Road Trip Part 2

To start with this blog is a bit late due to the lack of decent Wi-Fi in the second half of the road trip. Despite this I will continue on from where I left off.

Ego Centrismo 7c

So after a rest day of slack lining, blog writing etc, we returned to Ego Centrismo for the early afternoon.  We started on a cool 7a+ then I went for the on-sight of the 7c which is the sector’s name sake.  At about half height at this sector the rock type changed and from my experience on previous climbs at the sector the climbs became easier when reaching the higher rock type as it became more angular and juggy.  This climb looked to be no exception.  It begins full on with essentially a campus move off an insecure finger stack.  After this it’s sustained on crimps for a few clips, I had a bit of a scare crossing over into what looked to be a flat jug only to find it very sloping, fortunately as I fell away from the wall I bumped my hand again to find a good pocket at the back that saved me.  Trying to relax on a good hold I looked up at the next blank section of rock, the only hold was a good looking pocket high up, unwilling to go for it because I knew I was near the easier climbing of the upper section I attempted to lock it down and static for the pocket despite knowing the move would be easier as a dead point.  Tickling the bottom of the hold I fell away from the wall. Pulling back on and adding some dynamics to the move it was easy, as was the rest of the route. Cursing myself for such a stupid mistake I did the climb second go comfortably.



Alex on Les Cadres Regeneren 8a

Alex then finished the 8a he had tried here last time and then as the sun came round onto the rock we headed for Gran Boveda with the intention of getting ourselves pumped out our minds for training.  On arriving we found the 8a we wanted to get on, Coloseum, had a permanent queue. Instead we opted for another 8a to the left.  Alex tried it first and after battling with a sustained tougher section he was defeated by a big move into an undercut crack that frustratingly was just too small to allow you to properly get your fingers into.  He worked the climb to the top then I tried.  I didn’t enjoy the climbing and found myself not wanting to continue.  Demotivated for that climb and only really psyched to have another go at Coloseum which still had a long queue I decided to sack it off for the evening and belayed Alex a couple of times until he managed it.

For our final day in Rodellar, we both agreed we should return to El Delphin and finish of the impressive climb through the arch.  But first we decided to check out Bikini another of the morning crags there.  First we got on a 7a+ with the intention of warming up, it was nails and terrible.  Hoping this would not be a trend for the crag Alex tried a short 8b which was also terrible.  Concluding that this was an awful sector we left for El Delphin.  After trekking up the scree slope to the base of the arch I decided to go first in the hope of finishing it quickly so we could get on the other impressive climbing in the huge cave of Las Ventannas.  Again I did the first section easily as it is a line of sharp jugs.  Moving higher into the harder climbing I reach the final crux boulder problem to escape the intimidating roof you are on.  Annoyingly I fell from the same move as I had before.  Alex was up next and managed it.  After a short rest chatting to some Americans I tried again, I reached the crux feeling more tired than before but despite this managed to catch the small undercut that I had fallen off going for on my previous attempts.  Thinking the climb was done I slapped straight for the massive spike jutting out which marks a sit down rest and easy climbing to the top, forgetting an intermediate and with how tired I was I pealed off the slopy top of the spike and fell again.  More rested this time I again reached the crux boulder but was really quite pumped and felt even more tired despite resting longer, the big move up to the undercut threw me off yet again.  Frustrated now at how tired I felt and the shrinking window of time I had to finish the climb I began to think I would not finish it.  Finally after an even longer rest and a slightly altered hand position to try and make the move easier plus feeling psyched after watching Alex on sight Made in Mascun 7c+ I went for what would have to be my last attempt before time ran out.  Again reaching the crux I was very tired and assumed I was not going to manage it.  The changed hand position made the move quiet a lot easier and even though I was tired after four goes that day on the climb and ruined skin from the sharp jugs below, I just managed the move to the undercut, with nothing left in the tank I new I would not be able to have the precision to hit the small slot intermediate.  In desperation I slapped for the spike again, catching it better than before I held it in a crucifix position, let out a pathetic cry then grovelled my way onto the spike and sat there hugging the rock panting.  The hardest I’ve had to fight on a route and the most attempts something has taken me and I later found out to my dismay that it was low in the grade!

The next morning we left Rodellar behind and headed into Lleida.  Reaching the campsite we chilled in the pool for a while then went to check if Terradets would be climbable in the evening.  It was far too hot so we decided we would have to get up for an early morning session tomorrow.  We got to Terradets nowhere near as early as we intended and although the rock was in the shade it was still muggy and humid.  We did a 7a+ which we both nearly fell off the start of due to the warm rock making everything greasy.  Alex then tried an 8a there but after feeling bit odd in the morning I realised that somehow in 30 degree Spain I’d managed to get a cold!  This as well as the poor condition of the rock was enough for me to decide that it wasn’t worth climbing anymore.  Alex persevered but the greasiness was taking its toll and he was frustrated at how hard the climbing felt.  Not helped by the fact there was a bat in one of the route’s crucial holds.  Even after multiple attempts Alex couldn’t do the climb, so we left feeling a bit miserable and headed to our next campsite near Tres Ponts which we had more hope for since it is actually a summer crag unlike Terradets and most of the other climbing in Lleida.

Tres Ponts can only be climbed in the afternoon when the suns left the rock so we had a chilled morning in which I went for a swim to relax then we headed off to climb.  We started on a fantastic 7b that neither of us could work out quiet why it was so good but both unanimously agreed it was brilliant.  Then Alex – still desperately trying for an 8a on-sight tried an 8a which extended off a 7c to add some very thin mildly overhanging and slab climbing.  The small crimps suited him and finally after a lot of moaning that he would never on-sight 8a, reached the top of the 40m climb.  Psyched I gave it a go, I immediately fell off the first crux at the start still feeling very ill from my cold but after figuring it out I was more focused on the climbing and I forgot about feeling ill.  I climbed clean through to the top of the 7c and through the crux of the 8a before falling on a huge reach up into a bad undercut on nearly my full extension that felt very thin and droppable.  After figuring the top out I was happy with how it went and was psyched for my next go.  However the moment I stopped climbing and was not focused I felt very ill again and it took me a long time to recover to feel ready again and with how long the climb was it was becoming very time consuming to attempt the route.  Pulling back on again I felt terrible and fell off the start crux again.  Losing hope as I thought myself to be too ill I lowered down and tried again, this time I just managed it and as I got more in to the climbing I forgot about feeling ill again and could get on with the climbing.  I made a mess of the upper crux of the 7c but managed to get through it. I got to the 8a bit feeling quite tired but I went for it.  Almost all the moves felt like I was going to fall off the bad hand and foot holds as I just about pulled between them.  I got through the crux and the big move up to the undercut and reached some jugs.  Coming out of my bubble I suddenly found myself feeling ill again and very thirsty, concerned as I looked up at the relatively easy but still droppable section I thought that my loss of focus would cost me the route.  Fortunately as I got back into harder climbing I regained my focus and tentatively made my way to the chains.  After so long resting and so long on the lengthy route we were running out of time that day, Alex had a quick go on another 8a then we finished off.

Our final day climbing in Spain, we returned to Tres Ponts and again did the 7b to warm and were both disappointed that the moves didn’t feel nearly as interesting as before.  Next up we were looking at an impressive 8a line called El Segre.  However there were two other climbs spanning from the 7c+ start of El Segre that went through a big overhang. An 8a+ going of left from the 7c+ section was recommended to us so we decided to try that instead. Alex went first and as it was a 55m route and the top half was flat with good rests every few clips it took 40 minutes before Alex reached the top again on sight.  I was psyched and went for it but on reaching the crux of the 7c+ I tried to use a terrible intermediate on one of the crux moves and got myself stuck.  I pulled back on and used an odd sequence which involved getting a knee bar and keeping it in for 4 moves and twisting it upwards as you moved to hold you into the wall.  After that it was enjoyable jug climbing to the 7c+ chain and then immediately changed to grim sharp crimp climbing for a couple of clips which was not enjoyable.  By this point I decided just to go clip to clip to work the moves but the weather had other ideas, I could see a storm was closing in as horrendously loud thunder echoed through the gorge.  Trying to reach the top before the rain came I set off as quickly as possible going by any means but on reaching the 8a lower off the rain caught me and I was faced by another 15m of 8a+ on flat rock whilst having rain pound down on me.  Somewhat worried I kept going trying to focus on delicate moves but instead just getting very wet and wondering how likely it was that lightning above would strike me whilst having about twenty metal clips hanging off me as a conductor.  Just one clip away from the top I thought it was over only to be confronted by a sloping shelf which with no other holds around it I would have to mantel it.  Ordinarily this would not be too bad but the fact that there was a small river pouring off it was making it a bit more difficult.  I flung a heel hook up which immediately slipped back off, replacing it a bit more carefully it just about stuck, I thrutched my way onto the shelf and then massively relieved reached the top only to find myself even more exposed to the rain.  Not fancying threading in the current conditions I lowered off and stripped it as quickly as possible.  Although it was a brilliant route the weather had made it difficult to enjoy the climbing.  Looking at the time we realised it had taken us over 4 hours to do two routes each and needing to leave for our next campsite we walked out in the rain and made a break for the van in order to head off for our overnight stop before reaching Ceuse.

I’ll leave this one there for now and finish off the trip in one last blog in a week or so.

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Road Trip Part 1 - Turbulent Waters

 



Pizza!!

On the 23^rd of June I met up with Alex and Phil Waterhouse in Cambridge for a month long Road Trip across northern Spain and up to Ceuse via various crags on the way.  We were seriously psyched for crushing the European rock and getting some awesome ticks.  Alex and I poured over guide books searching for the ideal areas and routes to get on.  However before any of that there was the small matter of actually getting there!  Queue a 36 hour ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao in northwest Spain. That being a particularly exciting prospect, we loaded ourselves up with pizza and boarded the ferry ready for a non-to-entertaining journey.  Half hoping for a sketchy crossing to spice it up a bit, we encountered nothing more than some mildly turbulent waters on the first night. After exhausting the limited entertainment, we had to resort to partaking in Bingo (it was very dull okay and even bingo sounded entertaining) to no avail we even did a quiz in which I discovered I have an unwanted knowledge of songs from my mum’s questionable music collection: Kate Bush, Shakespeare Sisters, Abba etc.

 



The Huge Baltzola Cave

Eventually we reached Spain and the first stop was Baltzola cave.  Unfortunately it isn’t a very well documented climbing area and so we couldn’t find it in any guide books.  So after a couple hours of searching Bilbao for some sort of information we managed to find a rough GPS coordinate for it.  We set off and surprisingly found it relatively easily.  Now, when you think of a cave you may think of a large hole with a limited amount of climbing in it mostly bouldering height, like Parisellas maybe?  This place is on an entirely different scale to anything I have seen before.  It has in excess of 300 routes in it from 6b to 9a and towers over a colossal area from completely blank roofs to overhangs covered completely in stalactites.  However we still had no guide book and there were no locals to ask about the routes.  As a result we found a cool looking line and gave it a go whilst Phil went off to try and find more info about the crag and potential campsites for the next couple of days. The route turned out to be hard and after working it we figured out the beta and found that a knee bar pad was very beneficial for the upper section.  After a few goes Alex managed it  and although I was getting close one move in the middle of a poor crimp/pinch and a heel hook was stumping me as a kept missing the wide pinch that you had to grab as you fell away from the wall.

Eventually some Spanish climbers turned up and informed us that the route was an 8a called Blandiju confirming our suspicions of the grade.  Alex then wanted to try an 8a+ called Iluminatis, at the other end of the cave.  He worked the moves and thought it do-able and second go managed to latch both huge dynamic moves on the route and clip the chain - Effort!  Finally before leaving I fancied the look of what I thought was a 7b next to Alex’s 8a+.  It felt pretty steady except one section on a poor sloping pod that required a high heel hook to hold you into the wall whilst matching the poor sloper to gain more positive holds above.  I reached the last chain relatively easily and then moving into the last couple of moves which went into a hole in the roof.  Concerningly the route became extremely thin at this point and although I could see a huge juggy fin not far away it was still way out of my reach and there seemed to be little in the way of holds to get to it.  After a fair bit of procrastinating I went for it and dropped it due to the fact I had no idea how to negotiate the lack of holds.  Eventually I discovered two knee bars, the first being quite positive whilst the second was horrendous and relied totally on friction and felt as if it would slip at any moment.  Despite this I had to put my full weight onto it and trust it to reach the finishing holds and top out.  To my relief the locals then told me the route was in fact 7b to the last draw and the grim thrutchy finish I had fallen on in fact boosted the grade to 7c!  Calling it a day we headed for the campsite.

The next day I succeeded on both routes the 7c second go and the 8a fourth red point, worryingly on the actual ascent of the 8a I went to use the crux crimp/pinch only to find it was soaking wet, quickly reassessing my options I managed to complete the move using a slightly higher and even poorer pinch, relieved I managed to keep it together to the top.  Alex also did the 7c and then set about working another 8a+ which followed a line of stalactites through the heart of the cave.  Despite the good attempts he didn’t manage it that day. Returning the following day for Alex to finish of the 8a+ he finally succeeded. Happy with what we had managed there we headed off for the next destination - Rodellar.

 

As it was a pretty long drive anyway between the two crags we decided to go the slightly longer and more scenic route via Riglos a huge multi pitch destination of conglomerate rock. Its impressive size made for an interesting drive and eventually we arrived at our destination for the next week.  

 

 

 

Rodellar is impressive because of the sheer amount of world class climbing in such a small area.  It is a gorge so it is perfect for summer as you spend the morning on one side then switch to the other side as the sun reaches you so you can climb in the shade all day to avoid the heat.  There are twenty plus sectors in just the area we were in all within a 30 minute walk from the campsite.  

 

First stop was El Camino which is one of the first sectors you come across and largely used as the warm up crag.  We got on a 7b to warm up then Phil decided he would have a go on a 6a+.  The polish and unfamiliar rock proved to make the climb much harder than predicted and sadly resulted in Phil hurting his shoulder. Finally before the sun reached the crag I couldn’t resist getting the climb called Billy el Rapido 7a.  To make it more interesting we added a sit start to it, this was in fact pretty hard and would probably get approximately a V5 boulder grade.  I enjoyed the rest of the climb and actually got a pointless bat hang in for the fun of it.

 

 

 

 

As the sun moved around we switched to the other side of the canyon and went to one of the most impressive sectors of the area Gran Boveda which yields some imposing lines up to 40m on severely overhanging rock.  A classic 8a there is Coloseum but at 40m long we were unsure whether our endurance was up to the challenge, there was only one way to find out!  It is fair to say we both got spanked, running out of steam and pump dominating our arms and legs we fell off just half way up and looking at how far left we had to go on the route we gave up for that day.  Despite the fact I got some good rests in and yet more knee bars I got severely pumped likely due to the amount of time hanging around on the route, Alex for example spent twenty minutes on it.  Feeling unusually tied for the amount of climbing I had done I called it a day. Alex still determined not to get defeated by the crag tried another less steep 8a only to find the moves absolutely nails, we sacked it off for the day feeling deflated at how unproductive the day had been.

The following day we agreed to have a rest day due to how tied we both felt after the previous day. Despite intending to have a relaxing day we ended up filling it with some tiring slack lining. Also we followed a group of canyoners down the waterfalls and pools of the river, hopelessly ill equipped in flip flops we had a very good time negotiating the hanging boulders and rapid water that blocked the way; I even got in some pretty unsuccessful shallow water bouldering.

Third day in Rodellar and we decided to head to Café Solo an area boasting a variety of routes and an 8c called welcome to Tijuana that Alex wanted to try to see if it was a potential project for the future.  On getting there we started on a 7b to warm up, I started up feeling fine only to have my chalk bag fall off at the third clip (punter error).  I continued dubiously convinced that I would grease off a hold. To my surprise I reached the top without too much trouble.

Next up was the route Café Solo 7b+, not expecting it to be too hard I pulled on to be instantly shocked at the difficulty of it.  I battle through the full on climbing to the third bolt where unable to continue as I could not clip I fell and nearly hit the deck. Annoyed at the fact I had dropped a 7b+ so low down, Neil Gresham who was also there trying an 8a told me that the climb had a reputation for being hard and that he too had dropped it in a similar place. Feeling better I tried again only to fall again at the same place. Three goes later and I had finally done. Warning to anyone else who tries it that route is not 7b+ its nails at that grade.  Meanwhile Alex had been trying the 8a Neil was also on and after falling a few times at a huge span move for him he managed it. He then tried to work Welcome to Tijuana the 8c and as you would expect it was pretty hard.  He got half way up doing most the moves before we began to run out of time.  I quickly finished off another 7b before we left.

The following day we started at Ego Centrismo on a very hard 7a+.  First go I dropped it because my foot popped whilst clipping and after hanging one handed on a poor hold for a couple seconds I couldn’t recover.  Next Alex wanted to try an 8a on sight; he got most of the way through the boulder crux at the start but sadly dropped it on a thin traverse out left.  I tried it but was not psyched for the lower section despite finding the more technical traverse above very pleasant. 

Moving on we headed to El Dolphin. The primary feature to this crag is a very impressive arch which has an awesome 7c+ running up the centre of it.  I tried it and despite getting right to the end I ran out of footholds and, a bit lost as to what I should do, I fell receiving some nasty rope burn on the way down.  Next go I cruised up the climb and reached the last hard move still feeling fresh, frustratingly the move is a big throw into an undercut and I fumbled it a bit and didn’t manage to catch it right.  I intend to return and finish that one before we leave Rodellar.

That brings me to the present (2^nd July). We have two more days climbing in Rodellar before we move onto Lleida for another couple of days.  Despite there being masses of fantastic crags: Oliana and Santa Linya to name a couple.  They are mostly winter crags and so in the current heat they will be mostly unclimbable.  As a result we will only go to Tres Ponts and maybe Terradets before moving on.  

I plan to blog every week for the month that I am out here so I’ll keep you posted.

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