Espolón Central Route Grade Votings
Total votes cast 31
Adjacent Routes
HS. At the top of the scree slope, locate a painted name on the rock 'Esp Central' - there are 2 painted names about 30m apart, the right-hand is the correct one to use. This painted name indicates the direct start. USER COMMENTS
big day out, sat in car waiting for just enough light to set off on walk, takes about an hour to get to bottom of the gully you use if you want to miss out the first 3 pitches. Did'nt have too much problems following the route, stuck to the most worn bits of rock though where it is easier thats all over. near the final sections a few what felt like harder moves for the grade on each pitch but soon past then and onto big jugs. went past some of the earlier belays but higher up a lot of new bolts have been put in on the belays. says there is a 2 foot red dot where you need to end climb and start traverse path?? never saw it but just to left of a big bush as you look up half way up final pitch there is a new 8 inch bright red dot, level with this is a big ledge follow it right all way round and you will come to a short corner decent protected by a wire cable. We had no trouble getting down as long as you keep going on the wire and red dots and cairnes all the way to where the scree of the path up meets the path down. car to car was 8 hours
lots of new bolts at the higher belays, route finding lower down harder than higher pitches where you can follow the bulk of the worn rock. on the traverse pitch dont be tempted to follow the tat up before the move around the arete, the tat is where people have gone wrong and put something in to lower back onto route. follow the red dots and cables all the way to the scree
Fantastic day out - we had brilliant weather. If you use 60m ropes you can run pitches together, we did it in 10 rather than 13. About half the route is fairly easy scrambling, the rest around vd-sev. The Mark Glaister writeup in the Apr (?) 2006 climber on this route is well worth getting - has some updates to the Rockfax desc. It also has a picture of the finish "red dot" you're aiming for at the top of pitch 13. From this, contour around about 20-30m to the right, at the same height, for the start of the cables. When you get to the end of the cables don't be tempted to descend, keep going across and down, following path, cairns and red dots. The descent would be "interesting" in cloud - and downright worrying at night...don't forget your headtorch!
If your anywhere near this then its a must. Excellent day out!!
A utterly fantastic and LONG day out! Don't hang around - it'll take you longer than you think. The scoop though (all credit to Rich at The Orange House for this info) is that the line shown in the picture in the Rockfax guide is quite wrong. There are four areas in which it deviates from the true line.
Nice route, allow time for the decent, it could be very tricky to follow in the dark.
Had a great day on the route following the new downloaded topo available from rock fax, which I found better than the version in the guide book. There are new belay bolts in at all of the belays but they are set up for 60m ropes so beware after pitch 10 as you always seem to miss them by 5-10m. Completed the route in 5 1/2 hrs in good weather, the walk off / scramble is the worst I think I have ever done.
rope soloed 15 years ago, very good. |