Climbing in the Clouds

A gloomy morning of drizzle greeted us today and the clouds hung low. We had a feeling that we might be able to get higher than them, so rather than waiting at camp for things to brighten up, we drove back up to the car park at the end of the road at Pont d'Espagne. It was both brighter and drier up there, but the mist still hid everything - even the far side of the car park! 

We brewed coffee in the back of the van and talked through possible future trip plans while we waited for the sun to appear. By midday, we decided that as it wasn't actually raining, we'd hike up to try and climb on a bigger cliff that we'd been eyeing up. 

The climbing was actually pretty good, but as has been our findings so far in the Pyrenees, the cliffs aren't seeing much action from rock climbers. There was a vague path, that eventually ran out into thick forest. It took a bit of steep bush whacking to finally locate the base of the routes. Thankfully, someone had recently re-equipped the climbs with nice new bolts. In places the older ones were being taken over by lichen...

On the right of the main buttress, we did a really good three pitch route (in two big pitches), then lowered off the top and did the top 6a pitch of a neighbouring climb which was excellent.

For a brief moment, the cloud dropped down below us and we could see the surrounding peaks.

But then the view disappeared just as quickly and we were left in the mists again.

There was a path with a 'safety line' in-situ to get down from the top of the cliffs.

We chose to abseil instead!

At times we even lost sight of each other as the mist became thicker and thicker.

We finished with a route on the far left hand side of the buttress, which was good but a little rambling in places. It was atmospheric if nothing else!

It was late when we got back to the van so stopped off in Cauterets for a 'petit bierre' in the town centre and washed it down with a steak and frites baguette by the splendid town cinema feeling pleased for our efforts. Happy days!

Pont d'Espagne - Campanule:

- Voie de plus droite, 5+, 4+ **

- Voie de droite (top pitch), 5+ **

- Voie de plus plus droite (top pitch), 6a ***

- Voie de gauche, 4+, 5+, 3, 6a, 6a+ **