As is so common in this area, the start of a period of beautiful clear sunny weather comes hand in hand with a fresh breeze from the north...or more precisely a howling gale. The reason there are so many wind turbines around the hills behind us becomes evident at times like this!
But Masriudoms is always a good bet when it's so windy - a haven of warmth and shelter! After Karin & Steve had been on the Ricacera extension on Monday I was keen to get on it myself and have a look, on their recommendation. Especially as they'd taken the time to do a bit of gardening, brushing and general hold cleaning - thanks Steve! The route turned out to be very good, once again! This time with the best climbing of the route on the upper half. And apart from the big pocket that Steve had obviously had to thoroughly clear out, the rock in general was clean and solid. This pocket was still a little damp, but hopefully in another few days with the wind it'll be nice & dry. The route also turned out to be easier than I'd expected - quite a bit easier than the one I did on Monday. The lower half is significantly easier than 'Rancios', with only a few tricky moves at the start - but these weren't as hard as I'd remembered (though they are very reachy!) Then you get a perfect hands off knee-bar rest at the end of the 8a section, and the upper wall is probably comparable with the top half of 'Rancios', except maybe without the scary crux bit.
I was very tempted to come down and have a redpoint straight away, but I know Tash is keen to come back soon for her project, so I decided to leave it for next time...plus I didn't want to tick another route off the list at Masriudoms too quickly!
Javi had a go at the 7b+ extension of ATP but couldn't quite make the crux moves, so I went up to finish the route (to the end of the 8a bit) and get his draws out just for a bit of training, to end the day nicely. A short day, but as it was fourth day on I was ready for an 'active' rest day before tomorrow.
The new toys were Tash's brand new 80m rope (only its second day out!) and Javi's brand new GRIGRI 2. The new GRIGRI was very nice - super smooth paying out, like the cinch, and noticeably smaller than the old one...but at €65 I think I'll cope just using the one we've got for now!
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| New toys today - new rope & the GRIGRI 2 (neither of them mine unfortunately!!) |
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