UKC

Myself and a couple of friends (humans) are planning to climb Espolon Central at Puig Campana, Costa Blanca. We are able to climb about 5+ on the crag - actually two of us can do a bit better. We have climbed Via Valencianos at Penon.
We would be pleased if some of you out there could comment on the seriousness of this undertaking. How many hours will it take at a moderate pace? Is it easy to find the way up and the way down again? Would be pleased to receive any good information and advice.

In reply to piafuglen: I haven't done it myself, but there is an article in the April edition of Climber that may or may not be of some use.

The article reckons;

1 hr approach
4-8 hrs climbing
2 hrs descent

and grades it Hard Severe 4+

Did it a couple of weeks ago.
My best sport grade is about 5+ on the lead, had
no problems with any of the climbing and
was happy to run it out to save time, only placing a
few pieces per pitch.

We took an hour to walk in then about six hours climbing,
including the direct start (very easy to find, name on rock)
Just stopped for lunch, other than that kept moving with
reasonably quick changovers at the stances. To find the
descent, just scramble up beyond the final stance, keeping
to the right hand side of the ridge,you will see a red dot
on a rock near a bush indicating a small path that heads right,round a corner to a short downclimb with wire handrail. Then follow the dots across the face.

Took us about 2.5 hours to get back to the car, just need
to concentrate on the long traverse to the descent gully.

Could escape after pitch three (the direct start) by scrambling, and after pitch 7 by an abseil. Upper
stances have been recently rebolted.

In short, superb day out and not too demanding as long
as you don't mess around on changeovers etc.

S (human).

In reply to piafuglen:

It's not all that hard but like any big mountain route it is a serious undertaking. The route off involves a long traverse over some quite steep ground above big drops (enough to justify some fixed wire cables in places) and the route-finding would be tricky in the dark.

We had a minor epic after my last ascent. We had done the route and traversed across in daylight, but we reached the bottom of the big gully just as it was going dark and the cloud rolled in. Trying to find our way across the terraced hillside below the crag, in the darkness and mist, was a nightmare - we quickly turned back and descended the tourist path to Finestrat, which we didn't reach until 9 pm. After a few medicinal beers in the Moli 2 we took a taxi back up the mountain road to recover our car.

Make an early start and aim to be at the bottom of the climb by dawn. If you get up the route in plenty of time you'll have the option of the Edwards Finish, if not you'll be glad of the extra daylight to get down in.

In reply to Howard J:

A taxi back up? It's a 10 minute walk!!!! I dunno, mountaineers of today.

In reply to Rob Webb:

You must walk fast, it took nearly 10 minutes by car

In reply to Howard J:

There's also a fair few comments about it on my Puig Campana page:

http://www.geocities.com/costablancaclimbing/puigcampana.html

And a whole article about it:

http://www.geocities.com/costablancaclimbing/espoloncentral.html

Adrian Bates
Costa Blanca Climbing
http://www.costablancaclimbing.com

In reply to piafuglen:

Thanks for lots of good advice and information - and thank God for the internett! We will probably be climbing Espolon Central on April 26 th.