El Dard in the mist

The temperature has dropped a bit since we were out on Tuesday and, although today it was sunny at home down on the coast, driving up past Alforja it became more and more misty. We decided to stick to the coast side of the hills to avoid the mist as much as possible, but the crags were still clouded when we arrived.



El Dard in the mist on arrival



We went to one of the most overlooked gems in the area - El Dard. Most people who visit here only climb at the big three spots - Siurana, Margalef and Montsant - plus maybe a cursory visit to El Falco for a day. Although El Dard is classed as an Arboli crag, it's actually nowhere near the village itself and you drive past it every time you go from Reus to Cornudella to get to the 'big three'. It took me over a year after moving to finally make it here and climb the classic 7c crackline of 'El Marginao' (this is a must-do route and worth a visit to the crag just for it). Today I wanted to try another of the routes on the main wall which follows a slanting crackline running parallel to El Marginao but slightly to its left. After a quick warm-up on a 6c+ my fingers were still too cold to contemplate an on-sight but I was impatient to get on it so settled for just putting the draws in and hopefully a quick redpoint.

It turned out to be another amazing route - again, worth a visit just for it. Really nice laybacking up the thin crackline where it was important to slot your hands in with the right sequence and finishing with a high foot and long lock off a sidepull in the crack. As I hoped, it turned out to be quite a straightforward first redpoint and I finished the day on-sighting yet another quality technical 7b called Silverado.

Yarak (F7c+) at sector El Dard, Arboli

Another shot of the same