Day 3 in Picos had us again at Fresnidiello wall. This time we opted in for a route called Los Capitanos. It goes from right hand side of the crag, thought the roof up the black streak. It’s a bit shorter than what we’ve done previous 2 days, but still a lot of fun.
I started from a dodgy grassy base, which went pretty much unprotected. I got to say it wasn’t hard, but smallest mistake would have me decked with broken legs…
Next was the the roof itself. It has good holds and a bolt in the right place, but it’s missing pro for next 6-7 meters. That was the real difficulty, as it was intimidating and challenging. Peter experienced that on the sharp end of the rope…
From there It goes more less up, with another harder pitch, that this time was very well protected (2 bolts and a peg). Again, it happened to be on Peter’s lead.
Last 3 pitches are easy but super run out. It’s fun when dry and luckily we managed to catch it like that (except for the last 20m of last pitch when it’s started to rain).
Luckily it wasn’t as desperate as yesterday and we made it to the top. (and safely back, although a bit wet).
Overall, we are very happy as we got 2 great days out of what supposed to be wet weather (reality is that Spanish wet is the same as Irish summer). For me personally leading big run-outs is still somewhat intimidating, but I get by.
Tomorrow we have a ‘day off the walls’, as we have big walk in to the mountain hut by Naranjo de Bulnes, where we will stay for 2 nights and attempt to climb on the East face.
