Comba Vallot-Spun Ledormeur

Approach

See the main page to approach to La Sarra and Respumoso.

Route Description

In this route you must arrive to Refuge of Respumoso. You can follow in the day or you can to sleep in the refuge and make the climb the next day. The time for the complete hike is around 10-11 hours with the descent across the lakes of Arriel. For a trained mountaineer it's not very difficult to climb in a long day.
From Respumoso the time to summit is 3 hours.

Approach to Refuge of Respumoso: Route of Respumoso of Picos del Infierno.

From the refuge (2h-2h30min from La Sarra) we go back a little meters in the path what we came up to a signal with the indication "Frondiellas" and "Balaitous". The initial path it's the same of peak Balaitous but after a green hill we see the impressive Cresta del Diablo (Devil's ridge) of Balaitous in the right side. Near of this point we see a new signal with the legend "Frondiella" to the left (easy path with hard slope to here). Now we follow the cairns bordering the final of ridge Le Bondidier in the south side to the left. We search in this hillside with a lot of stones the cairns that indicate the route. We look the little and nice cirque of Comba Vallot in a great corridor with the ridge of Frondiellas in the left side (west) and the impressive ridge of Le Bondidier in the right (east). The route go up to the bottom of the spun that descent from the Frondiella central. It's the spun Ledormeur (famous former french climber, the same person of the statue of the summit of Balaitous).
The contrafuerte Ledormeur (spun Ledormeur) is bordered for the right side and we search the itinerary to reach the upper side of the spun. After a path in zig-zag among the stones we see the cairns (difficult to see) to climb the little wall of the spun and get the back of the ridge. If you don't see the marks you can climb for many sites generally with grade I+ or II. The long of the rock-climb it's about 4-7 meters, no more, not very exposed.
In the shoulder of the spun we continue the cairns to a little channel (grade I, you must put the hands, but is very easy) that arrive to a wide col. In this channel you must be carefull with the free stones.
In the col we see in the left side (50 meters) the summit of the seccondary Frondiella Central (3055m) but first we go to the main summit in the right side across a ridge of I+ (only a stone of 2 meters to climb in the middle). In the main summit of Frondiella (3071m) (5h30min-6h) you can see the curious mailbox with the form of a piolet and the impressive south face of the peak Balaitous.
From this summit you can visit the seccondary peak of Frondiella North (3062m) across a little ridge of I+, a bit exposed, in 6-7 minutes.
Now we return to the col and the Frondiella central and following the cairns we get the route of descent across the route of lakes of Arriel.

If you climb from the refuge or you want more summits (it's long for only one day) you can go to the last peak of the ridge, the solitary Frondiella western (3001m) in the southwest side. The ridge is grade III with a point of descent (rappel advisable). If you don't want to rock-climb in the dangeous ridge of you don't had a rope, It's a good idea the descent to the bottom of the ridge and across this path you must search the access to the last peak (1 hour from Frondiella central).

Essential Gear

water (the refuge is the last point with water up to the lakes of Arriel).
Rope? Not necessary except if you want to climb the south-western peak. Advisable if you go to this mountain with people a little less expert in rock-climbing of walls of grade I+/II.

Images

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