It’s hard to tell from these photos, but the wind today has been a strong one. We hoped that the crag of Pena del Corb might provide a little bit of shelter…

It was still pretty blustery underneath the cliffs and looked like it might be even worse on the top of the pinnacle, but the sun was shining and there is an easy route on the edge of the cliff, so we decided to give it a go.

Clare got us up the main pitch of the route, but was clinging on at times as the wind whipped around the arete.

When I joined her at the belay, we had to keep the ropes down to prevent them blowing away! It’s possible to descend from here, but with the lure of a summit (and one with a big metal cross on top), pushed us on upwards!

We were belayed to the summit cross and hanging onto each other so that we could get a photo on top!

This is the view from our little perch…

Getting off the top required some careful rope work as tossing the ropes from the summit (as we might usually have done), would definitely have resulted in tangles as the wind was in charge up there! It all looks fairly benign from this photo, but it felt very exciting at the time!

There are more routes up this side of the tower, but they involve a more balanced technique – one that would have been very tricky in the wind!

We decided instead to head back down to the valley…

But what a stroke of luck! On the walk down we noticed a smaller slab of rock (to the right as you look up the hill), with bolts on it and at a slightly more sheltered angle. It wasn’t in our guidebook, but a quick bit of online searching confirmed that there were some new, and well bolted routes to be had! Bonus! We spent a few hours climbing excellent some shorter technical routes, before continuing down to the car.

The suggested parking area was at what we’d consider the very limit of hire car terrain! Thankfully, the way home was downhill and the tarmac not too far away. I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached it!

Pena del Corb Climbs:

• Larga, 4*
• La Gruta, 5c**
• Aiguarrius, 5c**
• Tres mas, 6b*
• Con chanclas y a lo loco, 6a+**
• La carabassa, 6a**