Tales of Spain 4: Pince sans rire

We spent many days at sector Pince sans rire. It is a smaller sector, but it has good warm- up routes on the right side that are shaded early in the afternoon. The right side of the wall has an incredible collection of long, steep routes with sustained tufa columns. At the center of the sector is a deep cave with a few nearly horizontal roof climbs. It took me three days to piece together a physically possible sequence on my project, El enano de la chepa del Seta, 5.13c. The route followed a line out the guts of the cave, and involved some truly bizarre climbing. I wish I had some pictures.




Wendy redpointed Akelarre, 5.13a. On this amazing line, a pumpy section of tufa columns led into a burly crux section on powerful underclings. The route was capped with a juggy run to the anchor. Here are Wendy and Heather working the route.