Attempt of Punta Alta

Last weekend, Xavi and me tried to climb "La Punta Alta", a 3018m high summit located in the Catalan National Park of "Aigüestortes". 

In my opinion, the route we had chosen, though steep and demanding, is highly recommendable during the winter season. It offers stunning views over the white landscape of the National Park, as well as of the 3000m summits located West of "La Punta Alta".  We had a beautiful day and enjoyed our trip a lot, but unfortunately were not able to make summit. 

click here to read on

Cavallers Dam

Our problems began Friday evening, when we encountered the forest road closed, that according to plans should have led us to the Cavallers Dam, where we'd wanted to park, pitch our tent and, next day, initiate our trip from. Not being able to drive to the dam meant six additional kilometers of walking as well as some 300 more vertical meters. This, we reckoned, would probably cost us one and a half more hours. We decided to leave that for the next day and to pass the night beside the car.

The second of our problems was, that next morning we didn't hear the alarm clock, that should have woken us at a quarter to six . As far as I am concerned, I didn't bother too much, for I didn't get much sleep during that night. As a matter of fact, I doubt the alarm clock had made any sound at all, because I am quite sure, I would have heard the faintest ting. Anyway, instead of getting up before six, we didn't crawl out of our sleeping bags until just short of 7 o'clock.

As a consequence, it almost was 9 o'clock when we reached the Cavallers dam, from where we had wanted to start our trip. According to the route description, a 3.5 hours walk, plus the duration of potential rest periods, should have seen us summiting "La Punta Alta". Since it had snowed pretty much during the days before, however, we expected it would take us longer.

Look back to the dam

Soon we found us immersed in a very snowy and beautifully pintoresque landscape, and walking, as a consequence, demanded much more effort than usual. Furthermore, our loads were heavy and the temperature much higher than expected. As a matter of fact, we had astonishingly good weather: a blue sky, radiating sun and little wind. Since the inclination was quite pronounced, we couldn't yet put our snow shoes on, and often sank into the snow up to our knees. That changed, when further up the "Barranc de Comalesbienes" we finally started making use of the snow shoes, but by then we were well behind schedule and felt pretty drained. 

First snow

In the vicinity of the Comalesbienes lakes we committed our final mistake when we tried to acces the ridge that finally would lead us to the summit by climbing a wall. Inititially, this was meant to regain some lost time, but it was a risky move. Should the wall deny us access to the ridge on that direct route, we would be even slower than on the  longer but easier "normal" route that circled the ridge up to a point where a smooth acces exists. 

Xavi, close to our point of return

As it happens in the majority of cases, the shortcut turned out to be none. Afer some 30 minutes of scrambling we stood right under an overhang I didn't want to try myself at without rope and climbing equipment. There, at an altitude of some 2800m we decided to call it a day, have a picknick and, for the first time, enjoy the view (to be seen on the panoramic opening photo). 

Ice falls in an old quarry

Upon arrival, back at the car

As soon as we had left behind the wall and were back on the snow again, we met a numerous group of mountaineers, that consisted of one guide and his approximately ten clients. Some of the latter already made a quite weary impression on us, but apparently they still wanted to make summit. Since the guide was thankful for our traces that had compacted the snow for his group (mostly Xavi's traces to be more precisely), hence making progress easier, he offered us a lead to the summit, but Xavi and me had made up our mind: we would descend. A group of 13, we thought, meant slow progress and bearing in mind that the winter days are short and that it already was past 1 pm, we coincided we'd better decline the offer.

Hours later, by the time we were back at the car, any doubts about our decision were gone. After 11 hours of almost continuous exercise, we felt tired and hardly could imagine that the group we had left behind still enjoyed their trip. By the time they would be back at the parking, we, already would have had some chilled drinks, a dinner and be well on our way back home.

Although we didn't make it to La Punta Alta's summit, we had spent a great day in a great surrounding.