Puig Campana - Recce and Run!

I was keen to check out one of the timings ref. 'The 2013 January Challenge' (Roldans Notch). This meant that I would need to ascend the Puig via the gully on the Finestrat side (PR-CV14). Because I had recently been impressed by the speed that competitors had gone up the mountain (the winner in just over 35 minutes) as part of the Skyrunners Vertical Kilometre race, I was curious to see how quickly I could do it - apart from being in a different league to these guys, I had absolutely no intention of running up the mountain (down it maybe, but not up!).

So, I started my little excursion at 08:00 this morning, setting out from Font Moli, just above/behind Finestrat village. It was all fairly quiet at that time, but a couple and a single guy were all setting off just as I was parking my car. I never saw the couple again (they may have gone on a different walk) but I did pass the single guy several hours later as I was coming down (he was still on his way up and about 200m from the summit). 

The timing that I was interested to check was how long it would take to reach the point in the gully where you turn left (coming up from the bottom) and start the scramble up to the notch. Previously we had parked in the valley just below (20 min walk) the refuge/hut (Refugio José Manuel Vera Catral) we then walked up to the coll (@ 1200m) before dropping 200m down the gully to the point in question, this had taken just under 2 hours, and the 200m descent down the gully had not been the most pleasant experience! Today, coming directly up the gully (admittedly on my own and not hanging around) I reached the same point in 1 hour and 10 minutes - good news for January!

So, now I was able to focus on reaching the summit, 730m of ascent done, just another 270m to go! It was a steady slog, but a beautiful morning for slogging, with blue, cloudless skies, although now as I got nearer to my goal, the wind seemed to pick up with every metre of ascent, and 25 minutes later as I stood on top of the Puig it was really quite strong and did not encourage me to hang around!

To see the GPS data for the ascent on Garmin Connect CLICK HERE

Although my ascent had taken an hour longer than the winner of the Vertical Kilometre Race, I was still very pleased with my efforts (1:35:25) and I had actually done it quicker than some of the competitors! After snapping a few quick photos I began what I hoped was going to be a quick descent. I had decided to descend via the slightly more forgiving and slightly gentler route that joins and follows the circular path (PR-CV289). Although further, 7.46Km vs 4.76Km on the way up, I was still optimistic that I could get down quicker than I had come up. Wherever possible I ran back down and was back at Font Moli and the car in 1:13:37. 

To see the GPS data for the descent on Garmin Connect CLICK HERE