500th belay from Tash!

Not exactly true as there'll be loads of climbs I haven't recorded, but according to my logbook on UKC it was our 500th climb together this Tuesday. And what with her birthday on Saturday it'll have to be a double celebration. Or not!

Anyway the route in question was 'Twin Turbo' (7c) at L'Aparador in Siurana. I tried this over a month ago as one of my first routes after the long summer break but couldn't even do the crux moves. Today, after warming up, I tried it putting the draws in but fell from the final hard move through the crux. I wasn't surprised at failing but was quite pleased at how much easier it felt than last time. Anyway I lowered to the ground and did it next go, so ground-up I guess? On the way down I worked a few of the crux moves on the 7c+ next door but lost a lot of skin in the process, but that's ready for a redpoint next time we go up there.

We checked out the neighbouring crags of La Covassa and La Capella afterwards, where there's been a load of development since the new guide was published, especially at Covassa. A new sector seems to have been discovered on the right-hand side, following some gardening and ivy removal, which looks very good. No grades or names known so a trip to the campsite bar is required.

Yesterday (Thursday), we returned to Mont-roig for a bouldering session to try and top up the power levels. I was keen to have a go at linking the project right from the start, but instead failed to even repeat the link I did last Saturday. I initially thought this problem was impossible, but then made quite fast progress linking the individual moves so thought "it's not too bad after all". Now i'm back to my original thinking. Maybe not impossible but certainly very hard. The 7c grade might be justified for this one. We'll see...