DOPAMINA. Bustamante Needle

Climbing routes Directory Fuente Dé area

The Dopamina route is known for the beautiful crack on its last pitch. Although the route is about 250 m long, we usually climb only the last two pitches either:

  • Ascending directly form the east side.
  • Climbing the Palacio de Invierno route beforehand. It becomes this way a much more elegant route than the original, and one of the best medium-difficulty routes in the Fuente Dé area.

As for the last two pitches :

  • The first of these (V+) is a dihedral that can be well-protected with friends.
  • The final crack is a beautiful and hard pitch. The first part is a finger jam, an intermediate rest, and a second part of hand jaming (overhanging!!). It's a good  idea to take a set of friends and repeat numbers 0,75 and 1 of Camalot, and the yellow alien. If very tight regarding the grade, take a lot of friends...

The initial part of Dopamina isn't very attractive due to its poor rock, but it must be said that the second pitch of the route is another beatiful and compact crack. If you're a "collector", a good option to climb this route is to do the first two pitches of Dopamina, and exit on the last pitch of Palacio de invierno

FACT SHEET

LENGTH

About 250 m

DIFFICULTY

6c+ (6a obl)

DURATION

3-5h

EQUIPMENT

Nuts and a set of friends up to nº 3 of Camalot (Repeat yellow Alien and Camalot 0.75 and 1)

DESCENT

Abseil down the north fork (exactly 30 m). Then, downclimb until getting to the scree.

FIRST ASCENT

J.Sáenz, E. Barón and Á.Bengoechea in July of 1992*

*Source : Climbing guidebook "Escalada en Roca en los Picos de Europa"

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