the nostalgia project: Fiesta de los Biceps, Spain (2008)
The route
Fiesta de los Biceps is one of the most famous multi-pitch routes in Europe. I don't think it has acquired that status for any individual moves or pitches, more for its overall extraordinary character. To visualise the route, think of one of those big concave overhanging lead walls, fashionable at new climbing gyms in the early 2000s, then imagine that wall was fed steroids and grew to 300 metres high. Alternatively, just watch this excellent video of the route made by Mammut in 2016 for their "The Classics" series:
Fiesta summits the Visera, one of several conglomerate towers that make up the Mallos de Riglos. The hardest climbing on Fiesta is around sport 7a (YDS 5.11d).
Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, climbing magazines ran barely-believable photos of a crazy Spaniard soloing on an even crazier conglomerate face. This was Carlos Garcia, alone on Fiesta de los Biceps just a few months after it was first free-climbed. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that these were the most radical images of rock climbing in print for many years; at least until footage of Alex Honnold on Freerider began circulating after his solo in 2017.
However over the next decade or so, normal people started climbing Fiesta (roped, obviously) and the route transitioned from the backdrop to Garcia's feat into a must-do classic. It definitely sat on my wish-list for a long time. I believe the catalyst for at last planning a Fiesta pilgrimage was a conversation with Dan during our 2007 Oman trip, but that may be wrong. Whichever, in June 2008 I flew to London from Abu Dhabi, took a bus to Bristol to meet Dan, flew with him to Pau in southern France from Bristol Airport, drove a rental car across the Pyrenees into Spain with a bivi somewhere near the border, continued blearily along dusty Spanish roads then watched the Riglos towers heave into view.
First night bivi, Pyrenees
First view of Los Mallos de Riglos from the road
We got straight onto the Puro, a strikingly-thin satellite tower of the huge Bison feature, after arriving. I had had some concerns about the climbing for a few reasons. One was that my only prior experience of conglomerate, at Montserrat in 1991, had not gone well. However the larger cobbles on the Riglos stone seemed more amenable. I had also been rehabbing tendonitis in both forearms over the previous few months and so was not at all fit. And then there was the minor issue of jetlag. But the six pitches of the 6b Puro Normale route went smoothly enough.
Mallo Bison and the Puro
Dan on the Puro
Mallo Visera from the village
Fiesta de los Biceps takes the steepest line
The ascent
Optimistic after the Puro climb, we tackled Fiesta on our second day. This seems to be a recurring theme on my overseas trips; that the attempt on the main objective is made at an early stage after a deceptively easy introductory climb. Retrospectively, it usually feels like an error!
The technical crux on Fiesta actually comes low on the route, on the third pitch (7a) where the face begins to steepens. Prior to this, the climbing is slabby to vertical on big holds. Disappointingly, I fell off seconding the crux, which I remember as tenuous stemming on unhelpful small pebbles. This eroded my confidence and detracted from the rest of the route. However I did manage to swap leads through the next few pitches and led the steep sixth pitch (6c) clean, which was some compensation.
The situation of the route from pitch four onwards is extraordinary. The angle is continuously overhanging, such that you know rationally that you are a long way out horizontally from the base of the route hundreds of metres below, but the visual experience of this is very hard for the brain to compute. The strongest input is the chalk trail snaking below, which gives little clue to angle. For me at least, it sometimes felt weirdly like the face below was a low-angle slab.
Somewhere in the middle of Fiesta - pitch 4 or 5, I think
Dan following pitch 6
Looking down from pitch 7 stance
Dan led the upper crux of the route (given 6c+ or 7a in different topos), which is less technical than the third pitch but steeper than anything else on the route. My fitness was really inadequate for this pitch and I pumped out on the slopey blobs several times, grabbing quickdraws to avoid swinging out over the void. I recall that I was so drained that I handed over the final lead too, which was only 6a.
Following crux pitch 8
Higher on pitch 8
The next day we drove poorly-signed roads for several hours to the famous sport area, Rodellar. Dan managed to continue climbing there but I rested. My best memory of that day was our bivi spot that night, at a gravel pull-out on a ridge with long views around the Pre-Pyrenee hills. The next day we both climbed at Rodellar then drove back to Riglos in the evening.
Rest day dinner, somewhere between Riglos and Rodellar
The remainder of the trip continued to be eventful. Dan was very keen to climb the historic and somewhat notorious Rabadá-Navarro route on the Mallo Fire tower. For some reason at that time (and maybe still?) Spanish climbers were preserving it as a museum piece, protected by junky gear left from early ascents. Route finding was tough. Dan got lost on one pitch and had to rappel back to a stance. I felt unnerved throughout and as far as I recall did not lead any pitches. The next day, we climbed the easiest route on the other big tower, Mallo Bison; a contrastingly-fun experience. The summit of this tower is a lovely spot, perfect for chilling out and attempting to photograph vultures. The diary tells me that we drove all the way back to Pau airport that evening, to catch a midnight flight back to Britain.
Vulture sculpture in Rodellar
Real vulture from Mallo de Bison summit
Mallo de Fire from the Bison summit
Subsequent ascents
None. I have not been back to the Riglos (or anywhere in Spain). Fiesta de los Biceps is prominent in my much-too-long "should repeat in better style" list. Given the limited number of years remaining in which climbing at this level may be possible for me, and the large number of new places that I would still like to visit, I doubt it will happen, but if I do find myself somewhere nearby, I hope I will make the effort.
