Puig Campana - Arestotles

Overall Aristotles is a beautiful adventure on Puig Campana, arguably one of the best multi-pitch climbing locations in Europe for long, low to mid grade trad climbs. This route weaves a reasonably easy line up the impressive western arete to the top of the aguja encantada or enchanted needle. Referred to as Arista Aristóteles or Aristotle's edge, the route can be done in as few as 7 pitches or as many as 13 if staying in communication range is important to the party. Longer pitches will make it more enjoyable and faster. There is little fixed gear on the route, some bolted stances and some old pitons as well as a number of fixed threads. However a full rack is recommended as many of the threads and pitons are looking tired in 2026. Finger tape is also handy, because the sharp limestone will almost certainly draw blood at some point(s). The climbing only has two pitches graded V and the harder sections on these are short. The route ends with a short 10m then longer 60m abseil or the pepsi crest offers a 150m continuation to a different abseil finish from the mediterranean pillar. It’s hard not to compare the route to Espolon Central nearby. Aristotle's is much less consistent in grade and although some guides give it the Very Severe grade, it’s probably an easier undertaking overall, because many pitches have little difficulty. That said, routefinding is more complex on Aristotels.

The Route Topography

This is the route Arestotles on Puig Campana in Alicante, Spain. It represents 340m of Limestone rock climbing, usually over 9 pitches, of a max grade of HS 4b. Clicking the image will load the full screen high resolution Arestotles climb topo.

Original Image: our own image

Approach & Descent Information

Approach: From the roadside parking (38.5817212,-0.21224546), cross the road and take the trail (lower parking joins this trail 5mins further up). Follow this trail and ideally take the correct right fork (a discrete climbers path, sometimes marked with cairns) towards the main face. The path leads over some short terraced walls past a completely white faded sign and eventually to the face of the Aristotles climb, marked with Arest in red with an arrow. Allow 35min or more from the roadside car park, perhaps 50mins from the main trails car park.
Descent: Bringing cord to back up the abseils and / or threads is recommended. The main cord connecting the 2 newer bolts had the sheath degraded and core exposed. We backed this up with a new 6mm thread (Jan 2026) but thin-thread has a short safe lifespan, so bring your own.There is also a cord on a nearby thread so it does have ample redundancy.
The total abseil is just under 70m; however don't attempt it in one with a 70m rope because the pull angle won't work, the rope will get pinched and significant shenanigans will be needed to free it. Instead do the short 10m abseil to the newer rings in the col between the pillars and then do a 60m abseil to the ground. From here you can scramble down. We went over the notch in the small ridge on the left when facing out (which has a cord based anchor and maillon in situ) and onto the other side before descending on the left via the rope assisted path. From here we kept moving left and away from Aristotles until we reached a main path that allowed us to walk back past the base of the route and reverse the approach.

See Puig Campana on the climb map Open climb location in Google Maps

Pitch By Pitch Information

Note on the grade: Graded VS in the mountain adventures Costa blanca guide and V (five) in the Escalades en Alacante guide, but Hard Severe on UKC, this route is perhaps the only time I've thought maybe the grade Mild Very Severe (used mainly by lake district climbers) might be helpful. VS is perhaps a bit generous as protection is very good, the rock is sound and much less loose than other 350m climbs and the harder grade V moves are limited to a small section on pitch 2 protected by a ring bolt and a few meters of delicate slab near the top, with 3 pitons and some natural gear options making it feel more HS overall. There are plenty of variations to push the grade higher for those interested, including the Espolon Finestrat start or the Vincent M. Sellés variation instead of the traverse or the Via Elise Hector variation from the ledge. All in the V to 6a+ range.

Pitch 1 –38m IV Start where Arest is painted on the rock in red and climb up though the notch, moving up and right then back left to a good ledge with thread belays on a grey slab. The ring bolt protecting the crux of the climb can be seen in the orange left leaning crack 10m above this first belay.
Pitch 2 –50m V Move up to the ledge above and tackle the crux crack (orange limestone, left leaning) protected by the chunky ring bolt, following it as the difficulty of the pitch eases and trends right to reach a ledge with 2 options and arrows scratched / rubbed into the wall: MS (for Vincent M. Sellés) pointing up and A (for Aristotles) pointing right.
Pitch 3 –18m IV Traverse right to a wire thread (in 2026) and then up and slightly left to a thread on a small awkward stance where a belay can be made. It's possible/recommended to link the next pitch depending on rope drag. By over protecting the surprisingly easy traverse the awkward belay was the best option on our ascent.
Pitch 4 –28m IV+Go onto the block and move right into a small niche, then climb up the rounded rib, trending a little left then a little right to reach a two bolt stance.
Pitch 5 –45m III+ Climb straight up on increasing easy terrain until reaching the large ledge (optional belay). Move to the back of this while trending right and create a belay on the back wall a couple of meters left of an obvious easy gully with trees above it.
Pitch 6 –40m IV+ Move up the gully briefly 5 or so meters, before moving onto the steeper left wall. Climb this aiming to be above the previous belay on the ledge. There is an optional interim belay here, otherwise carry on trending up and left to a stance below a grey slab with a pair of bolts below-and-left from the slab under a small overhang. The letter A with an arrow pointing to the slab, should be prominently scratched at the stance.
Routefinding Note: If you you go too far up the gully and make a stance at a ledge on the left wall, it might be tempting to climb up to the obvious slings and hardware on a grey pinnacle attached on the left side to the orange wall. Don't. It's isolated and you will need to lower or abseil back down this.
Pitch 7 –25m V It’s possible to link pitches 7 & 8 here. 7 is a lovely pitch. Climb onto the slab (gear options) then up to the piton. The pitch goes up trending slightly right (2 pitons) to avoid the overlap which is passed on the right. After this the route moves back left to a belay or carry on into the next pitch.
Pitch 8 –35m IV Climb up and left to a piton. Traverse left from here onto the arete. Climb up the rib with great moves and great views to a thread belay or higher bolted belay. A more direct line up the middle may be IV+ or V with the easier route weaving right around a slab before the bolt.
Pitch 9 –55m IV Move straight up the rib to the top where easier moves lead to the belay to bolts with rings, one backed up by a thread and an old abseil bolt with maillons (as of 2026) on the far side of the peak. This pitch can easily be divided into two if desired by creating a belay at a ledge along the way.

References & additional links

The following links will take you to external websites specifically related to this climb: Arestotles on Puig Campana.
Note: They contained relevant information at the time of publishing.

Climb Info: Spanish topo

Climb Info: Great topo of Espolon Finestrat variation

Climb Info: Spanish Guide

Climb Info: Spanish Guide with some mistakes (length, grades, line etc)