And so it continued…

Two days more of this and we were done. The walk-in is too long, the routes are not really very good, you have to queue for most routes because it’s so busy and the walk-in is definitely too long! That day Bob and Tash from Portland arrived and planted the idea of going bouldering in our heads (I don’t think it was deliberate but we were infected) it took us less than twenty minutes to make the decision to leave the torture behind and go to Magic Woods. After another long walk (it’s a bit of a theme in Ceuse) we got back to the van and after an even longer drive (about 8 hours) we parked up for a sleep in a tiny Italian mountain village with about an hour to go in the morning (another theme).

A GOOD SLEEPING SPOT

Next day it was straight on the road again to get to Magic Woods and start some “proper” climbing. We didn’t have a guide book so we decided to just see what was available on arrival and got their as quick as we could. It wasn’t long before we were at the Italian/Swiss border on the Splugen Pass. It’s a truly amazing stretch of road with stunning scenery and one of the best border locations I’ve seen so far.

AN IMPRESSIVE BORDER CROSSING!

After a lot of wiggling about on hairpins (some of which were so tight we had to 3 point turn around) we arrived at Magic Woods and parked up in a large car park across the road from the campsite.

A LOT OF WIGGLING ABOUT

Naturally we didn’t want to stay in the campsite as we had all the things we generally needed and the only thing the campsite actually offers is a porta loo. Not the most comprehensively equipped site in the world and definitely not worth the 10 francs per night for the 2 of us.

We climbed almost straight away but the day and night of driving had taken its toll and we didn’t climb long. It was long enough to do a 7a traverse, cleverly named “Traversatta” it was my first 7a of the forest and on my second go. We went and looked at the Bruno blocks lack of holds and poor friction then cruised back to the van for some dinner and some much needed sleep.

MAGIC WOODS VALLEY

After my first encounter with the forest I was sure I would like it a lot, it really is quite magical and even though it’s the middle of summer once you are under the cover of the trees the air has a distinct chill to it. The reason for this is the freezing air that jets up from holes in the ground and from around the bigger boulders and the fact that you are at around 3000m above sea level. In fact the town up the road is the highest altitude town in main land Europe.

That evening at about 9:00pm there was a loud knock on the door of the van and the owner of the campsite was standing there asking for us to pay for the night in the campsite! “Err we’re not in the campsite” I said, but apparently the campsite own the car park as well. Not impressed but also not knowing where else we could park we decided to pay and find somewhere else in the morning. We woke up the next day and went up the road to find somewhere to park, fortunately there is a large layby at the side of the road near the second bridge to the climbing so we parked up and went climbing.

THE BRIDGE CROSSING

Over the next 3 days I managed a few problems that I was quite pleased with (tick list below for anyone who cares).

La Traversatta 7a

Bosna Genial 7a

Bosna Royal 7a

Dropzone 7a

Enterprise 7a

Hagletrauma 7b

Fetterfisch 7b

Jamesbong 7b

Just as I was getting into the swing of things and wanting to get on something harder more local irritation struck. Once again an angry local came knocking on the door telling us we can’t park in the valley except at the campsite and the police would be there within the hour. It’s like the Magic Woods Mafia! The campsite is frankly rubbish and to be forced to pay almost £7 a night for it is not on. That night we paid once again for the camping but planned to find somewhere else again the next day, even if it was a little way away it would still be cheaper. The next day we woke up to rain, the clouds had been sitting in the valley for a couple of days threateningly and they had finally delivered. Everything was soaked so we went up to the Edelweis (guest house) for some internet and a shower. We checked the weather and the next 5 days were forecast rain one day of sun then more rain. We finished using the internet and all freshly clean we hit the road for Chironico. It’s only 50 miles from Magic but it’s a bit lower and although the heat might be a problem at times the forecast was good and that meant climbing rather than sitting in the van wishing the rain would stop.

We got to the parking area at Chironico after a couple of chapters of Harry Potter (we’ve got the audio books read by Stephen Fry and are currently living our lives in chapter size chunks of time) and went to find some rock.

So far we’ve been largely unsuccessful at this new destination however we’ve been working things that are right at our limits. Leah has been trying an 8a that she’s very close to and I’ve been working a problem called Doctor Pinch, a savage 8a+ that at the moment only has one move on it that is out of my grasp. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it but it would mean that I had surpassed my expectations for the trip with a few months still to go! My goal was one 8a route and one 8a boulder problem, thus far I’ve got two 8a routes and a potential 8a+ boulder problem, very exciting!

The day they moved on

Once we were back in Spain we got a lift from Calpe with Kate after the slowest train ride in history and were soon back with our beloved van at the Oliva house.

We got back to find our van in fine fettle (other than the broken headlight courtesy of Kates horsebox) and temperatures at the highest they’ve been on the trip so far. We couldn’t really stick around and not climb anymore so we had a mission on our hands to get everything together and get the van back to normal so we could get going. After hours getting all our stuff together and doing some DIY on the van (the bed was a bit broken and so was the bike rack) we left the house to go to Barcelona at around 20:00.

The clear out

We knew we wouldn’t make it in one go so we decided to just see how far we could get. We managed to get about 3 miles down the road when Leah realised she’d left her sun glasses in the car and we had to turn back, a close shave but it was a crisis averted. Second time lucky we got away and pressed on into the night.

It was gone 3:00 when I finally decided to jack it in and stopped about 80 miles short of Barcelona. No amount of Red Bull can take away the monotony and although I could stay awake I felt like I was going slightly mad and needed to stop!

In the morning we pressed on to Barcelona and the closer we got the busier and busier the roads became until it was grid locked.

Is it London? Nope it's Barcelona

I was very much reminded of London but it was much sunnier and this London has a beach. Its Londonesque traffic, slightly more mental drivers and crazy road markings added up to a rather stressful drive through the centre. It was incredibly unfriendly to a large red van with the steering wheel on the wrong side and bike wheels sticking out the sides at the back.

After a long hunt we finally managed to find a space big enough and parked briefly, got the bikes off the back and went for a scoot about. We needed to find somewhere better to park (i.e. not 45 cents a minute!) and although the city looked awesome we kept focussed and made a beeline for tourist information. The woman in the tourist info hut told us where we could go to park but unfortunately it was about 6 miles down the road out of the city centre. We managed to find the car park, had a look at the nasty beach nearby and decided to get on the bikes again and make the 6 mile mission back into town without the burden of expensive parking.

The naff beach at Barcelona

We got into the city centre after a cool ride along the sea front where there was loads of stuff going on (even though it was fairly late afternoon by now) and we couldn’t help thinking that we could really do with a large helping of Euro’s in our pockets.

By the time we got into town most things were being packed up and we saw a vast number of shops and stalls that were tempting us. In the end we decided that we needed to come back another time with some serious spending money and bit more time to explore. Another trip is already planned (non-climbing) and we’ll be making the most of it when we get there.

We rode back to the van in the warmth of the evening and decided to have a go at getting as close to Ceuse as possible that evening. We ended up leaving Barcelona at around 8:00pm (a recurring problem with our journeys) and drove relentlessly into the night.

With about an hour to go we decided to call it quits and stopped in an “Aire” at the side of the Autoroute. We found a good spot in the trees and went to sleep.

There was only a (relatively) short drive left in the morning so we had breakfast in the sun and pressed on to Gap, the closest town to the crag.

Breakfast at an aire... Bit nicer than Watford Gap

On Arrival we saw a McDonalds and pulled in for some free internet action. After checking a few bits over and finding out where we could get the guide etc. we headed into Gap centre to find the climbing shop and get the guidebook. Gap itself is a really nice medium size town which is almost completely pedestrianized. We wandered about in the sun taking photos and finally found the climbing shop, after asking a policeman where it was. We got the book and headed for an E’Leclerc to get some supplies.

While we were there we discovered their value brand “Eco+” its ridonculously cheap and there’s loads of different stuff to choose from. We bought a selection of their tinned veg for evaluation and some treats to make the pain of the infamous Ceuse walk-in a little more bearable and headed to the van. Next up was to solve our gas problem, it seems every country has different gas bottles all with different attachments and it makes it very difficult to change your gas while you’re on the move. We had to get a new bottle but fortunately got a deal where you got a free regulator so it could have been a lot worse as they are 25 euros each!

Once our gas issues were solved (excuse the expression) we dug out the guidebook and navigated our way towards the crag. After a long climb up the hill in our incredibly slow van, we caught site of the car park that we would be sleeping in and the crag at the top of the hill.

It is MILES up the hill!

The crag a million miles away!

We both shuddered at the thought of walking all the way up and having to climb once we got there but we got ourselves and the van sorted and prepared for the monster day to come.

We awoke at a sensible hour and after getting all the kit together we packed our bags until they were rather heavy and looked ready to burst.

The kit we had to lug up the hill

After locking up the van we started the walk up the hill, it’s long, really long! It’s also very steep and very dull. It’s not really my idea of fun to go hiking before a hard days climbing and when we finally got to the top I was ready to collapse, it had taken us about 1.5 hours!

We had some lunch and tried in vain to climb something. The routes couldn’t really have suited me any less well, there is no good rests, they are long, not very steep and are covered in poor hand holds and worse footholds. We both managed to do a 6c+ on our second go and we were ruined already!

The view from the top was good

After another long walk to the other end of the crag and checking out some routes for the next day we decided to get back to the van. We couldn’t really see a path so we came up with the genius idea of making our way through the bushes until we found one, unfortunately we didn’t find one for ages and when we finally made it to a proper path we could barely hold our own weight on our legs. It must have taken us almost 2 hours to get all the way back to the van and we arrived exhausted and hungry.

The UK

Well this was an interesting period! We originally planned to go back for a brief stint in the UK for the British Bouldering Championships but it soon turned into something very different indeed.

We got back to England about 10 days before the champs and we sat down outside East Midlands airport, tucked into a sausage, bean and cheese bake from Greggs (a bit of a classic among Pete and me from Lancaster) and waited for our knight in shining armour too collect us and take us back to Sheffield (cheers Rix, legend). I had contacted my old boss to see if there was any chance of getting some work while we were back to help out with the rest of the trip as the bank balance was starting to look a bit thin. Fortunately he came through for me and offered me full-time work for the extent of our time in England. I knew that by accepting it I would seriously hamper my chances of doing very well at the BBC’s but I also knew that the longer term was far more important than one competition.

We got as ready for the BBC’s as possible and Pete, Kim, Mum and Dad all came up for the day, it was great to see them and Leah pulled the win out of the bag for the second year running and was really pleased with her performance. I on the other hand fluffed it big time, I climbed badly, suffered from my injured fingers and felt tired from my first week back at work in the last 5 months. Undoubtedly next year will be a far more successful effort, I’ve got a planned and I’m

keen to succeed.

The following week I continued to work at TDC and my tooth began to hurt (worrying). By Thursday my tooth was agony and I had to go to the emergency dentist. At the dentist I discovered that I had an abscess above one of my teeth and it had to be drilled and drained without anaesthetic, it was very enjoyable as you can imagine! More irritating was that our flight back was booked for the following Tuesday and the dentist told me that I needed to get it sorted ASAP or it would come back almost straight away. Could I get an appointment? Could I heck! The soonest I could get in Sheffield was September so I had to book one at my old dentist down south (thanks to Mum). The appointment was at the end of the week which meant the flight was missed and to pay for it all I would need to do yet another week of work afterwards. Joy.

After the tooth was removed and we were back in Sheffield I did my time at work and we got our flights sorted. We booked them for the following Tuesday so that we could get to my Dad’s retirement doo (it was a surprise and seemed to have the desired effect). Coral and John gave us a lift to the airport in the morning (more heroics) and we got our flight back to sunny Spain.

Sorry for the lack of photos but it’s England isn’t it? You all know what it looks like.

Free dinner and more hard climbing

We went to Murla with John and Fran for Leah to try her 8a+ again. While we were there I tried an 8a next to it with John which feels like a real goer but has a ridiculous jump move in the middle that might be a bit of a stopper. Over the next few days we visited the crag and I tried to work out some kind of sequence for the route and Leah had more attempts on her 8a+.

Unfortunately time defeated us as we had to be down to Benidorm to meet up with the European Berghaus sales team for an activity day that they were having on 19th May. We left the routes for a while and started the slog down to Benidorm to meet up with the people that made the trip possible (it’s the least we could do).

It was an interesting day that seemed to go pretty tits up from the word go. Luckily for us all we had to do was turn up and be sociable so none of the responsibility was on us although the organisers at the Orange House did their best to involve us in the shambles. While chatting to the folks from Berghaus Leah suggested that maybe they wanted to by us dinner and they invited us back to the 5* hotel in Calpe for a meal. Bonus!

We got to the hotel “Sol-y-Mar” at about 8:00pm and the meal was served shortly after. It was a 3-course beast and the main course was a steak. I can’t actually explain how good a steak feels after such a long period of chorizo and pasta or tuna and pasta for dinner, I felt like Sypher in the Matrix.

After the meal we headed back to the house in Oliva so we could get back to some climbing the next day. We went back to Murla and both got shut down over and over again, after a few more days Leah managed the 8a (after giving up on the 8a+ for a while as it was getting a bit demoralising). Then after a few more goes I managed to stick the dyno in the middle of the route! I thought I had it in the bag and started racing to the top to beat the fatigue, I started to feel the pump kicking in and as I through for the top holds I knew I was done in. I fell from the top! I literally could have touched the chains and I fell. To say that I was miffed would be a bit of an understatement but at least I knew I had it in me. After a rest and belaying Leah I had another go and to my horror exactly the same thing happened again! I couldn’t believe it but I was goosed and had no chance of going up again so had to retreat for yet another rest day.

Success on the dyno in the middle of my second 8a

After a day off we went to Gandia for a light day that turned into a few 7a and 7a+ onsights which took quite a lot out of me. We went back to Murla the next day anyway and on my second go I did the route. I was really chuffed and so glad to tick another 8a on the trip when my goal was just to get one, not to mention the fact that we now have another 2 months of sport climbing in other areas.

Two days later Leah managed her 8a+ marking the end of our projects in this area and the start of our preparation for the BBC’s at the end of June.

Successes and a birthday!

I finally managed the 7c+ at Murla which is my hardest lead to date. In the end it took about 4 visits and annoyingly felt easy on the successful go. It’s a brilliant route although not as overhanging as I would normally be tempted by. It does have some cool tufas on it though and generally the holds are pretty positive which is always good!

After succeeding we had a little go on an 8a+ at Murla and an 8a at L’Ocaive. The 8a+ feels to savage for the state of my tendons on my left hand and although the 8a feels much more likely there is a move at half height that felt really hard and it’s not really my style, i.e. it’s long and demands quite a bit of fitness that I don’t really have at the moment. Leah was looking really strong on the 8a+ at Murla after her second go and she should probably get it done pretty rapidly (as always!).

With clients coming out for “Epic Adventures” holidays it was time for me and Leah to fly the nest for a while so we headed to Sella, The Orange House, Wildside and most importantly “Ergometria”.

Ergometria is a route that I saw Leah do last year on my first sport climbing trip. It’s an awesome 25m 8a that has a hard start, some amazing tufas and two good rests. I’ve wanted to climb 8a ever since the trip last year and although it has always seemed like an impossible goal I decided it was time to give it a try.

I got on the route on the first day at Wildside and was pretty overwhelmed by the difficulty level and couldn’t really see a way of doing it. I managed all the moves up to the chimney rest but was tired and it was Leah’s turn to play on something. At least the clips were in.

Over the next couple of days I worked the route and did some fall practice to try to reduce my fear levels slightly (I think it’s working). Each evening we would go back to the spot where our van was parked, one of the best so far.

The amazing spot we found at Wildside, Sella

That evening it started to dawn on me that not only could I do all the moves but I might even be able to piece things together. It was time for a rest day.

Next day was spent on the beach getting slightly pink and playing bat and ball. By the time we were back at our spot and in bed I couldn’t help thinking about the next day, the day.

We had a slightly slow start, ate breakfast, stretched a bit and soaked my finger. Then we made our way to the crag. I decided to warm up on the route to refresh my memory and when I arrived at the knee bar rest it suddenly turned into my first redpoint attempt. It was probably an error because flash pump soon kicked in and I couldn’t push through to the top. After a rest on the rope I went to the top anyway and made sure the top was wired.

A long rest was in order so I belayed Leah on her first redpoint attempt of Celia 8a. She did it super smoothly and chalked up her fourth 8a and second on this trip. After that I was psyched, recovered and ready to get back on the route.

The start went better than before and after a while composing myself I pressed on to the knee bar. As I approached the hole I could hear a bird tweeting away inside, I wasn’t ready to blow another attempt so I pulled up got the knee bar in and hoped I wasn’t going to get pecked to death. I shook out for a while trying to ignore the pain of the rock digging into my leg before attacking the hard climbing above to the chimney rest. I arrived at the rest seriously out of breath and pumped out of my mind, I got my shoulder in and bridged between the two big tufas that form the chimney. I started to get my breath back and some blood back into my forearms and the top gradually started to seem possible. After a rest that was as long as my leg would bear I chalked up and pushed on, I felt good and before I knew it I was clipping the chain of my first 8a. Success!

My successful redpoint attempt of Ergometria 8a

The plan was to get an 8a route and an 8a boulder problem this year and one of them is now officially ticked. Weirdly, although it was hard, I had got it so wired that when I finally did it, it felt quite easy. I’m not sure what that means, maybe I should get on something harder? Either way, after the route was finished I was ready to take it easy for a while and get some steadier climbing done.

The next day we headed back to Gaz and Kates house for some R+R and to make a plan for the climbing ahead. We got on some easier ground at crags near the house for a few days and then it was my birthday. We had a day of kite flying (one of my presents), sitting on the beach and cool little cakes.

The kite on it's maiden voyage

My birthday Cakes

Having spent my birthday money on a new bag, some remote flashes and a traction kite we awaited the arrival of some more British homies John and Fran. The Nottingham mega-wads!

Gaz and Kate then spent the following few days trying to leave the country whilst the volcanic eruption repeatedly hindered their attempts. In the end they both got out of the country on the Saturday and we became in-charge of a wild puppy with a broken leg and 4 cats. Fortunately the horse is being looked after by someone else so it’s not too much like a zoo.

The Beast With new hair-do courtesy of Leah

Next up we went to a bunch of crags with John and Fran and on-sighted some 7a’s and a 7a+’s which were my hardest sport on-sights so far. After a few days of this kind of climbing me and Leah were both craving some hard pulling and I was ready for another project.

As Ramsey would say “Albarracin? Done.”

The last couple of weeks in Albarracin was spent clearing up some ticks off the list and being tour guides for Gav and Lisa who came out for a short trip in Gav’s van. I managed to tick Innashakra 7c which finished up all the things that I was keen to do. Leah had managed her project and all the other problems she liked the look of so we were all set. This meant that when Lisa and Gav arrived we had done everything we wanted to do and were in a prime position to be tour guides for our visitors.

Tick List above 7a (in-case anyone cares)

1. Aeroline 7c

2. Innashakra 7c

3. El Circo Del Sol 7c

4. Escaramuza 7b+

5. Thieves (right-hand side) 7b

6. Ojos Negros 7b

7. Aristronauta 7b

8. Space Cowboys 7b

9. El Ermitano 7a+

10. A Oscuras 7a+

11. A Ciegas 7a+

12. Gorillas 7a+

13. Psicokiller Boulder 3 A 7a+

14. Psicokiller Boulder 3 D 7a+

15. Boulder 17 B 7a+

16. La Rave 7a

17. Parking roof 7a

18. Esperanza 7a

19. Peninsula Traverse 7a

20. Peninsula mini-roof 7a

21. Arrastradero mini-roof left 7a

22. Arrastradero mini-roof right 7a

23. Troviscente 7a

Gav wasn’t sure how he was climbing as he hadn’t been on rock for a while and it turned out he was well on form. We went round pointing out the good problems and going through the beta and then stood back while Gav ticked them off after one or two goes. To Leah’s delight he still couldn’t do all the moves on her new line confirming (sort of) that it is indeed 8a.

Leah on her new line "Fuerte a Muerte" 8a

After a couple of days of being in Albarracin with the new visitors we decided that we definitely couldn’t take being there anymore. It’s not that Albarracin isn’t good, it had just got to the point where we’d run out of things to do so we convinced Gav that some sport climbing was the way forward (he didn’t take much convincing) and we made plans to head to Gaz and Kates house in the Costa Blanca.

Gav and Lisa headed up to Techos to try a couple more problems while me and Leah got the van

sorted and started the voyage towards Gandia main crag. The plan was to meet at the crag, sleep under it and climb in the morning and then go to Gaz and Kates house at the end of the day for our first shower in ages!

We woke up and had a cuppa in true British style and then made our way up the hill to the Gandia main crag. It was our first taste of proper sport climbing on the trip and after such a long stint bouldering, it tasted good. We wanted to take it easy so we did a couple of 6b’s and a 7a all of which were really nice. Gandia seems like a good place near to our HQ to get some mileage in as the grades are fairly low but the routes are around 20-25m long. After Gandia we missioned over to El Bovedon to check out a crag with routes that are a little spicier. It’s the most unforgiving crag I have ever seen! The whole thing is at about 50-60 degrees overhanging and covers some ground completely horizontal. Grades are wide ranging but mainly 7c and up through the roof section so there is plenty to go at in terms of projects. We tried the slightly softer option of a 6b that traverses from the right-hand side of the cave all the way into the middle and is about 25m long. The holds are good but the angle is relentless and by the end my bouldering ways were showing their true colours and I was pumped out of my mind. It’s a cool route though and I’m looking forward to trying it again in a few weeks as a test of my (hopefully) improved stamina.

The savage beast that we are stuck with

Whilst Gav was out we went to Gandia and Bovedon again for some more mileage days and to Bellus which turned out to be pants. Then the rain closed in and our fellow Brits decided to head towards home and try to find some good weather on the way. Since they’ve been gone we’ve been helping out in the house trying to get it finished and we’ve had two sessions at Murla.

Preparing a gourmet snack before heading up to Murla

This crag is a brutal, short crag where the routes seem to consist of two 8m boulder problems on top of each other with no available rests on the way. We’ve picked a 7c+ to project which Leah has now done on top rope in one go so is planning on leading it next session and I’ve done it in two halves but feel fairly strong on it now I’ve got some kind of sequence sorted out. The route feels really hard so it will be interesting to see how it compares to others of the same grade in the area and it will also be interesting to see how horrendous anything from 8a upwards at Murla feels!

Toodle-pip!

Time is starting to fly

We’ve now been back from the comp in Cuenca for almost two weeks so I thought it was time for an update. We got back on the Monday and were completely shattered from the weekend and ended up going to bed at 9:00pm and sleeping right through ‘til the morning!

Having had a day of rest and with clear blue skies we were pretty keen to get back to climbing here in Albarracin. Unfortunately my skin was ravaged from the comp and I needed another day off for it to grow back. We went back to Manushakra for Leah to try and finish it which was very frustrating and it took a lot for me to not climb. Unfortunately it didn’t go for Leah so we headed back to the van for some recovery.

Some local wildlife!

On Wednesday morning we woke up to more good weather and made our way up the hill to Manushakra again, this time I tried Innashakra a fair bit and then tried Manushakra but couldn’t get to the top of either. Leah succeeded on Manushakra 7b+ and I succeeded in getting immensely frustrated. By the end of the session my skin was (once again) ruined which meant more resting to come.

Thursday morning came quickly and my skin actually didn’t feel too bad so we decided to go to sector Sol and try one of our projects. The problem is Circo del Sol 7c and it’s got some really cool moves on it (knee-bars, mono’s etc). Surprisingly we both got it done in quick succession and on only our second visit. My second 7c of the trip I’m really chuffed and it gave me a little more confidence after recent shut downs. Afterwards Leah wanted to finish off Respect which she started before Cuenca and did it really quickly. It started to rain so we ran for cover back to the van.

Friday was indeed time for some more skin recovery and neither of us climbed much at all but we went for a walk, played some hacky-sack and chilled out in the sun. It’s a hard life.

Working hard in Albarracin

Saturday was the beginning of the sending train. We went to a sector called Techos to check out some problems and got sucked into a recce at a bunch of sectors. We didn’t climb much at all but made some mental notes for things to come back to. Afterwards we went back to the van and chilled for a while and I said I would like to try the 7a roof behind the van. I tried it when we first got here but felt weak as anything and failed miserably. Today was different, I got it on my third go and was psyched. Leah suggested going to check out a 7a+ called El Ermitano. We both had in done after about 25 minutes and were keen for more so we went to Aeroline and did another 7a+ called La Rave. A good evenings climbing for both of us and probably my best consecutive ticks ever!

Waking up on Sunday we both felt good and wanted to continue the momentum of Saturday. We went to sector Sol and did a 7a+ arête, Aristranauta 7b+ and then Ojos Negros a 7b+ traverse that we failed on last year and did second go this year. Once we finished, it started to rain a bit so we went back to the van feeling pretty pleased with the day and nursing trashed skin (yet again).

Some more local wildlife

Monday was shopping day which was dull but the supplies were not! We had a good days rest and then had Spag Bog for dinner which was amazing!

Tuesday was back to climbing at Penninsula where we had a couple of 7a+ leftovers from last year. Amazingly they both went without a hitch although the top out of the second one was a bit worrying to say the least! That evening we cracked out the Cobb (oven) and had a giant bagel that we bought from the supermarket and I mean GIANT!

The traverse at Penninsula 7a+

Yesterday I had another good day at Arrastradero doing Esperanza 7a and Escaramuza 7b+ which I flashed with Leah’s beta. It’s my hardest flash yet so I was well stoked. Afterwards I wanted to try Innashakra again it’s 7c but it feels really hard. After working out all the moves I was too tired to finish it so it was one to come back to. I wasn’t too put out because I’d still had another awesome days climbing and it’s not going anywhere.

Surprisingly, today it was to be. We went over to Innashakra and on my third proper go after warming up, I sent the monster. I was so pleased to have done it, although I now need to do Manashakra as well. Unfortunately there was seriously heavy rain last night so it was too wet today but soon it will be mine!

Innashakra 7c... Done!

Tonight its spaghetti and Chorizo, can’t wait!

Hasta Luego.

The trip up till now

Leave the UK

On Sunday 7^th February we made our way down to the early arrival services on the M20 on the way to Folkestone. The plan was to sleep near the tunnel terminal to make it easier in the morning. We got to the “Stop 24” services at about 23:00 to discover that it actually isn’t 24 hour! What is that about? You would think as an early arrivals services it would be 24/7 but don’t be fooled. Either way, it was a good place to sleep over so we would be ready for the morning.

Morning came and as we had an early crossing it came a bit too quickly. Lying in the bed I couldn’t help thinking that it was the last time for a while that my awakening would be dictated to me by something or someone else.

We got ready and made our way the last 10 miles down to the car park at the terminal. The only thing on my mind was a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich so I was more than a little pleased when I went into the departure area and found the perfect place to purchase such morsels. During the slightly slow process of getting said sustenance we got the last call for our train and still hadn’t picked up any Euros. We rushed over to the Travelex kiosk and got a rechargeable debit card (which doesn’t charge any commission or extra charges for withdrawing money) which you can recharge online and then dashed to the platform.

We made it just in time and cruised into line. Once we parked up we made the most of the luxury of having a bed behind us and went for a lie down. It seemed like only moments later that we were woken up by the announcements on the tannoy saying that we were nearly in France and people needed to get back to their vehicles, sweet!

Paris

We got off the train and headed straight for Paris. It’s actually further than you think from Calais and we arrived in the early afternoon. The weather was really no very good so we weren’t really looking forward to sightseeing but we felt we should as we were nearby. It took us an age to get through Paris and find somewhere near the centre that we could park the van. We finally found a place near the river at the astonishing price of €6 an hour! We got the bikes off the back of the van and road to the Eiffel tower. It was no more than 0°C and my hands were numb within 2 minutes of riding. When we got to the tower we took some tourist style photos and decided that rather than continue the unpleasant experience of riding round in the freezing cold and grey clouds threatening to rain at any moment we just go back to the van and press on.

Tours

The plan was now to head to Tours to break up the journey to Millau and the Gorge du Tarn. As we got back to the van and left Paris the weather immediately closed in and it started hammering it down (a good choice to cut our losses and leave) and we started to doubt whether it was worth going to see another city in the cold and rain. It didn’t take long for us to scrap the idea of Tours and set a course for Millau which made for 600 miles of driving from Folkestone in a day with a stop off on the way and all in a van that will barely do 60mph.

We did pretty well considering that time, speed and distance were all acting against us but as we hit the Pyrenees the snow started to get a little worrying. We decided to hit the sack in a service station at about 1500m surrounded by fairly deep snow at 1:00am we were a little chilly but slept well.

As the day started at 6:00am and ended at 1:00am it was a bit of a long one so we didn’t get up until about 10ish and made our way to Millau which was now only 80 miles away. After exploring the town of Millau (which is a really pretty place) we managed to find the climbing shop which is shut in the afternoons so we had to come back the next day in the morning. We went and found a supermarket and then somewhere to park up for the night.

Next morning we woke up and went to the climbing shop to get the guide book for the area and then got ourselves over to the Gorge itself and easily found a lay-by at the bottom of “Gymnase” which is one of the better cold weather sector (apparently) we checked out the crag and then set the van up assuming that we would be sticking around for some time. We felled a tree for fire wood so we could stay warm in the evenings and cooked some food with a view to getting started on the climbing the next morning.

We woke up to some serious cold but being English we tried to go climbing anyway and found an awesome 8a to get stuck into. It was too cold! Both o us kept getting numb hands as soon as we started up the first section and couldn’t climb on. We were climbing in our down jackets and belaying in all the warm stuff we had but it was really grim. After a couple of days we decided it wasn’t going to be getting any warmer in the immediate future so we made the decision to move the trip on one destination and make the voyage to Rodellar in Spain. We couldn’t start the van but fortunately a guy in a truck stopped and gave us a jump start so we were on our way. As we drove out of the Gorge there were huge icicles hanging off the bank all the way along the road and it turned out the temperature was going above -5°C during the day and much colder at night, no wonder it felt chilly!

Rodellar

The drive to Rodellar is another 400 mile epic which in the van is about 8/9 hours. We opted for the no toll roads route to save the cash which only adds a little time but adds a lot more interest to the drive and I’d recommend it to anyone driving from France into Spain as it includes a tunnel at 6000 feet which is straight down for 1.5km where the van broke the LDV Convoy land speed record of 84 mph in neutral! Fortunately the snow didn’t stop us in the mountains and we made it across the border at about 23:30 with about 2 hours to go. We arrived in Rodellar with an empty tank (literally and metaphorically) to find that there is no petrol station there and hoping that there is one fairly nearby.

Unfortunately the next day we were told that the nearest petrol station is 30km away. There was a possibility that we wouldn’t make it as the van was completely dry but after a nail biting journey we spluttered into the petrol station and filled her up to the brim. The weather was awesome and we were pretty pleased with ourselves for the decision to sack off the Gorge Du Tarn.

We got back to Rodellar, got our kit together and sin guide book we went off to find a route that looked doable and then check out the grades afterwards at the Refugio. We had a pretty good session but felt absolutely stamina-less and got shut down pretty hard. We gave the route 6c+ and fortunately for our egos it turned out to be 7b, it’s an awesome route and definitely one to get done someday.

The next day it rained and all climbing was rendered impossible, nightmare! We had just come from the coldest place in the world and this one was now the wettest. We got some shopping done at the supermarket which is about 45 mins drive away and chilled out at the Refugio. The next day it rained and the next day it rained, the next day... it rained!

The Refugio (Kalandraka) is really cool and it has free Wifi all the time and free pool but there’s no amount of pool that can make the rubbish weather bearable. On the days when it didn’t rain the rock was still too wet to climb on from the day before and it wasn’t particularly warm either.

By the tenth day we decided to check the weather and if it wasn’t going to be getting any better we would high tail it out of Rodellar and get ourselves to Albarracin which is another 200 miles south and a bit more out of the mountains. The weather forecast said rain everyday for the foreseeable future and in Albarracin it was windy but dry. After an epic day breaking the water container and stripping clips (in the dark) from what was going to be our training route we said our goodbyes to the guys at the Refugio and left that evening.

Albarracin

200 miles down the road from Rodellar and we arrived in Albarracin at 12 o’clock at night. The drive wasn’t too bad but the roads were so awesome I couldn’t help thinking about my brother and yearning for something much faster. After not to long Leah was fast asleep and I fired up the mp3 player and treated myself to some Stevie Ray Vaughn and Dire Straights for some old skool night time driving.

After an interesting night sleep where the van nearly rolled down the hill at 3:00am leaving us jittery until the morning we made our plans to get some climbing done.

Man were we weak! Having not climbed for about a month at this point we had lost it completely, we were both weak and out of it mentally. After a day of frustrating shut downs we went back to the van and our skin seemed to have been unimpressed with the lay off as well and our tips were looking thin already. As I lay in bed with stinging fingers and no boulders ticked off I felt so pleased to have been climbing hard and was completely content for the first time in the trip.

A few days in we met a guy called Rodrigo while we were trying a 7c called “El Circo Del Sol” in sector Sol (naturally) who is form a town called Cuenca which is about 100 miles from Albarracin. He told us there was a comp in his wall on the 14^th March and we couldn’t resist the temptation so planned to go there on the following Wednesday or Thursday for the Sunday competition.

After a few more days of climbing and some rest days we went to try Aeroline a 7c problem with a roof, slopers, a massive heel hook and a tiny little crimp and on my third go on this second session I sent it. I was really pleased and it was the first good tick of the trip and gave me the psyche for more. After that I got on “Frambuesa” a nasty 8a that ate my skin very quickly and by the time I decided to give up my forefinger on my right hand was super thin. We got some lunch and headed to “Arrastradero” a big and varied sector about 15 minutes walk from the van with loads to go at. We started with a 7b called “Space Cowboys” which had a hard finish that Leah worked out. After the beta was found she sent it pretty quickly accompanied by some hardcore power screams. With the sneaky beta I got up it a few minutes later also accompanied by some screaming (it’s one of those problems) and we moved onto “Innashakra”. By this point my finger tip was through and looked like a little mouth so we drew some eyes on it to make a face but it didn’t help with the climbing.

Innashakra is hard! It’s hard at the start, hard in the middle and hard at the end. It took Leah about half an hour to work it all out and then did it as it started to rain (we are sick of rain). My efforts were thwarted by an exploding little finger on my left hand and a skinless forefinger on my right hand. A bit of a shame to be out of action from lack of skin but it was a good day of climbing having done a 7c and a 7b each.

At this point my skin was completely destroyed and I needed to rest to get some back so we went to sector Sol so Leah could try an 8a line on the Karmansia boulder. It looks like an awesome problem and it should go after a couple of sessions, she did all the moves but couldn’t string them together so watch this space hopefully for a pair of ascents.

The week leading up to the comp soon to out to be a complete wash out as it pounded it down with snow for two nights running leaving us surrounded by snow for the next few days. It didn’t seem like it was going to be melting anytime soon as it never got above freezing so we decided to go to Cuenca earlier than planned and get some sport climbing done before the competition knowing that if the weather was rubbish we could always climb inside.

The journey to Cuenca was not as quick as we thought it might be, it took about 2.5 hours on the windiest, roughest roads I’ve seen in a long time. When we got to Cuenca we had a cheeky cheeseburger starter at McDonalds and then headed to the wall. We got there a little bit early because they don’t open until 17:00 in the afternoons. When Rodrigo turned up he met us in his usual supremely enthusiastic way and said we were welcome to climb for free while we here. We had a good session at the little wall and Rodrigo invited us to his house for the evening. We met his sister, girlfriend and his sister’s boyfriend and had an intensive Spanish lesson for about 3 hours. This was our first experience of the crazy times that the Spanish do things, for example they cooked dinner at about 00:30 and said that this was normal and we ended up going to bed at about 03:00am madness!

Unsurprisingly we were pretty tired when we got up but we went to climb at the wall anyway which is where we met Rodrigo’s business partner Scott a kiwi who moved to Spain a few years ago and never left. He invited us to stay at his house which was awesome because it meant warm showers and a bed in a room that wasn’t freezing cold.

When we went back to his house we met his girlfriend Chris who is lovely as well and the two of them invited us out to a bar in town that gives free food with every beer! Apparently that is how Tapas used to be but the tradition was lost in most of Spain and the only places it has stayed is Castilla-La-Mancha and Granada so we made the most of it. The food was ridiculous! With each beer you get a small cup of chicken and ham soup and a plate with quails eggs, jamon, bread, honeyed courgette and a big salad all for free, genius.

On the way back from the bar they offered us a bed for the whole week so we’ve stayed here everyday and they even gave us a key so we could come and go as we liked (you know you’re in good hands when you meet fellow climbers). Living here has really given us a good idea of the life of a Spaniard, they never sleep, they are lazy hell and they openly admit it. They have a slow but very good quality of life here and we can only imagine how much slower (and better) it is when the summer kicks in and it’s too hot to actually do anything.

Two days ago we climbed on some routes here and were pretty amazed at what we found. The rock is pretty poor quality and all the routes are held together with large amounts of cement and glue. In some places where there’s blank sections of rock they’ve drilled pockets and chipped crimps into the walls to make the climbs possible then on top of the drilled pockets and crimps they finish off the edges with more cement to make it a nice smooth hold. Can you imagine that on Stanage! We weren’t too fond of the falseness of it all so lost interest in the routes pretty quickly, there is a hell of a lot of rock here but it’s just not very high quality. Friday and today were rest days so we would be in shape for the competition on Sunday and hopefully I could grow back some skin by then and wear a bit less tape to hold myself together. Lucky for us we were informed of Neusc and given some by Rodrigo at the wall. It’s a bit like climb-on balm but not so natural and hippy so in theory it should work a bit better (like the rest of modern medicine). After two days of using it my finger has started to close up already which is awesome.

We just got back from the wall having met Pavi and his mates from Madrid who look like an annoyingly strong bunch and the problems are looking awesome, particularly with the inclusion of the blue volume from Holdz in Sheffield. Hopefully the comp will be a good day with the lots of Spanish craziness and some winning for at least one Brit.

It’s the morning after the comp and we did pretty well. I came third behind Pavi and a local Cuenca climber in the final and Leah beat everyone very soundly. That’s a first and third at a Spanish comp and new crash pad for the trip. We’re not sure where we are going to put it yet because we have no space and it’s massive but we’ll find a way. The day was really good with a decent turn out and we went for a beer afterwards (accompanied with more amazing free food) and got bombarded with Spanish for a while trying to pick up anything we could (not easy when you only know about five words). Once we had finished at the bar we went back to Scott’s where he cooked us Thai green curry (he’s a trained chef) which was much needed.

Today we are off back to the land of Albarracin and hopefully the weather will be like it is here, warm and sunny. We’ll be pretty disappointed if it’s naff again but we need a day or two rest after yesterday so it’s not so bad.

Adios.