Espolón de los Franceses
Relocating to the Fuente De end of the Picos de Europa, we thought that an ascent of Espolón de los Franceses on Penya Vieja would make a great end to our week in Spain. After some early route finding issues on the complex SE face of the mountain we eventually hit the ridgeline and the route got better and better as we cruised towards the top.
With seven hours of climbing gone we could have been forgiven for thinking we were nearly finished, but the route ends with a further two hours of complicated, exposed and occasionally terrifying ridgeline including three abseils and a number of wet snow patches. Running out of time we soloed across the rocky mess to summit at 9:30pm and dashed down the avalanche prone slopes to the bottom, finishing the 2km vertical of descent shortly after midnight.
