Vicdessos Rock Climbing Guide
The granite of Auzat and the Vicdessos valley is an unmissable area providing over 200 routes on high quality rock. A nice change from the limestone and with plenty of low and mid grades sport routes as well as some shady sectors for the summer. For adventurous big mountain semi-equipped trad routes look no further than ‘Pilier de Vents’ at Auzat or the ‘Bassies Massif’.
The granite cliffs of Auzat are a superb venue about 25 minutes drive from us. The rock is compact slabs, walls, corners and cracks and climbs more like gritstone. Generally the base of the routes are in the trees making for a good Summer, Autumn and Spring venue. The ‘Falaise Ecole’ is a popular area with a good selection of 4s and 5s, a good base area, and is accessed in around 10 minutes so makes for a great venue for beginners and families. Sectors ‘Far’ and ‘Aquaduc’ offer mostly 5s and 6s, with most of the harder stuff located in the excellent ‘Montcalm’ sectors.
Sector Montcalm II, the furthest of the sport sectors at around 25 minutes walk is home to some of the best routes in the Ariege including a handful of trad routes.
The ‘Pilier de Vents’ sector offers something quite different. 7 semi-equipped routes up to 350m long scale the slabs, to give ‘adventure’ climbs. The walk in is around an hour and a full set of friends and nuts is recommended.
There are loads of great routes at Auzat, some worth checking out include:
La Sabine 5c+ (Ecole)
Rupicapra 6a+ (Moncalm II)
Kalachnikov love 6b+ (Ecole)
Arachnaphobia 6c (Montcalm II)
Emmannuelle 6c+ (Montcalm II)
Katapult Kerry 7a (montcalm II)
More adventurous semi-equipped multi-pitch routes. Mostly around the 5c level a handful of routes climb to the peak of the Bassies Massif up to 12 pitches in length. With walk-ins up to 3 hours and abseil descents required for some of the routes these climbs represent a serious days climbing.
