Page 22 - 20145 AMA Spring

When is a big wall,
not a big wall?
By Rich Mayfield
Let’s define what a big wall is first, Wikipedia says: “Big wall climbing is a type of rock climbing where a climber ascends a long-pitch route, normally requiring more than a single day
to complete the climb. Big wall routes require the climbing team to live on the route often using portaledges and hauling equipment. It is practiced on tall or more vertical faces with few ledges and small cracks.”
So no time or length restrictions. Bearing in mind that for some El Capitan at 900m high and grade of 5.13 is an afternoons’ cragging! The record stands at 2 hours 23 minutes.
Ok I don’t have El Cap on my doorstep but I do have Puig Campana. Her vital statistics aren’t that impressive at first glance standing at a mere 1406 metres above the sea. What is impressive is the south face a massive and incredibly complex buttress which is almost 800 metres high, full of pinnacles, cracks, corners, ridges and super clean walls. For a big limestone mountain it is also remarkably solid.
This buttress is so complex that no single route actually summits the peak instead they are sectioned into huge features and strong independent lines.
About eight years ago a couple asked me what the longest route on the Costa Blanca was, I thought long and hard about it and decided that it wasn’t a single route after all, but
a mountaineering epic combining several routes
one on top of the other. This is what we climbed.
Aristoteles 500 metres 4+
At the very base of the buttress at the very lowest part of the cliff sits a large, clean and slightly intimidating wall which is over shadowed and often
over looked by visitors by the main attraction of the upper cliffs. The line of Aristoteles takes the right hand side of
this feature in 17 pitches. Winding its’ way up an elegant arête which turns into an airy ridge scramble complete with
an abseil mid ridge. The route terminates on an inescapable pinnacle! Well almost, a
Aristoteles
two pitch abseil accesses the amphitheatre at the base of the main cliff.
It is possible to walk with a short scramble to this point. If you feel the need to cache water or food, or just decided you’ve beaten off more than you can chew.
This is the most popular area on the mountain. From the amphi- theatre a few dozen routes lead up, but the quintessential line has to be.
Espolon Central 440m 4+
This line is so strong and so obvious it can actually be seen from the moon! In the centre of the main face a graceful arête soars in nine long and exposed pitches, to what appears to be almost the summit. But don’t be fooled by this foreshortening effect, you’ll have only done 940 metres so far!
At the top of the Espolon a makeshift horizontal Via Ferrata leads off eastwards to the gully feature in the centre of the mountain and a straight forward escape route should you need one. If you were thinking about a two day climb then doing the Via Ferrata in reverse and stashing your sleeping gear and perhaps food and water here, a few days earlier, would definitely save weight on the big day.
From here an easy scramble of about 200m, just left of the main ridge or on it for the fast and brave leads to the next line. You will know when you get there because you will want to put a rope
on, the exposure to the left is truly biblical!
The Original Finish 120m 5
Twenty metres of super exposed knife edge ridge crawling will see you at the base of the pinnacle. Climb the pinnacle slightly on the left, it is easier than it looks. From the top of the pinnacle abseil off to a large chock stone. The temptation now is to squirm your way up the gully, don’t do it, it’s
20 ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Espolon Central