Traverse of the Bernia Ridge

Introduction

The Bernia Ridge is the distinctive saw toothed ridge running inland from the Mascarat gorge. The ridge is easily viewed from the A7 motorway between Altea and Benissa and approached from the hamlet of Bernia.

The traverse of the ridge provides a very pleasant day's scrambling with a few abseils and a single pitch of graded rock climbing. It's ideal for the climber who is looking for an adventurous day to break up their bolt clipping holiday. While not technically difficult, the ridge is continually exposed and demands a certain surefootedness and freedom from vertigo.

Route finding is aided by the fact that some helpful fellow has been along the ridge with a tin of red paint and marked the route with red splodges and arrows. If you get lost here, then mountaineering is probably not the sport for you! Further heart can be taken from the fact that fixed gear appears at almost all insecure places and is of the shiny bolt variety. The same applies to the abseil points.

Getting There

The best approach is to drive to Xalo/Jalon centre and take a small road signposted to Bernia. Drive along the road until you reach the Bernia restaurant, continue for a hundred metres or so until you see a dusty car park on the right and an interpretation board. Park here.

It is also possible to aproach by turning left off the N332 North of Calpe onto the AV1421 (signed Jalon/Alcalali), and then immediately left again (signed for pinos and Sierra Bernia - CV749). Follow the hairpin road through pinos to it's end (a long twisty way!), turn left at the T-junction (signed Bernia), to arrive at the restaurant. This one is only for fans of motion sickness and hairpins.

From the parking, follow the continuation of the road eastwards (yellow and white flashes signed for Forat Del Bernia) onto a track. The track leads to a marble font type construction where you follow yellow and white flashes up some steps and onto a path.

The path continues eastwards heading for the Forat del Bernia (a natural tunnel right through the ridge). Once past the Forat (don't go through it), the waymarks turn from yellow and white to red. Scrambling and Broken ground lead up leftwards to the east col. The real action starts here.

Route Description

From the East col, you'll need to bag the East Summit and then retrace your steps to the col to get the full tick.

It's possible to leave your bags here, but it may be worth taking ropes and some gear with you as the section between the East col and east summit has some seriously exposed sections, from where an unprotected slip would be undesireable. The route goes up a rake, over a ridge and then a final loose groove to the East Summit at about scrambling grade 3. You'll be following the red blobs all the way.

Return to the East col the way you came and continue scrambling along the ridge. There are a few short sections that can be abseiled if needed (there are obvious clipper bolts on these as some of them are rather exposed) until you reach a two finger rock formation where Paint Can Man has written "Fin" on the rock.



Make a 20m abseil here (you'd really struggle to back climb this, so it's committing) and then continue following the red marks for quite some time untill you descend towards a col where obvious thin ridges of rock create two "lanes" on the ridge. Take the right hand lane.

At the end of this lane you'll notice a bolted traverse line leading up to the ridge on the right. This is the pitch of 4+, climb it. Although this is the technical crux of the ridge, in climbing terms it's not that exposed and it has enough bolts in it to satisfy the most cautious of sport climbing crag rats.



After this pitch there's a slightly loose, unprotected (maybe they'd used all of their bolts on the traverse) pitch of grade 3 scrambling to regain the ridge.

Continue along the ridge and then a traverse with bolts along the north side. At the end of this traverse either abseil or scramble down to a big bay. Descent it possible from here, but if things are still going well cross the bay to climb a chimney/groove.

From here to the main summit, the going gets easier. You'll keep thinking that you can see the top and that you're nearly there, only to realise that there's another higher one behind it. This section is scrambling grade 1 or 2 and less exposed, but it does go on a bit!

Once at the main summit (Hooray!) follow the ridge and paint marks west for a few hundred metres. The descent goes southwards off the ridge here and Paint Can Man was in a rare minimalist stage, so you'll need to keep an eye out. Once descending Southwards, you'll eventually descend a slab using a chain, from here the scrambling peters out as you leave the ridge.

The descent lands you on a scree slope. Descend the obvious blown out pale patches towards the ruins of the fort. Once you're at the fort, you can put your hands in your pockets and walk round the West end of the ridge on a good track that leads right back to the car park in about 35 minutes. Well done you.

Car to car we took 6 and a half hours, we used the rope for three abseils and the climbing pitch, but otherwise we were unroped. If you're nervous about climbing unprotected you'll take a fair bit longer.

Essential Gear

We took a 50m of 9mm rope and 10 quickdraws between three. We took wires, but didn't use them. Rock shoes for the climbing pitch and a helmet are also essential. Approach shoes are fine for most of the route.

No matter how hot it is don't wear shorts. The section of descent between the scree slope and the fort is through thick beds of a plant known in the botanical community as "Pricklyus Maximus". You have been warned.

Online Guides

There are two online guides, both of which do a better job of describing the ridge than me.

This is the best one:

http://www.ryanglass-mountaineering.co.uk/html/topos.html

The combination of the paint spots, and this topo are more than enough to get you along the ridge.

There is a second guide here:

http://www.psych.york.ac.uk/~rob/pix/climbing/spain/bernia-ridge.pdf

This one is probably over detailed. In addition the roads tracks, buildings and car parks have changed since it was printed. Best to use the other one.

Images

View Traverse of the Bernia Ridge Image Gallery - 11 Images