Pico Almanzor at 2592m is the highest summit in the Sierra de Gredos and although straightforward in summer conditions, it has a well-defended summit block requiring some scrambling of around British Grade 2. With my wife Marion I made a 3 day trip, staying 2 nights at the Refugio Elola (Laguna Grande), reached from the roadhead car park at La Plataforma.
We had fine weather on the walk-in and for our climb, although later that day mist rolled in and there was very heavy rain overnight,
The Cirque de Gredos is a fabulous glaciated corrie, very reminiscent of Skye, with extensive slabs, steep scree chutes, and serrated ridges with pinnacles and gendarmes, The rock is predominantly a coarse-grained granite. The normal route ascends on of the scree chutes to a narrow col, the Portilla del Crampon, followed by a steep scramble connecting good ledges to a final tricky wall of about 4m. I used my 7mm rope and ML ropework techniques to belay Marion from here to the summit marker, and lowered her back down. There was an in-situ bolt (probably used for winter ascents), just perfect for a South African abseil, which I used to get me down the steepest pitch.
We saw choughs, ravens, and Griffon Vultures, as well as the Almanzor Fire Salamander, a species of amphibian endemic to the range.
A friendly group of ecologists who were carrying out surveys of the Laguna Grande explained that they had caught 26 Brown Trout in the lake, the biggest was 63cm!
The trip required some research, as there seem to be no current guidebooks in English - I ordered a second hand copy of the out-of-print Cicerone Guide "The Mountains of Central Spain". It would seem that this area is relatively rarely visited by British climbers or walkers - we met no others on this trip or on subsequent days?
