Making the best of the British weather

Since the torrential rain all day Monday and Tuesday the weather's been a bit frustrating this week. Forecasts have predicted rain most days which hasn't really ended up coming to anything - I guess that's a good thing?! Nevertheless we've managed to get out, and probably more than usual, as every day it was a case of 'making the most of it before the rain comes'.

Wednesday we stupidly opted for a 'quick drying' crag - La Riba - but underestimated the normally trickling river, which had become a completely impassable raging torrent.

Dry crag. Wet river!

We salvaged the day after a long detour to end up at La Mussara, which was a little too hot in the sun so shredded my tips on some crimpy wall climbs. Highlight of the day was a superb 7b called 'Noni' - a burly start on rock and features not dissimilar to the middle bit of Malham cove.

Thursday we were up at Siurana, where there were still plenty of wet streaks about. We opted for a new esoteric sector - Grau de la Covassa - up on the Siuranella cliffs. Turned out to be quite good. I had a go up a hard 7c+ there named 'Via del Cugat'. Had a decent redpoint on it but need to go back and finish it off.

Wetness at sector Solarium - route is 'Total Insanity' 8a.

Friday was another morning spent failing on the major project at Mont-roig. I still haven't managed to repeat the link I did a few weeks ago - not sure if this is to do with the dampness there's been every time since or if I'm getting weaker. Hope it's just the former! Anyway I did manage to do something new there - 'Atog allargada', given font 7a+ in the guide but I've learnt not to believe anything written in that! Felt the same as 'Parasiempre' extension so probably 7b/+ ish. Will be good to get to Font again in April to get a feel for how bouldering grades actually work again!

Not a huge amount of new climbing on it but thought I'd record it anyway.

Saturday it was supposed to rain again but as per usual it didn't really come to anything and there was even bright sunshine in the morning!

Autumn colours in the Priorat vineyards. Montsant in the background.

Dave, Paul & Sarah were planning to go to Montsant so we headed up to Raco de Missa to meet them. Turns out they only had the old Rockfax guide which has the most inaccurate approach description ever written. So they arrived just as we had to leave at 3pm - in fact, Dave didn't actually get there until we'd left, after a 3hr hike around the hills trying to find the crag! We had a decent day's climbing before the drizzle came, though were both tired from the previous three days. I managed to fill in a few gaps, on-sighting some superb low 7's that I'd overlooked previously.

Anyway, the latest long term forecast shows just a few more days of bad weather then it looks to be finally settling down to what we're more used to at this time of year - cold, crisp blue sky days perfect for crushing in the sun. Fingers crossed it turns out to be accurate...