UKC

Firstly, thank you to all those who replied to my previous post requesting ideas. I think we fancy this -

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/la_dent_dorlu-2075/les_enfants_de_...

Which I had never heard of before posting, so thanks. 

With this in mind has anyone got advice on logistics - where to fly to (I'm thinking Barcelona?), valley bases, (hostel or camping ideally,) handy hints, other climbing (possibly more big routes) that could be combined with this in a week trip?

Many thanks. 

i suggest you fly to Toulouse.  Base towns would be Foix or Tarascon or Ax les Thermes.  plenty of camping around or you could look at staying with English climbers John and Anne Arran (who run accommodation locally).   Look at the website for club alpin foix and navigate to their topos,  topos d'escalade where you will find hand drawn info and lists of all the routes on all the faces of dent d'orlu and all other climbing in Ariege - of which there is a huge amount.  There is also a Rockfax on climbing in Ariege which is in English and has this route .

Note that the approach to the route is very steep and the descent even more so it is a very full day.

The route is very good - slab climbing with only a small amount of face style.

It's probably around 3 hours from Barcelona but less than 2 hours from Toulouse, but either could work.

The site martin09 was referring to is http://cafma.free.fr/plan.htm, which has a huge amount of info, mostly in French and is a really valuable resource. What it doesn't have are photo topos or any indication of which routes or crags are particularly good. The RockFax printed guidebook has plenty of things to go at and the app has even more.

As for other routes, there are good mountain routes at around the same grade in many of the other sites around Ax les Thermes, Ruhle and Bassiès, a lot of them fully equipped but many also needing trad gear. Further down the valley, around Tarascon-sur-Ariège there's more valley climbing than you can shake a stick at, as well as plenty of shorter multipitch routes. Most of the longer routes will face South, so if you're going at a time of year when the Dent d'Orlu will be climbable (roughly June to October) you'll either be wanting to stay high or to check out some of the many shorter, shadier crags in the valleys.

Presuming you'll have a hire car (pretty much essential for accessing the Dent d'Orlu) I'd say you can't go far wrong basing yourself anywhere close to the main valley between Ax and Tarascon.

Edit: And yes, the route is very good and impressively clean. If you don't find it too challenging, its sister route Durendalle (6b) is equally good and not a great deal harder.

Thank you very much for your help this morning both. Ariege Rockfax purchased, flights checked, plan rapidly forming. 

Not sure where you are flying from, Carcasonne is the closest airport to the Ariege (c1hr 15mins to Tarascon). I think only RyanAir flies in there but there can be some amazingly cheap deals if you are flexible with your dates,

Chris

Enjoy, it’s a great, long day out. Start early, keep your changeovers slick, and pack a headtorch for the very steep forested descent. Check the forecast carefully- it would be a very long way to retreat down a water slide.

A quick Google found Air France flights from Manchester to Toulouse return for about £300 for the last week of July, which I thought was ok. Will keep looking though. 

Ax les thermes. 

Suss out the approach. Steep. 

The way back down is not obvious. Spend time at the summit looking across the hill for landmarks for where you need to head down into the woods. 

Well bolted as far as ridge then the odd one to keep you on track and single bolt belays if you find them. We didn't take any cams to save weight but if was a mistake. I seem to remember thinking 2 or 3 small to medium cams would have been handy.

I have just read that rockfax description. 8hrs! That's 20 mins a pitch for both of you plus changeovers eating etc. The french guidebook gives a guidebook time of 8 hrs just to get to the ridge. 

one more comment regarding the descent.

The older guide books state that you descend to the col and then traverse the crest to the right (facing down) and then enter the forest to descend to the road and instruct you NOT to descend the slope/gully in front of the east faces (which have many climbs)

However,  club alpin foix have created a descent route marked with red painted circular marking and a few (very few) bolts and the odd fixed rope ( i think)  to enable a safe if steep descent down the slabs in front of the east faces and then down the gully to take you back to the start of the route and thence down to the road. This descent is not always obvious.

I dont have the Rockfax guide so not sure which descent is in that book.  

Thank you Martin; I wasn't aware of that development.

The RockFax describes the traditional descent, which is undeniably long, but which has a big advantage in that, once you're in the trees at least, it follows a well established path that's easy enough to follow in the dark. Of course that means you can't leave anything at the base, but you'd be unlikely to want to leave much at the base anyway.

I would advise the OP to check out the approach the day before, if possible. While it isn't notably hard to find the way and the route (the name is painted), it could ruin the day if you were to try the approach in the dark and were to get lost in the woods.