So what do you do when you can't find a decent general guide book for France/Europe anywhere? Just drive around with a 1:100,000 map and think lucky:) After taking a detour tour through the not so exciting town of Arudy, we returned and investigated what seemed to be the access track to the crag. Thankfully our fiat panda had neither the girth or the limited agility of its namesake. We ended up following a narrow and precipitous rock path past a chemical plant to a dead end amidst goats in the depths of a secluded valley (only very marginal hyperbole!). Anyway the panda was nimble and robust and we made it back out and eventually found the crag.
The crag itself had a how to say.......urine stained, defunct, underground station atmosphere...mmmmmm FUNKY! Well it was dingy in corners but the limestone was pretty nice and the routes interesting. A little too interesting in fact (read above our skill level). Given the single non locking gate permanent anchor set up, I thought I'd be conservative and leave the last draw in, as well as cleaning an erant quick draw I placed a little wide on lead onto what looked like the correct route. Renu climbed to find I had given her a direct but perhaps too hard route to the anchor.
Thank you Australian Climbing Consultants for teaching us the most valuable skill of prusiking.
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