A quick hit on La Mussara...

After so long without climbing and a good forecast for the foreseeable future I'm pretty keen to get out as much as possible so, despite starting work earlier on Fridays, we decided to go out again today for a brief session. This time to La Mussara.

I took a photo similar to this last time we were here but today I managed to get the sea in on the left, showing the amazing position of the crags!



The conditions were almost identical to the last time we were here too, with really clear air and a strong wind blowing making it quite chilly. I warmed up on a hard and strange 6b+, made harder by the fact that my fingers were so cold that I couldn't feel them. I then did an amazing 7a+ which had a few long moves between pockets at the start to gain a hanging crack in the wall, which you had to get jams in with both hands. After a few moves on jams the crack became positive enough to layback and continued like this all the way to the top of the crag - brilliant!

After this I got on a very strange 7c+ called 'Psssh....', which there's a photo of in the old Rockfax guide. The route had some really nice climbing on it but the line was a bit odd and felt quite eliminate at one point. The final few moves were also pretty scary, consisting of a big rockover onto a foothold right next to the bolt, so it was almost impossible to keep your foot out of the way of the rope and felt like you'd just get it caught in the rope if you fell - not nice! I decided not to have another go, so stripped it on the way down.

Tash then did a good bit of onsighting and went up a sandbag 5+ and a couple of 6a+s. After belaying her and going over the moves on 'Psssh...' I decided to have another go just to put it to bed. I managed to get through all the hard climbing at the bottom, but forgot to extend the top draw (the one next to the rockover foothold), so when I went to put my foot on the hold I just couldn't physically get it on the hold without standing on the rope, but couldn't reverse it, which ended my efforts just before the chain - doh! I'm keen to get back on it, as the climbing felt much better the second time, but I must remember to extend the top quickdraw next time!!!