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Picos De Europa Climbing Week

"The Picos de Europa in northern Spain is one of the wildest mountain ranges in Europe, with limestone walls up to 700m high and caves and gorges a mile deep. The area is still largely untouched by mass tourism and being home to Spains' most famous mountain, the Naranjo de Bulnes, it has superb climbing of all standards. "
  
5-6 days
Inter-Adv
2:1
Dates: By Arrangement
Price: Private Guiding Rates
Fitness: 2-3
Experience: Multipitch rock French 5 (Uk VS). Alpine experience useful.
Included: Guiding Fees.
Other Costs: Accommodation, food, travel and uplift ~ £400
Guides Expenses: You are also responsible for meeting the guides expenses - see alpine costs for info.
 
Summary
A week of alpine rock climbing in the Picos de Europa National Park in Northern Spain. The focus of the week is usually to make an ascent of the Naranjo de Bulnes, as well as other great climbs in the range.
We offer this itinerary as a private guiding special - with dates by arrangement in mid September. Prices are as per our private guiding rates, up to a maximum of 2 climbers per guide.
Recent Trip Reports - Naranjo de Bulnes
 
Course Base
We base ourselves at the well known climbing village of Arenas, at the northern end of the Picos. This gives us easy access to the Naranjo de Bulnes and numerous other peaks and walls around the range.
 
Sample Itinerary
Subject to weather and conditions, we follow the general format below:
picos de europa climbing itinerary
Day 0 - Sat
Fly from UK to Northern Spain, pick up hire car and travel to Picos de Europa. Discuss plans, sort kit and overnight in vallley.
Days 1 - 6 Sun - Fri

Climbing Days.

Typically we do a good warm up route before heading up to the Ubeda Hut, magificantly situated beneath the W Face of the Naranjo, from where we climb the Naranjo de Bulnes itself via the classic South Face route, or one of the many harder routes on the Southeast and West Faces.

The rest of the week is spent climbing other big classics around the range. There is a huge variety of climbing on offer - from long rock route day hits, to remote alpine summits climbed from other mountain huts.
Day 7 - Sat Return to Airport. Flights back to the UK.
picos de europa climbing
 
Food and Accommodation
This week is run on a private guiding basis - so food, accommodation and travel (for yourself and the guide) must be paid for as we go along. Valley and hut accomodation for the week will be arranged by the guide to suit chosen climbing objectives.
 
Travel
Full travel details are provided with your joining instructions. Easyjet run cheap flights from Stansted to Asturias or Bilbao, Ryanair fly into Santander from Stansted as well. Our final choice of flights is decided nearer the time - either way, all flights to Northern Spain are cheap at this time of year. You need to book a hire car to travel around in during the week.
 
Ability and Experience
You should have previous alpine experience and be capable of climbing grade V rock (British VS) or above to get the most from this week. Good levels of climbing fitness are required, as typical days involve 5-9 hours technical mountaineering and rock climbing (see fitness level 3) so we advise you to prepare well in advance with days out in the UK hills and regular climbing training.
 
Equipment
We will supply you with a full kit list. All communal safety equipment (ropes etc) is provided by us. You are expected to come equiped with personal clothing and climbing equipment. For the more specialist items including harness and helmet, hire is available if needed.
 
     
 
 
 
         
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