Went back up to the Ceillac Valley, this time feeling much more rested. Because it’s 700m higher than where we live, the temperature is very pleasant and we didn’t need to race out early to beat the heat. Instead, we took our time at home, had a coffee on the balcony, then set off up to climb the little rocky ridge of El Nino.

Rather that being broken down into designated pitches, the description just says, stay on the arete as much as possible and climb it in around 6 rope lengths at a grade of around 4b. It was much like climbing a trad route back in wales (except much warmer!), as we had to route find the best way and place most of the protection ourselves. Occasionally a bolt would appear to re-assure us that we wee still on route!

The lenght and grade of the climb were well within our abilities, so we could relax and enjoy the views while we ascended.

Whenever a good ledge presented itself, we stopped for food or water, or just to admire the views.

After a couple of hours, we reached the top section and from here things became a little less clear. The topo diagram had a rough sketch of how to walk down, but there was no sign of any path from the top. Eventually, we found a faint trail, but this petered out after a while. We knew where we had to go, but the dense forest and canyon that needed crossing were difficult to negotiate with out a path! Having spent nearly two hours getting back down, we think perhaps we should had carried on a little higher on the ridge to search for a better start to the path. The climb is quite new and probably only had a few ascents, so any path wouldn’t be well trodden.

But we did made it down, albeit a little later than expected and walked down to the road then over to the river, where we cooled off by standing in the icy waters of the river.

• Éperon El Niño, (4b) 6 pitches of trad climbing with bolted belays