Los Mallos de Riglos, May 13-23rd 2008
John Jones, Nick Longland, Gordon Macnair, John Robson, Chris Jackson (me).
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The weather forecast for northern Spain was not good and it was more in hope than than confidence that we boarded the plane from East Midlands airport to Barcelona. The flight was a late one, we arrived about 8.30pm and by the time that we had organised our hire car it was well dark. We set off with John Robson and Gordon as driver and driver's mate into a rather scary city with a network of fast motorways. We eventually hit the Grande Via and after some touring of the suburbs and a bit of misunderstanding of simple instructions in basic Spanish we eventually chanced upon our Travelodge.
Wednesday 14/5. The drive from Barcelona took about 4 hours, much of it in the pouring rain (see 01) including a coffee and cash stop in the town of Huesca, some 30km from Riglos. Before we left the UK we had been unable to book any accommodation in Riglos or the nearby Ayerbe so we were uncertain as to where we were going to be based. Self catering would be ideal but we were taking pot luck with whatever we could find.
Riglos village nestles in a beautiful setting in the foothills of the Pyrenees at the east end of the Sierra de Santa Domingo some 100km north of Zaragoza. The village itself is a pretty collection of typical Spanish houses built onto a steep incline and very close to the base of the cliffs which we took to either be a deep faith in the goodness of God or a reflection of the quality of the rock. The peaks are also the home of many Griffon Vultures and some of the more outlying peaks are out of bounds for climbing because of nesting birds.
Ten km away, the pleasant small town of Ayerbe turned out to host a single hotel. It was immaculately clean and recently refurbished though somewhat characterless, the main drawback however was the price, which with breakfast and an evening meal with refreshments was likely to exceed €50 per person per night. We had checked in for a couple of nights when Gordon discovered Casa Fuentedé a Turismo Rural run by the delightful and artistically disposed Teresa. Teresa spoke barely a word of English indeed, when John Robson tried in his best Spanish to book her for 5 nights she blushed and tittered. Maybe this has other connotations in Spanish but booking 5 days seemed to do the trick and we eventually stayed there for 7. The accommodation was a self catering house which comfortably slept 5 without sharing a bed and was hung with Teresa's artwork and decorated with a delightful arrangement of bric-a-brac throughout. See the gallery for more pictures. Picture 04 outside Casa Fuentedé, L-R John Jones, Gordon Macnair, John Robson and Nick Longland. Picture 05, the essential gear sort.
All the routes that we climbed were sports clip-ups but some gear could be widely spaced particularly at the bottom and a few wires and a couple of Friends were often found to be useful. The distant first clip is such a feature of Riglos climbing that the guide book sports a special symbol to warn of it.
Thursday 15/5. Picture 02 is the first view one gets of the peaks, the left pinnacle is Mallo Fire, the big face is El Macizo del Pisón and on the right in shadow is La Visera. All three are about 250m in height. Picture 03, the optimistically sited local church with the crags behind.
Despite the weather forecast that we had brought from the UK the weather remained dry and mainly sunny which rather spoiled us for the next few days. This was a new rock type, this was conglomerate, which seemed to consist of limestone pebbles and small boulders fixed within a matrix of reddish cement and despite some suspiciously optimistic pebble holds none of us ever pulled one out. We started out on Zona de los Volaos which presented us with a series of up to 3 pitch routes with grades up to 6b. Further left the routes became increasingly steep with less pebbles and more matrix and 6b+ was about as hard as any of us could lead during the trip. We were probably spoiled by the grades on Kalymnos some of which were nearly a full grade easier. We also became aware that the first bolt could be as high as 10m from the deck though in fairness, bolting was generally quite close on crux sections. So, what was it like, this conglomerate? Well, different, and strong arms seemed to be an advantage to round bulges that the locals call panzas or bellies, as did the ability to step high and rock onto a hold. The harder routes appeared to climb continuously overhanging rock but it did seem that climbers were able to position themselves for the occasional one-hand-off shake out.
Picture 06 shows Nick on the first pitch of Vixente Iñuxente on El Pison, somewhat undergraded at 6a+ and an alternate start to Alberto Rabadá o Murciana an eight pitch classic that John Jones and Gordon completed later in the holiday. Picture 07, John Jones on the first pitch of Alberto Rabadá at 6b. It's possible to see some of the typical conglomerate in the picture. Picture 08, soireé in the square at Ayerbe which became a regular venue - weather permitting, picture 09 the Johns in the bread shop for baguettes, stickybuns and an ogle at the baker's wife.
Friday 16/5. Thursday had spoiled us, for despite that gloomy forecast the weather had been fine all day. Friday was very different and we woke to steady rain and low cloud. After breakfast the rainy day Grumpies pored over maps for what seemed like several hours then minus John R who was suffering with man flu we set off for the limestone climbing area at Rodellar. The climbing turned out to be in a deep valley rather like a big Peak District Dove Dale, the climbs were mostly ludicrously overhanging, those not operating above 7a need not apply. Nice area though with other activities advertised such as canoeing and walking. It also has a cafe, restaurant, bar, bunkhouse and camp site. Paradise. During a short weather window we pottered along the valley floor, the river was in spate however and we were unable to cross.
Saturday 17/5. Brilliantly clear blue sky in the morning and Teresa assured us of perfect weather. So much for the local experts, by 11.00am huge cauliflower clouds were growing and by mid-day we were dodging in and out of torrential downpours. The locals told us that secret was to climb on El Pison where the huge overhang of the main wall kept the rock dry on its lower pitches. Fine if you can get up the lower pitches I suppose. Nick led P1 of Vixente Iñuxente on El Pison on a 30m single rope which was slightly embarrassing as the pitch was over 35m. Advanced rope technique was successfully employed to lower off!
Gordon and John Jones also hurled themselves at the direct start to the pinnacle of El Pro and the first two pitches of Vixente Iñuxente and got rained off on both routes.
Sunday 18/5. John J and Gordon headed for La Visera which is the right hand upper buttress of the group to attempt the first few pitches of El Zulu Demented but failed to find the correct start and had a bad time before lowering off. Later in our visit the Johns saw another party having similar problems which seems odd for what the guide book describes as a superb and classic route. La Visera is a huge piece of rock with an awesome leaning final wall that juts out at about 30 degrees. Amazingly this headwall takes several free climbs at around 7a/7b. their lines can be traced from the ground by a lightly lighter line rather like a giant snail trail where the brown dusty patina of the conglomerate has been worn away and replaced by chalk.
While John and Gordon were on the Visera Nick and wandered underneath the base of El Pison where there were several 6b starting pitches to the harder routes. Well maybe, that is if you can climb round the 2m roof guarding the starts, see picture 10. Somewhat demorallised we played around on the Zona de los Volaos, where I sent Nick up a 6b+ by mistake for a 6b and I had a bad time on Trapacero 6c with widely spaced starting bolts and ludicrous overhangs all interspaced with the dodging of heavy showers.
Monday 19/5. Woke up to grey skies and drizzle. Once again there was much pouring over maps and seeing as the back of the Riglos climbing guide book featured it, we headed off to look at the climbing at Foz de Escalete. It's an interesting crag and consists of a narrow overhung gorge cut through a ridge of limestone by a small stream that feeds into a large reservoir. The crag is to the north of Riglos and although it is possible to drive up a track and get quite close to it using old water engineers tracks, actual access to the rock looks fairly desperate as does the escape. The climbing looked even more top-end than Rodellar with several 8a and 8b routes. We quietly drifted back to the car and, turned tourists we drove over craggy passes to the unremarkable town of Jaca where we located a purveyor of comfort junk food.
Tuesday 20/5. A fine morning with a different look to the weather, breezy but with no suspicious clouds around. Determined to get something significant done with some sort of summit or top to it, Gordon, Nick and I set of for El Puro, the thin needle of rock stuck to the north edge of El Pison, and the symbol of the Mallos region, it can be seen in the enlarged version of picture 12. While the Johns set off for Moskitos on La Visera, a reasonably graded multipitch route with a sting in the tail crossing an unreasonably steep piece of rock.
It was quite cool and windy and bundled up with fleeces and windproofs the first pitches seemed harder that their grade of 5c. The first 3 pitches of the normal route were run into 2 though there were enough belay points to make it 4 should anyone want to, see pictures 13 and 14. The third pitch traversed into a sort of cave with an overhanging finger crack. 6a? Well maybe but I pulled on a bolt anyway.
Pitch 4 was Gordon's and being 1/2 Scottish he obviously relished the long chimney with the first bolt at 20m, see picture 15. A full runout of 60m just took him to a comfy stance in the sunlight at the base of the free standing pinnacle of El Puro. Three more delightfully exposed pitches of 5c, 5c, 6b (see picture 16 and 17) landed us on a small top with just enough room for one bottom. Nick wanted to do a headstand on the top but we managed to talk him out of it.
The first abseil of 50m was started by following an ancient cable down and round into the chasm between the pinnacle and the main face where there were two large rings, and was nearly as scary as the climbing, see picture 18 which was taken looking up at Gordon descending.
The Johns had a good day too on La Visera, with a successful ascent of Moskitos which they rated as Brilliant. Pitch grades 5c, 6a, 4c, 5c, 6a, 6b, 5c plus a 40 minute descent round the back of the peak.
I think that mosquitos bite not sting.
Wednesday 21/5. Another perfect day. John Robson went for a walk, John Jones and Gordon went for an un-named route which was had recently been rebolted and was recommended by the locals though it did not feature in our guide. It took the wall of Mallo Melchor Frenchin left of La Visera, zigzagging around and over grey bulges at around 6a. Feedback was luke warm, sort of not bad but..
Nick and I headed for Chooper which climbs the right arete of El Pison to above half height where aid at A2 and A1 seemed to be required to progress any further according to the guide though from our final stance it looked newly rebolted and possibly free climbable. Having no information on it we left Chooper after its final pitch of 6b and abseiled back down the route. It's worth noting that the first abseil drops over an overhang and the next belay is some 10m to the side so some swinging and clipping-in on the way down was required. The next abseil was exactly 30m, knots in the rope end were obligatory. Not an abseil line for novices but a brilliant route none the less, worth its 4* and OK symbol.
Thursday 22/5. Nick, John Robson and myself went walking in opposite directions round the peaks of Riglos. It was not that we weren't talking or anything, rather that I had planned a longer walk that Nick's hip would allow. Best laid plans and all that, I got torrentially rained and hailed on, the only torrent of the day, Nick and John found a hut! Pictures 19 and 20 are but a few of the masses of wild flowers that I encountered, Flax and Blue Eyed Grass respectively. Probably.
A couple of days ago, John Jones and Gordon had been trying out the first 2 pitches of Alberto Rabadá o Murciana and had been rained off but today they decided they were going to go for it. The pitch sequence is 6b, 6a+, 6a, 6a, 6a, 6c, 6b, 6b+, generally getting harder towards the top where bands of grey bulges guard the final water washed channels that lead to the top. This route was by far the easiest on the main face of the Pison however, routes to the left, crossing what we came to call 'the potato field' a fine pale brown section were up in the 7a/7b category.
Returning from my deluge I could see that they were well up on P3 and as the afternoon crept on it became obvious that they were going for it and they topped out at about 4.00pm. The heroes returned just as the beer shop opened in Riglos. Conclusions - Fantastic.
Picture 21 the main face of El Pison, John and Gordon are circled with Gordon leading P3; click on this thumbnail to view an enlarged picture of this region of the face.
Friday 23/5. Time to go home, it was gently raining in the morning but we didn't care. With time to spare we visited an ancient castle. Loarre Castle was built in the 11th century by King Sancho III el Mayor de Navarra in 1020 as a bastion against the invading Moors from north Africa. It was an impressive edifice and despite the drizzle at €2.50 for entry it seemed to be a bit of a bargain.
Picture 23 shows the castle and below, some more ruins, that's us. The Spanish gentleman who took the picture for us made us smile with a cry of 'harico harico'. Apparently, the Spanish don't say queso.
Gordon Macnair, Nick Longland, John Robson, John Jones, Chris Jackson
Directions. From Barcelona, take the A2 carriageway towards Lleida or alternatively the Autopiste AP7 and then AP2, about 135km. Circle north around Lleida to pick up the N240 and follow this to the town of Huesca (118km) . From Huesca, take the A132 which will lead in 28km to Ayerbe and then another 9km to Riglos.
Casa Fuentedé T.974 380 509 or 676 059 584 or check out http://www.casafuentede.com