurried to get the tent down before the approaching rain arrived. Breakfast was served in the comfort of the van while the 'weather' passed.
As it turned out, the 'weather' literally did pass us by. Only a few rain drops fell before the storm clouds blew past and into the next valley. Climbing was back on the menu for the day! This time, there was a definite path to the base of our chose cliff, at the western edge of the dam. But after climbing the first few moves of the route, it was clear that no one had passed this way in many years!..
The first pitch was excellent. An absorbing pitch of quality climbing on good rock. However, the higher we got, the more moss and lichen we encountered! The second pitch was a real 'adventure' and we found that we had been wise to carry some cams, as there were only a few well spaced bolts along the way. The terrain became even more 'crispy' as we got higher above the water. We were loving the exploration though. Care had to be taken and as reminded, having just placed a small cam, I pulled off a hand hold; I then had to carry it up to a ledge as I didn't want to throw it down on to the path. The views and excitement levels were running high at the belays!
On reaching the top of the cliff, we eventually located to promised bolts anchors, but once again had to leave some cord and a karabiner behind to make a safe anchor to descend from.
We cut away the old rotten cord that was loosely redundantly threaded between the bolts.
As seems to be the daily norm in this valley, by lunchtime a strong anabatic wind was roaring up the valley. At the summit, we could barely stand and had to be very careful not to get the ropes stuck on the abseil down. To minimise this risk, we made three shorter abseils, even though the ropes would have got us down in two. Better safe than sorry - neither of us had the mental or physical energy to climb back up again should they get stuck! As our climb had made a rising diagonal traverse of the cliff, we couldn't abseil down our line of ascent, so had the added adventure of descending down the unknown cliff face in search of another anchor! Luckily we found some!
With ropes billowing out below us, we carefully made it down to the waters edge.
After some much needed food and water, we set off in search of Andorra. It was about a three hour drive along slow winding mountain roads, but always with interesting scenery. At one point we descended to about 500m altitude and stopped in a small town to admire their town hall. It was overcast, but stepping out of the air-con car the heat really hit us! It was 36°C. People must simply combust here when the sun is out!
We passed loads of amazing climbing areas and huge cliffs of limestone and bright red conglomerates. All out of bounds at this time of year though! On one high pass, at a cool 1700m, we stopped for a coffee break and to rest a moment and enjoy the views.
We finally crossed over the border into Andorra at about 6pm. So far it's not the prettiest of places, but we'll reserve judgment until tomorrow's explorations. There was a huge stage set up in the town square as it seems to be some sort of 'fiesta week'. However, the first band weren't on until midnight and we were shattered. Got some street food at a crazy funfair before crashing out...
Cavallers:
- The Exploited Climbers, 6a+, 5c, 4c**
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