Arona three peaks

Peaks: Roque del Conde (1003m), Roque Imoche (1113m), Roque de los Brezos (1115m)
Area: Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands
A very intensive 72 hours on Tenerife, my first ever visit to the Canary Islands. I'd thought about it as a winter venue for a while, but saw Teide poking through the clouds from my flight to West Africa last November, and pledged to visit as soon as possible. This micro-trip cost less than £50 return from Manchester and was perfect distance/climb training, conceived as such. After a night not too far from the airport, in an isolated finca in the hills above Arona, I drove to the hamlet of Vento at first light - 7am. My plans were all quite specific, with only three days at my disposal, so I set off running towards Roque del Conde with a low sun lighting the entire landscape in a truly beautiful honeyed glow - various cacti species lending the scene a characteristic sub-tropical foreground. All three of these peaks are distinctive, quite different from each other, and all notable features of the southern Tenerife landscape (I could see them from my room in the moonlight last night). It was beautifully clear as I took the contouring path on the Atlantic side of Roque del Conde, before it heads straight up through bands of rock to gain the plateau-like summit - reminded me of South Africa at times. A small flock of canaries as I jogged to the true summit, less than an hour from Vento, feeling fresh, a good start. Stunning views, still before 8am, with Teide dominating, clouds starting to boil up from the Atlantic, and a dramatic contrast between the beautiful interior and the overdeveloped urban coast. A small path, initially hard to find, then allowed for a wonderful traverse through the northern crags of Conde to take a direct line towards Roque Imoque. This was stunning, picking a running line through, cacti and local flora everywhere, with some surprisingly good scrambling, to eventually gain the broad col. From here, the little path joins the main GR131 and heads up towards Roque Imoque: this is a very impressive pyramidal peak, the Matterhorn of the Canaries, with only one real weakness. I decided to try to the obvious eastern ridge, ploughing up through the undergrowth to gain some good scrambling. The summit pyramid was too sheer from this side, though, so I dropped off the ridge and traversed round to eventually pick up a small path from the Brezos col. This follows a shallow spur to gain the weakness on the inland face of Imoque - an easy groove, then two short walls (around grade II) gains a small summit, a wonderful spot with tremendous views on all sides. A fine peak. Then, fast running down the spur to a col with a 'threshing circle' (and a berthelot's pipit!) on it, and a very quick ascent of the final peak, Brezos. This throws down a series of excellent-looking crags to the east and is a double-headed peak. Back to the col, now under cloudier skies, then all the way along the GR131 skirting Imoque and turning north below Roque del Conde back to my car in Vento. Then it was way up into the cold and mist at Vilaflor, the highest village on the island, for a lunch of Canarian chickpea stew.