Crowd avoidance at Montsant...

After the busy day at Siurana yesterday we decided to make the effort and go somewhere with a decent walk-in (it's usually enough to put the locals off!). So we set off again from Cornudella, this time heading for Raco de Missa - undoubtedly the best sector at Montsant. But when I stopped to get some more photos of the almond tree blossom we were overtaken by a convoy of cars and vans obviously heading for the same parking. And worse still, it was the same group of noisy Spaniards, dogs and kids that were at the crag yesterday!!!! So we quickly changed venues and opted for an even more remote and esoteric sector - Salfores.

The blossom photo that saved us from another day of earache!!

With a 40min uphill approach we were almost guaranteed to have the crag to ourselves, and thankfully we did! I warmed up on an incredible 6c+ that was classic Montsant - 35m of pure pocket pulling. Then did a HUGE 40m long 7b called 'Semilla negra'. Nice climbing but a little dusty through lack of traffic (as is common with some of these esoteric sectors).

I then finished off something I'd been on the last time we were here - a 7c called 'Mar Flotant' that I'd tried to on-sight.

[From my UKC logbook: Lead dog 23/Oct/10 - one to come back for. felt utterly desperate on O/S effort as all the pockets filled with dirt & no chalk anywhere. cleaned it up a bit and linked all in one on top-rope on way down but no time for redpoint. great moves]

I managed to do it putting the draws in today despite the holds being dirty and chalkless again and it felt quite steady, so hopefully that's a sign of improvement?! It was just as good as I remembered though, climbing a gently overhanging wall with really interesting moves all the way and a mixture of pocket pulling (from monos to jugs!), pinches and crimps. I hadn't realised until today that it's the route on the front cover of the guide - a testiment to its quality!

The quality esoteric sector Salfores at Montsant.
'Mar Flotant' (F7c) takes the wall on the extreme right of the photo, climbing past the big pocket and finishing just below the obvious break.
'Espeleon' (F7c) takes a line just to its left and finishes a little higher.

Spurred on by this I then on-sighted the route to its left. Another 7c, but this time lacking the quality of the previous one. The rock was less consolidated so holds kept crumbling in my hands and under my feet, and it was just a never ending series of sharp and painful pockets. The worst of Montsant in one route! But the positions made up for it and I guess it was worthwhile.

I finished off with another hidden gem. A 7b on the extreme left of the sector which looks fairly average from below, but turned out to be a very good quality route - a steep undercut start gets you established and takes you to a good rest then you climb more steep rock with a big hole to get into and then pull out of over a really steep bulge on good pockets. Really interesting climbing.

It's been a while since I've climbed on the conglomerate, either at Montsant or Margalef, and I really noticed that my skin just wasn't used to it, and my pain tolerance for stuffing fingers in sharp pockets had diminished!! So with very sore (but fortunately intact!) skin we decided to call it a day and walked down in the pleasant late afternoon sunshine.