ReportingDestination n ° 7 in the “Le Monde” 2022 travel charts. Striking, the “mallos” hypnotize and shape the landscape. Giant monoliths, kingdom of birds of prey, which attract climbers from all over the world to the Spanish province of Huesca.
It is in Riglos that one must come in winter to find the sun in a romantic landscape of fields of almond trees, holm oaks and olive trees. It is here, at the foot of the “mallos”, “ tall and narrow blocks ”in Aragonese, that you have to stop and stroll through the village with white houses leaning against ocher cliffs. These 300-meter-long orange monoliths emerge from the depths, forming like immense scales, a kingdom of raptors and small migratory birds. To designate them, we end up saying “the Riglos”, like José Andres Pintado, guardian of the refuge, who uses the greedy metaphor of nougat: “ Almonds are pebbles, and caramel is cement. “ Geologists speak of “pudding”.
A sedimentary rock agglomerating round pebbles and reminiscent of a man-made building, mixing stones, mortar and clayey earth. A curiosity that leaves no one indifferent. The first time you see these flaming walls from the road, you are struck, dumbfounded. We even wonder if they are real. Once the first stupors have passed, we try to understand how this baroque landscape has stood the test of time, and, from different points of view, we still try to approach or move away from it.
A winter garden
We first choose to bypass the mallos by following the Camino del Cielo (“the path to heaven”), a marked path starting from the village. The route winds between pines and holm oaks before arriving at the Espinalba belvedere. From above, the formation of the ancient plateau carved out by the Rio Gallego appears, and we can measure the erosion sculpted over the millennia. You can also see the hidden sides of the Pison and the famous Puro (“cigar”). An elegant cigar-shaped needle, therefore, whose first ascent, carried out by Manuel Bescós, Angel Lopez Martinez and Alberto Rabada, dates back to 1953. At that time, climbing was still practiced with hemp ropes, wedges of wood and pitons. Today climbers come from all over the world and the Riglos are their winter garden.
At the start of November, everyone is still climbing in a T-shirt. It is very hot, the sun is beating on the walls. Two climbers have just completed a route located in the Mallo Frechín, 180 meters of climbing on a confusing, even intimidating rock. “ We wonder how to approach these curves, we try to grab hold of the holds when it is sometimes enough to put your hand on a big “potato”. [nom donné aux gros galets], to wrap your arm in it to recover ”, one of them confides. This climb is demanding, but everyone who climbs the Riglos will come back to it. Like Arko, who lives in his truck and comes here every winter. He is one-legged, coming out of an extremely difficult passage. “I climb with my small size and my arms”, specifies, with a smile, the one who has just crossed a series of overhangs.
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