UKC

Hi all,

Does Ariege have single pitch trad crags suitable for a group of up to 6 beginners, enough for 3 days? Which crags are best?

I've decided to take a group to Ariege in the spring. As part of our trip we'd like to run a foundation course for up to 6 beginners. Although I'm fully sold on the sport climbing at Ariege, I need to make sure the trad is suitable before planning this element of our trip.

Many thanks!

Keen Dan

I'm not aware of any trad-only crags in the Ariege, all the stuff of any quality was bolted up years ago. The CAFMA website gives a great overview of the whole area:

http://cafma.free.fr/index.htm

Chris

In Ariège, almost all of the trad routes are in the mountains, which likely rules out most of them until late Spring. In addition, they're almost always multi-pitch routes, which sounds like it isn't what you're looking for. The only crag I know of that's largely trad, which will be accessible in Spring, is Le Pilier de Vents sector at Auzat (topo here: http://cafma.free.fr/auzat/fr_auzat.htm). This is a multi-pitch crag but obviously you only need to climb the first pitch if you so choose. However, I very much doubt you'll find enough there to keep you interested for 3 days, and I'm really struggling to think of other local options. The main problem is that most of the valley rock here doesn't lend itself well to trad protectability, and the few low lying crags that might do so, as Chris said, were bolted ages ago.

Thanks John and Chris!

That helps. We won't squeeze in the trad course then but there's lots of other development we can do instead, including some of the multi pitches.

i will defer to john arran as it is a while since i lived in the area but i think that some of the routes at Calames were originally trad - and that you could use them to practice placing and removing gear - as a supplement to the bolts -  i think some of the easier multi pitch routes (pere tranquille ?) for example.