Next morning the skies were a bit more threatening.

And we went to check out the Bielsa crags - good, but crags like these are ten a penny round us!

Foz de la Canal - the best of the Bielsa sectors.

Lunch stop.

And then on to Anisclo canyon.

A dramatic one-way single track road through the bottom of the gorge

We went for a walk up the canyon





Dramatic views over the gorge





And finally on to Torla - gateway to the Vall d'Ordesa.

After Aneto we headed further westwards - though our progress was hindered by a rather careless driver who managed to end up in the gorge!

Vall de Pineta

Pico Aneto - 3,404m



Sunrise after a painfully early start (3.45am) and a lot of power walking to overtake the hoards and get ahead of the pack.



The power walking turned to power sliding when we hit the compacted icy snow - a rare photo of Tash stood upright!

Power crawling!

...the only ones between us and summit glory.

But it didn't take long until we'd burned everyone off and we were storming ahead.

More power crawling on the final summit slopes - a long way down to the valley below!

The final rocky ridge section to get onto the summit proper - Pas de Mahoma.

9am and we were first on the summit!

Sliding back down on our bums in trainers (with me kitted out in gaffa taped trousers), we passed the first of the properly equipped "true mountaineers" - complete with winter boots, crampons, ice axes, head to toe in brand new shiny outdoor gear and roped up to their mountain guide!

We decided to go down a different way to make a circular walk so we went down the south side (which turned out to be a 45degree ice slope that I had to try and kick steps into while using rocks as axes - Tash wasn't too happy!)

After several hours of painstakingly slow downward progress, we finally made it below the snow and Tash could smile again :-)

Heading down into the Valibierna valley

And after a very long and boring stomp down the forest track in the valley bottom we walked back into camp ready for a cold beer. 3hrs up and 6hrs to get down!

After more rain overnight, the skies finally cleared enough to dry stuff and have a jolly good organise!

As well as charging phones, washing clothes, checking weather etc etc the most important job was to try and fix my trousers in preparation for heading up Pico Aneto the following day - gaffa tape has so many uses!

8am next morning and the storms were already rolling up the valley - glad we'd got up early and dried the tent off!

Cold and wet - a bit of a shock to the system after the amazing weather we'd had up to now.

Sheltering from the storms under the church's porch!

Another beautiful camp spot and another beautiful sunny day!

Our objective for the day was a route on the Mare Nostrum cliff, rising straight out of the water.

Just about to abseil in from the top.

Tash belaying just above the water line with fishies swimming around below her feet in the crystal clear water!

'La Ballena Alegre' (6c) - top quality first pitch straight above the water but unfortunately the second pitch wasn't quite as good. Still a brilliant route all in.

Walking back down - this time not a cloud in the sky!

The Restanca refuge distinctly more visible on the way down!

After getting back down and a quick stop in Vielha for supplies we headed round the long and winding road to the Benasque valley.

Ice on the tent after a very cold but perfectly clear night.

Sun just coming up.

Breakfast whilst trying to warm up as the sun hits.

Walking in to Drac de Tumeneia with Lac del Mar (left) and another cloud inversion filling the valley further down.







Drac de Tumeneia, with our route ('Diedre Gran') following the obvious corner just R of centre.

A perfect clean corner crack all the way for 5 pitches!

Unfortunately it was in the shade all morning so we had pretty numb fingers.

Just below the top and finally in the sun!

Back down to the lake.

A bit of a siesta back at the camp, before walking round to the other side of the lake.

Birthday beer in the sun (which Tash carried up for me!)