Don't listen to Dave!

After a night and day of heavy rain yesterday we were all set to head up to Siurana this morning when I got a text from Dave - "Rained a lot last night...still big puddles in car park...no wind at all...will rock be dry?".

Anywhere else and I probably wouldn't have bothered driving up, but El Pati being the most unpredictable crag on Earth, where the amount of rain often has no correlation with the dryness and conditions of the crag, we decided to chance it. Plus the forecast for later in the week is atrocious so it may have been the only chance we got...

Warming up on 'Viagraman' it soon became apparent that conditions were absolutely mint. Rock completely dry and no hint of the all too common 'Pati paste', when the humidity condenses down onto the holds, making climbing a pretty unpleasant experience. Today it felt like all the holds had been jet-washed clean and you couldn't fail to climb whatever you wanted! And that's how it happened. After one go up the project to get the draws in I had a rest belaying Tash and then ticked it the next. 'Pati pa mi' (F8b) first redpoint and third go up it. I guess it must be soft at the grade, although everyone on the font of knowledge that is 8a.nu takes 8b for it. It breaks down into maybe a 7c up to a good rest then a hard & runout sequence on small crimps up to an amazing shakeout and finishes with a technical ~7a. It certainly took significantly less effort than 'De aqui a la luna y volver' at L'Aparador so maybe that is 8b after all (what I thought at the time to be honest). Or maybe I'm going much better than back in May? Who knows. What a great route anyway.

The moral of the story: Don't listen to Dave!

Paul setting off on 'Gato lerdo' (F7b+)

Getting into the crux moves on 'Gato lerdo'