Tash's Blog

Next day the objective was the Gran Tuc de Saboredo and the 'Robi-Genebriera' route.

Despite looking a bit damp, dirty and vegetated at first the route actually turned out to be really good, if a little bold in places. The second (crux) pitch was an amazing 6b diagonal flake crack but ended up being fairly poorly protected towards the top when I ran out of gear (the bottom was wet so I'd placed loads of gear protecting that). Pitch 1 was maybe worth E2 5b - easy but poorly protected - and pitch 2 more like E3 5c. The good climbing continued all the way to the summit ridge until you literally flopped over onto the top - a nice change from yesterday's scramble to the top.

From the top it was an easy walk down the ridge leading us straight to the Agulles d'Amitges.

The west face of the Agulles d'Amitges with the route 'Matador' marked.

The route I wanted to attempt was 'Matador' - a supposed classic of the Agulles. However, after the first pitch - an awesome clean layback crack - I arrived at the crux pitch which turned out to be a 30m long perfectly parallel offwidth crack. After several attempts and reverses, with my only cam big enough to fit the crack now down well below my feet, I decided to sack it off. I maybe should have read the guide before setting off, as it clearly says you need 2 x no3.5 and 3 x no4 camalots. I had a solitary no3!

Anyway, back to camp for cous cous slop...mmmm!