With the balmy weather and much longer days now we decided to pack a picnic so we could make the most of the evening sunshine and have a cold beer after climbing (yes, it was in a cool box and yes I am getting very old!). We went over to Margalef to try out some new shady sectors. First up was the amazing chorreras sector; home to two walls covered entirely of dripping candle wax like tufa:
 |
| The rock at chorreras sector - not unusual you say?!... |
 |
| ...it is when the routes are no harder than 6c! Here one of the awesome 6b's in the chorreras sector, Margalef © Fredrik Nyberg |
I did all of the best routes on the wall to warm up, including three 6b's and two 6c's - all on this amazing rock. When we first arrived, we were the only ones at the crag and it was so nice to just tick away with no sound but the birds in the trees. Unfortunately it didn't last long. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, the Spanish climbers are starting to really grate on me. We normally don't have a problem as we're climbing mid-week and the occasional climbers that we do see are German, French, Brits or Eastern Europeans out on holiday who speak at normal volume and act respectfully. But for some reason the Spanish are something else. I hate to stereoptype and generalise but this is one case where it seems to be possible. It doesn't help that they tend to climb in big groups, but it's still no excuse. I've had plenty of days out bouldering in big groups in Font or the Peak District but we never take over the crag and spoil the atmosphere like the Spanish seem to. Today, the first others to arrive were a group of five - relatively small for a Spanish group - but it felt like a whole army. They immediately started singing at full volume and shouting to each other despite being stood a matter of metres apart and right next to us. Would you really do that if you arrived at a crag with only one other couple there climbing in peace? They continued like that the whole time we were there and it got worse when another group of six arrived not long after. They then excelled themselves by deciding to stand all over my bag and then sit down on it while they were watching someone climb and shout encouragement at him continuously for about 15mins, so we couldn't hear a word each other was saying and had to communicate by pointing while we were climbing! It was just ridiculous. I've had busy and noisy days with the Spanish at the crag (like last weekend at Raco de Missa when a huge group of Spaniards dumped their stuff directly on top of ours and completely surrounded us while we were sat down having a break), but today was another level. We finished the routes as quickly as possible and then beat a hasty retreat round to another sector in the hope of finding some peace and quiet away from them. The only positive was the comedy value that one of them provided with his haircut and fetching purple leggings:
The next sector - Culample 4 - was just round the corner. This was another excellent area, with much longer routes up to ~30m, and thankfully a lot quieter! Here I did a 7a then an amazing 7a+ called 'Fanatic' - one of the nicest of the grade I've done in Margalef - starting on a slab and finishing up the overhanging headwall, as well as a great 7b ('La funcionaria asesina'). Tash also managed to onsight a 6c+ here, in addition to the three 6b's she did at chorreras - so a good day for her.
I finished off with a go up an 8a called 'La Guardia'. The top section of this felt desperate on first acquaintance, and I spent a lot of energy working out a good sequence, as well as losing a lot of skin. But with a rest day planned for tomorrow I decided to try redpointing it, despite feeling absolutely destroyed. After a bit of a rest I managed to get through the lower crux but ran out of steam just below the top. A great route and I'm keen to come back to this sector to finish it off, as well as do some more onsighting. So only one thing remained...beer & picnic down by the lake!
 |
| Beer and sunshine...happy days! |
No comments:
Post a Comment