An Extended Winter
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| Team Crush and friends |
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| Brruurrrr... |
We all ran up some pleasant easier lines to warm up giving me a chance to use my new rope - unfortunately I made the school boy error of not uncoiling it and so ended up with the mother of all knots to untie before I could actually climb. Eventually it was sorted and we could finally get to the hard climbing. The first thing we looked to was a short but strenuous 7b which took a funky line and finished right in the centre of the roof. I watched a couple of people try it and then pulled on. The first clip was about 40ft up and even though the climbing was very easy it was still a massive relief to reach it. I entered the main section of climbing and with it being my first difficult sport climb for months, I felt extremely intimidated as I hauled through over gripping everything and only just did it. As I reached the chain I was ecstatic, it was far from the hardest thing I had climbed but probably the biggest adrenaline rush I’d ever had.
The next thing I tried was a very pumpy and tiring 7b+ up the centre of the cave. I did it and was happy to match my hardest flash so early in the trip.
One of the climbs I wanted to try was the 7c “The Eye of The Storm”. The climb, as was its reputation, was extremely 3 dimensional and disorientating. Most of the holds were jugs but you were swinging around all over the place and getting heel and toe hooks everywhere to support your body as it took a line straight through the horizontal roof. Spurred on by Alex’s impressive on-sight of the route, I reached the last move but unable to see the finishing hold I ran out of steam and fell. Frustrated that I had come so close to finishing it but happy at my performance, I was psyched to get back on. I finished the day by climbing the classic of the crag which it gets its name from, the awesome 7a “Poema De Roca” which follows a line of tufas and stalactites to finish on some draining sloper moves.
The next day we headed to Desplomilandia, a spread out area but with fantastic climbing nonetheless. Several of us had our eye on a classic 8a at an area called El Triangulo. We warmed up on a nice 6c and some tried an awful looking 7a which I don’t think anyone actually did.
Next Jonny and I got on the hardest 7a+ in existence – it had a massive pull through on a mono at the start - WTF! We moved on to the lesser of the two 8a’s on the crag and Alex pulled on, he put in a fantastic effort releasing a few power screams and then fell on a awkward move right at the top. To his dismay he found this to be the last difficult move of the route and was furious at coming so close to on-sighting 8a. Johnny and I both tried it but were not psyched for the route so we let Alex try again and this time he did it!
Our attention was then drawn to a 7b that Gracie and Tash were trying. The climbing was not too hard until the very last move which was a massive jump from a rubbish peanut shaped hold up to a jug. I did it and found it to be a very enjoyable route if quite frustrating as the last move was very droppable.
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Finally we moved onto the classic 8a, I had seen Amanda trying some of the moves on and it looked amazing. Pockets and tufas on a constant over hang, brilliant! I gave it a go, working the moves and it was even better than it had looked from the ground. 
The day was coming to a close and I had time for one redpoint attempt. Alex put in another impressive climb and had flashed it, this had got me Psyched. I climbed smoothly and felt good, I was getting pumped but I managed to pull through what was for me the crux, you got a good 2 finger pocket, reached up into a sloper and then had to slap up a tufa with your left hand. I moved my feet up and fell across into another pocket. Suddenly I realised that I was going to do it, the climbing above was easier and I was confident on it. I placed my feet on some poor foot holds and reached up to clip…... ping. I fell most of the height of the crag because of all the slack out for clipping but I didn’t even notice. I was absolutely fuming at myself for having such a stupid thing deny me the route. I vowed that we must return so that the route could be done.
And then the rain came... We had a solid 24 hours of rain; I didn’t even know that was possible in the south of Spain! We kept the psyche up with climbing films and batman and planned the next day’s climbing.
We were now over half way through the trip and so we wanted to head to another classic crag called Makinodromo. As with most of the rock in Spain it looked incredible but the difference was that this crag had one of the best 8a’s in the whole of Europe on it “Lourdes”. The only downside of this crag was reaching it. There were three options:
through the gorge,
over the gorge, or
through the train tunnels.
Through the tunnels was definitely the fastest but risked a 2000 euro fine and no one was to keen to pay that. The gorge and the walk over it were meant to take about the same time but some friends had told us that due to the rain the river was too high and you could not get across it once through the gorge. Over the top it was then. At this point most the adults split off and decided to walk the gorge anyway as all the climbing at Makinodromo was hard and they would have had nothing to do. I’m sure most people have had an experience when walking of trying to get somewhere but it never seeming to get any closer. This was one of those times; the hill seemed endless and most of the climbing was on scree slopes so you went one step forward and slipped back 2. After about an hour of gruelling walking and getting lost as the path seemed to disappear, we reached the top. Our happiness at conquering what we all agreed must have been a mountain was very short lived as by reaching the top it revealed that we were in fact only half way to the crag. Fortunately the walk back down was far more pleasant and as a result much faster. As the rock came into view we were all psyched but the pitter patter of water droplets on the ground told me not to get my hopes up. We reached Makinodromo only to find that it was like a shower, every tufa on the entire rock was seeping making it completely unclimbable. Sad that no climbing could be done we chilled out on the boulders below reluctant to have to walk back over the hill.
Undeterred we headed back across it using the wire to attach at any points where the path was particularly dodgy. On one bit, the adults had found the wire had snapped down to just a few strands over a bit where the walkway had gone completely and you had to traverse the rock. Bravely my dad had set a rope up across it to make it safe for everyone. We all got across safely and carried on. A couple of weeks later we actually discovered that this piece of wire had snapped and a man had gone plummeting the full 350ft into the water below.
Astonishingly they had survived with just a broken arm; I guess it just wasn’t their time. The rest of the walk went smoothly and the views were beyond anything I have ever seen before. At the end of the walk there was a small flat wall and as we had done no climbing that day we were desperate to do something, so we all did a great 7a+ and whilst waiting for Alex and Jonny to try a vert dirt 8a we campussed along the train bridge.
The final day had come and there was only one place that I was going - back to Desplomilandia to finish the 8a at El Triangulo. Jonny, Amanda and I started up towards it whilst everyone else headed to a different area. Yet more rain had come in the night and we were worried that the route would not be climbable. Our fears were confirmed as we saw Pete Dawson and the rest of the South West Team heading down from the crag; they informed us that it was soaked and would not be climbed today. Gutted, we turned around and went to join the others. Their area was also wet making most of the classic routes there unclimbable. There was a severe lack of motivation in the group who were depressed by the weather stopping them trying what they wanted. We huddled under the overhang out of the rain, ate food and looked sad. Some people tried a 7b that was mostly dry but when Sarah fell off and hit the ground with only Flo to break her fall, most were even hesitant to get on that. As bad as it sounds it was quite fortunate that Flo took most of the impact from Sarah as neither of them had any serious damage and that may not have been the case had she not been there.
That’s about it for the year so far, I know it’s been a lengthy one so good effort if you have made it to the end. I have a few projects planned for this year so hopefully the training will pay off and I will have something else to write a blog about. Until then……..
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Eventually we got the best news of the day from the other party that the river through the gorge was in fact passable and that we could go back through the gorge rather than the way we came. We scampered down the hill side to meet up with them and eventually saw them across the chasm and then we saw what must be crossed to reach them. 
An ancient rusty bridge barely 4 feet wide with no hand rails, cautiously we crept across it one by one unable to avoid looking at the 350ft drop below to the raging torrent that had crafted the gorge over millions of years.
An ancient rusty bridge barely 4 feet wide with no hand rails, cautiously we crept across it one by one unable to avoid looking at the 350ft drop below to the raging torrent that had crafted the gorge over millions of years.
The gorge walkway was built about a hundred years ago for the king of Spain simply because he wanted to see the gorge. (That’s when you know you have too much power right?) Anyway, it has not been kept in good condition and so all the metal work has rusted and the concrete has huge holes in it everywhere you look. As a result it is technically off limits to the general public because of how many lives it has claimed.
Undeterred we headed back across it using the wire to attach at any points where the path was particularly dodgy. On one bit, the adults had found the wire had snapped down to just a few strands over a bit where the walkway had gone completely and you had to traverse the rock. Bravely my dad had set a rope up across it to make it safe for everyone. We all got across safely and carried on. A couple of weeks later we actually discovered that this piece of wire had snapped and a man had gone plummeting the full 350ft into the water below. 
Astonishingly they had survived with just a broken arm; I guess it just wasn’t their time. The rest of the walk went smoothly and the views were beyond anything I have ever seen before. At the end of the walk there was a small flat wall and as we had done no climbing that day we were desperate to do something, so we all did a great 7a+ and whilst waiting for Alex and Jonny to try a vert dirt 8a we campussed along the train bridge.
Day 5, more rain had come in the night and so we decided to play it safe and return to the Poema de Roca cave as it was dry in the rain and did not seep. Alex and I took a detour and did a classic multi pitch called Amptrax. It was just 6a so it was not difficult but the climbing was amazing and the views even better. Once we had abseiled back down we rejoined the others at the cave. I returned once again to “The Eye of the Storm” and this time knowing the Beta I did it, as did Tara getting her hardest outdoor grade, good effort! To finish off the day I did a 7b and a 7a which were both very enjoyable, annoyingly I fell off right at the top of the 7a due to a damp hold, more cautious the second time, I did it comfortably.
The final day had come and there was only one place that I was going - back to Desplomilandia to finish the 8a at El Triangulo. Jonny, Amanda and I started up towards it whilst everyone else headed to a different area. Yet more rain had come in the night and we were worried that the route would not be climbable. Our fears were confirmed as we saw Pete Dawson and the rest of the South West Team heading down from the crag; they informed us that it was soaked and would not be climbed today. Gutted, we turned around and went to join the others. Their area was also wet making most of the classic routes there unclimbable. There was a severe lack of motivation in the group who were depressed by the weather stopping them trying what they wanted. We huddled under the overhang out of the rain, ate food and looked sad. Some people tried a 7b that was mostly dry but when Sarah fell off and hit the ground with only Flo to break her fall, most were even hesitant to get on that. As bad as it sounds it was quite fortunate that Flo took most of the impact from Sarah as neither of them had any serious damage and that may not have been the case had she not been there.
Finally, we realised that we needed to get in gear as sitting around was achieving nothing. Some of us headed up the hill to find some more rock whilst the others stayed and tried to get the 7b done. We found some great 6c’s to try and they raised our spirits massively.
Feeling optimistic again I wandered back to the 8a to see for myself what condition it was in. I found it in fact to be mostly dry and thought that it would be climbable after all. Jonny and I grabbed the gear and went to give it a go quickly as the day was coming to an end. I dogged up it to put in the clips in and did my best to dry the damp holds. Jonny got on and passed his previous high point but on reaching the holds I had tried to clean found them still too damp to clip from, unable to continue he fell. Then it was my turn. I climbed well until about a third of the way up, my foot popped, I managed to hold on but it had shaken me up. I continued but I climbed badly, I was over gripping and I got very pumped, I reached the crux and in my panic forgot where to place my feet, I put them in completely the wrong place and fell. I wasn’t angry this time, just sad that we were out of time and the trip was over, neither of us had time for another go and so we left the crag feeling the same as when we had got there, depressed. The others in the end had in fact all managed the 7b which was a very good effort given the conditions.
All in all it had been a good trip, the weather had somewhat dampened our spirits but everyone had got some good ticks and it had been a great time with a bunch of friends.
A huge THANK YOU goes to Mark Pashley for organising and booking the trip – much appreciated J
The CWIF
The following weekend was the Climbing Works International Festival or the CWIF. It is a great competition which uses a world bouldering cup format for the semis and finals but it’s open for everyone. It attracts over 350 entries and so despite The Works being a massive bouldering wall it was still very crowded. For qualification there are 30 problems ranging from very easy, f3+ ish to very hard f7c ish. It’s great to have a competition where you can climb against some of the best climbers in the world and I think this is part of the attraction - along with maybe the hefty cash prize.
The competition is very hard so I didn’t expect to come anywhere; nevertheless I was happy with my climbing and thoroughly enjoyed it. In the end I got 156 points which was enough to come somewhere between nowhere near qualifying and really nowhere near qualifying? However the girls put in some great performances and soTara, Gracie and Sarah all reached the semis with Tash missing out by just one point. The semis and the finals were awesome to watch. I look forward to the competition again next year.
Easter Holidays, so far
As the Easter holidays arrived and I planned to try and do a lot of outdoor climbing. Sadly the ridiculous weather has turned the start of spring into a continuation of winter and so the Peak District is currently under 1–10ft of snow making any sort of climbing difficult. Despite this I have manage to get out to the Plantation once for a bit f bouldering. I quickly did “Captain Hook” a cool 7b which follows round the lip of a low roof before a difficult mantel over the roof’s nose. After that I gave “Deliverance” a go but being a slightly height dependant climb it could be a while before that goes. After that I went and worked “Jerry’s Traverse”. It is a super classic boulder and as the guidebook states “a rite of passage for climbers”. Psyched I gave it a go and after a lot of sour skin and frustration, I had manage to do it in 2 sections. I hope to do that next trip when I’m a bit fresher. Just as I was thinking of leaving the sun decided to put in an appearance as did Tara! So I stuck around for a while and gave a disgusting slab ago with her for a while before may skin decided it was time to go home.
That’s about it for the year so far, I know it’s been a lengthy one so good effort if you have made it to the end. I have a few projects planned for this year so hopefully the training will pay off and I will have something else to write a blog about. Until then……..
