Welcome to a slightly different blog… From now on Ali will be writing a purely climbing blog and I’ll be covering the “other stuff”. So if you want the beta on his latest crushes click HERE, or read on for the more fluffy stuff from our travels and non climbing life...
It doesn't happen very often around these parts (the last time was 2009) but it's certainly a spectacular sight! We headed up to Siurana, which had had a jolly good coating - we even had to use our "snow socks" a couple of times on the way up. The conditions were pretty good for climbing though and we had a productive weekend in the sheltered village sections. Ali ticked another 7c+ (You'd never believe his shoulder was hanging out of its socket less than two months ago!) and I did my first 7a of the year :-)
A snowy (but climbable) Sector Melafots!
Despite the occasional dusting of snow blowing off the trees this wall (Can Marges de Dalt) was a pretty pleasant place to climb in the snow!
The church at Siurana along with snow covered blossom... never seen that before!
The village looking very different to normal - note the icicles on the Hotel!
We'd been looking forward to this ride all week, having plotted a large circuit along tracks we've seen from the crags over the years. The first part of the day did feel slightly strange though, parking in Cornudella then cycling up on the road towards Siurana. I must have driven this road literally hundreds of times (and Ali even more) but it's a whole different experience on a bike - you notice far more things and of course it's bloody hard work!
Once at the goat farm we headed off the road and into new territory, along a windy track up to a long ridge which gave stunning views in all directions, towards Montsant and Margalef on one side and the Med on the other. Well worth the slog! We then dropped down to the village of Febro, where the Siurana Valley starts and leads down to the lake. The downhill was very fast and very fun to start, but then the track disintegrated somewhat... We'd seen on the map that this would be a short section on "difficult footpath" to link our circuit, but I wasn't quite expecting to be carrying my bike down a canyon! Anyway, an interesting interlude which served as a bit of pre-lunch comedy! It was plain sailing along the valley, again covering tracks we'd seen in the past but never been bothered to walk, hurrah for bikes :-)
This really was the path!
Trying not to slip and fall in...
Sandwiches and squashed pears in the sun :-)
Note: Ripe pears do not cope well with spending several hours bouncing around in a rucksack
After a few weeks of pretty mixed weather, where we had to make the most of dry days between rain instead of planning rest days for the less sunny days as is more usual here, the weather finally seems to have settled. It reminded me of the many damp days snatched between periods of extended rain that used to frustrate me in the UK, and I didn't like it!
Anyway, the first day out last week, Wednesday, we actually left a perfect sunny Montbrio and drove up the hill and ended up in the lingering mist at Arboli. With it being a shorter day we went to the roadside crags of Can Simiro and Can Mansa. Despite it being in the clag the rock was dry and temperatures were good for climbing - not exactly 'sticky damp', but not bad conditions.
I ticked off the remaining decent climbs here, including:
A qui ejaculada, deu ajuda 7a
Els impresentables (variant) 7b+
Poker d'alho 7b+
Alambrado sea dios 7b+
L'avi 7b+
Can Simiro in the mist.
Thursday we went up to Siurana and returned to Grau de la Covassa, where the rock elsewhere was a lot drier - as you can see in the photo of Herbolari below - but surprisingly the rock around the cave where we were was quite damp.
Sector Herbolari - drier than last week.
After warming up on a good but run out 6b+ I did a fantastic 7c (Crosta Daurada) and then surprised myself by ticking Via del Cugat (7c+) which I'd been on last week, despite a lot of the 'salty' holds in the roof being very wet. A great route at a nice esoteric sector. [I've since heard from Pete that on this same day there were 28 cars parked at the Fontscaldes parking areas - where you access the popular crags like El Pati, Primavera, Siuranella etc from - and we were the only ones climbing at our sector!]
Grau de la Covassa - well worth a visit! Both these routes are amazing.
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...
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...
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.
As per the title, we went up to El Pati in Siurana today to meet Dave and Javier. Tash was considering projecting the other good 7a here (Ay Mamiti) so I agreed to try and get a project there so we could both work them at the same time. As I've now done pretty much every route at El Pati (8b+ and down anyway) there was limited choice! But I had my eye on an 8b called 'Pati pa mi'. So after warming up putting the draws in Ay Mamiti for Tash, I went up my route bolt to bolt. It was pretty baltic and my fingers and toes didn't really warm up the whole way, but with the help of Dave's clip stick I managed to get up it and did all the moves first go. It turned out to be way easier than I'd expected with good rests both before and after the short crux section so it seems like a goer! New project for Ali...psyched!! Tash didn't have as much success on her route due to the run out crux section so she's less psyched. But she dragged me to El Pati so she'll have to face the consequences...after all, marriage is about compromise ;-)
Dave trying his hardest to blend in with the rock on 'El Prado del Rey' (F7b+) at El Pati.
We've been out a few times this week and I'm actually starting to feel some kind of climbing ability returning...albeit quite slowly!
We had a well-deserved holiday this Wednesday ;-) and for a change of scenery decided to head down to Pinell de Brai for some morning shade there. I'd originally planned to return to the cave sector - the main event here - but when we arrived there were some guys climbing at sector Al.la and the routes they were on looked really good so we got a bit sidetracked and didn't actually make it up to the cave in the end. After warming up on some 6b's and a couple of awesome 7a+'s, I then managed to onsight a really bouldery 7b+. This is my first 'difficult' route since getting back to Spain and it felt nice to be able to pull reasonably hard again. I guess it must have been soft if I managed to get up it first go, but I was pretty happy with that all the same! I followed it up with a superb 6c+ up at Parvulari Strep sector - although the crux on that was avoiding the crack where a bat was hiding from the sun! Never seen one so close up before - cute little guy he was.
Bat in the crack!
Today (Thursday) we went up to Siurana and returned to El Pati. This is one sector where I've spent A LOT of time, and I've pretty much climbed everything of any worth up to 8b+ there. The one route I hadn't been on before was a 7c just right of Viagraman, so I had planned to project this today. After warming up on Viagraman though I thought 'why not' and tried for the onsight. It was thin and technical, and I got totally wrong-handed on the crux but somehow managed to get up it by the skin of my teeth. Another surprising onsight success!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
With Tash's back still playing up and the temperatures remaining in the high twenties it's been a fairly quiet week on the climbing front. Today we got back out to Siurana and had another fairly relaxed day just trying to get back into things, without pushing it too much right away.
First stop was a strength & fitness test for us both on a very familiar route at El Pati sector, which was still in the shade when we arrived - Viagraman (7a). This is the route I used to warm up on every day when I was working Kalea Borroka, and which towards the end wouldn't even get the blood flowing as I was so fit and familiar with the route. It was also one of Tash's first 7a's. Today it got me pumped! I still managed to get up it, and every move felt as familiar as it did two years ago, but I had to actually put some effort in to get up; something I wasn't so familiar with! A sign of how much training I'll have to put in to get back to my previous level.
After warming up on that, and Tash succesfully top-roping it with a few rests (just happy that she can actually climb again!), we moved on to Siuranella East which was coming into the shade. The left-hand side of this sector is a place I'd never climbed at before, but it turned out to have some absolute gems. Actually some of the best of the grade in Siurana.
'La marca del sorru' (F6b+) *** - incredible flake finishing with some jamming and laybacking where the crack narrows
'L'angelet' (F6c) ** - nice pocketed lower wall leading to the awkward layback crack
'Turbo-lover' (F6c+) *** - stiff crimpy crux pulling through the bulge leading to the steeper headwall on good pockets and hidden edges
Tash surveying old stomping grounds. From L - R El Pati, El Cargol tower, Primavera.
I finished off the day with a lap on another old favourite - 'Lo deje to blanco' (7a). This one I actually fell off last weekend at the end of the day (the first year I've done that after a period of no climbing, so another sign of my current weakness). Thankfully I got up it ok today!
Tash's back seems to be recovering so fingers crossed we can get out more from now on...
The high temperatures and even higher humidity this past week have delayed us getting back into climbing like we wanted to, but this weekend we had high hopes for a return to our usual crushing! Sadly, this wasn't to be...
Saturday we visited a brand new crag to us - Tartareu - up north of Lleida, which hadn't been top of our priorities in the past due to the concentration of lower grade routes, but given that we haven't clipped a bolt for the best part of 3 months I thought it might be a good time to check it out!
Here I did half a dozen routes from 6a - 6c+ before it was game over through pump and painful fingers. Not exactly my finest day's climbing and hardly worth the 4hr round trip(!), but we've got to start somewhere I guess. And at least the crag turned out to be better than I'd expected and somewhere worth coming back to.
Tartareu - mediocre Spanish limestone at its best!
After a bit too much wine to celebrate/commiserate our first day back on the rock Sunday wasn't exactly an alpine start. The temperatures had magically dropped overnight though, with a fresh breeze blowing, so we stayed local and headed up to Siurana.
After the first route Tash's back was giving her serious problems and she could hardly move (after she slipped and jarred it at the dusty crag yesterday?). So that spelled the end of her climbing day! I did a handful of nice routes I hadn't done before, but was finding the 6b+'s hard enough. Thankfully Tash's back was now hurting just belaying, so I was able to use that as an excuse to go home for a beer :-)
Highlight of the day was definitely driving on the brand new Borges del Camp bypass which reduces the Montbrio to Siurana run by over five minutes ipso facto giving us a whole TEN minutes extra crushing time at the crag!
Hopefully we can make use of this early Christmas present and actually start crushing again...or at least walking in Tash's case!
Today we went to a new sector in Siurana (Can Famal) - some might say it's a crag full of sandbags right next to the smelly waste water pipe; others would call it a hidden gem of a crag, a lost paradise - I'm with the second mindset!
So after bashing our way through the overgrown jungle that is the approach path, we made it down past the stinky water pipe and arrived at the shady crag.
The approach path!
Can Famal crag in the sun (photo from the guide).
Thankfully the crag turned out to be pretty good, despite the routes being pretty hard for the grade. We started on a brilliant steep and twisting 6b+ crack ('Stramonium flash') which started off with a bit of an offwidth, then steep bridging and finally some strenuous undercutting and laybacking - classic! I then did a total sandbag of a 7a. A good route, but hard. I finished off with a '7b', or more accurately the '7b' finished me off! It felt as hard as a 7b+ or even 7c at some of the other sectors in Siurana and was a serious fight. After a steep start, there's a bit of easy slab climbing before the wall steepens up again and the route follows a thin slanting crack line which you have to undercut at first then switch over to laybacking - very delicate - and when you get to some good holds and think it's all over then the crux arrives! And even after this there's a hard pull through the final bulge just before the belay! A hidden 3* classic - 'El llangardaix mogut'.
Tash just about to set off on another sandbag!
For the flower lovers - roses in bloom in Siurana.
To both of our surprise, we ticked our projects today. The morning basically followed exactly the same format as last Thursday. I put the draws in for Tash on 'Bindelef', then put the draws in my route. I actually said to Tash "I'll be amazed if I do it today", because it felt so humid and sweaty. But after Tash succesfully top-roped her route, I redpointed mine. This time there was no messing about on the crux but I almost blew if afterwards on the top wall when my foot popped, then forgot what I was doing and got pumped working the sequence out!
Tash then surprised herself and on her first redpoint go she did her route. Her second 7a+! Watch out Matt, that 7b doesn't look too far away! ;-)
As for the grade of 'De aqui a la luna y volver', well it gets 8a+ in the guide so I'll take that for now. No-one seems to have done it in the usual places (UKC or 8a.nu) and I've never seen anyone on it in all the years I've been in Siurana. Plus when I first tried it there was no chalk on it at all beyond the lower crux, despite the wall never getting wet to clean it off, so maybe it hasn't had a repeat? Who knows. The first time I got on it I could barely do any of the upper crux moves, and linking them felt so far away. The individual moves certainly felt infinitely harder than anything on 'Zona O', which gets 8b (concensus is that it's soft at this though). So maybe 'De aqui a la luna...' is more 8b than 8a+? Especially if you avoid copping out rightwards into the 7c to avoid the hard bit just before the crux. Anyway, despite the band of slightly suspect rock at the bottom of the wall the route is incredible, taking a line up the most blank and unlikely section of wall between the two obvious crack lines. Hopefully more people will get on it now...
There's not much to say about today other than that really!
We went to L'Aparador again. I warmed up on Tash's new project 'Bindelef' (7a+), then put the draws in my route. After a rest I had a redpoint. I felt good on it, managing to get plenty back at the mid-height rest, and got all the way through the crux sequence. Just when I thought it was in the bag, when I was rocking over to reach good holds and guaranteed success, something went wrong. I'd like to blame my rock shoe (the big flap of rubber that's coming off the sole caught on the edge I was rocking on to so I had to hang around adjusting that for a few seconds), but ultimately I didn't rock over far enough and fell off literally tickling the bottom of the final sidepull! Grrr
Oh well, at least it proved that the route's possible. Something I didn't think the first time I got on it. So we'll have to see what happens next week when I get back on it...
The L'Aparador wall at Siurana (for anyone that doesn't know and is interested). This guy's on Disbarauxa (7b). Tash's route (Rauxa) that she did on Tuesday is the crack just to the left. My project is up the blank wall just left again.
I had my first day back on the L'Aparador project at Siurana for about two and a half weeks today. After warming up on 'Rauxa' again I had a go up it putting the draws in. Getting reacquainted with it was a humbling experience and it felt way harder than I'd remembered; especially the moves just before the real hard bit, which tire you out before you even get to the crux sequence! But surprisingly, after I'd worked the moves again and got to the top, I managed to link the whole crux sequence on top-rope - the first time I've done this, so the route finally felt possible. The only problem now will be managing to stay at the hands off rest long enough to recover from the lower half (the rest position means your toes and calf muscles get tired instead so you end up moving before you're recovered!).
Despite feeling pretty tired from working the moves and doing that link I decided to have a go on redpoint, but it was fairly short lived! I got through the lower half again and to the hands off rest, but didn't really wait very long so I only made it into the bottom of the crux sequence before the juice ran out! Hopefully after a rest day tomorrow I can have a decent redpoint on Thursday...
Tash also did her first 7a+ today (Rauxa to the first belay), which she was obviously pretty chuffed with! :-)
We nipped up to Siurana today for a quick climb before work this morning. I was keen to get back on the 8a+ at L'Aparador that I tried last week and Tash wanted to have another go at 'Rauxa'. After putting the draws in 'Rauxa' for Tash, I went up 'De aqui a la luna'. Thankfully it felt much more do-able than last week, and the first half felt positively easy (although the dodgy rock at the bottom was still worrying!!). I also realised that you can get an almost hands off rest before the crux if you lean into the wall enough. Sadly, the crux bulge felt as hard as I remembered, but I managed to work out a slightly easier sequence and almost linked it in one. Unfortunately, as quickly as I was working sequences out I was also losing skin on the teeny crimps so had to sack it off. After belaying Tash on her route I decided to try and link the bottom half, up to the rest, before moving out right to the mid-height belay on the 7c next door, thereby missing out the hard bit on the 8a+. This I managed to do, so all that's left is some refining of the end of crux sequence and then it'll be redpoint time.
This'll be the last blog for a while, as we're off to France on Saturday. Happy days....
Having gone with the easy option yesterday, there was nothing left for me to do at L'Aparador today apart from get on 'De aqui a la luna y volver'. With some very suspect rock towards the bottom and no chalk anywhere I was a bit nervous about getting on it. The route goes straight up the steep and very blank looking wall, in between two very obvious and well-chalked crack lines. On these two routes there are plenty of chalked holds visible in the cracks all the way up, and they go at 7b+ and 7c, so I was a bit concerned at how hard this one was going to be, given that there aren't really any holds to be seen at all!
After a quick warm-up on Rauxa (7a+) to get the draws in for Tash to try, I set off. As expected, the bottom section was a little nerve wracking due to the rock quality, meaning that I probably got more pumped than normal overgripping all the holds! Thankfully this band is short-lived and after three or four clips you get to much more typical solid Siurana limestone. The rest of the route is stunning, with superb technical climbing and is steeper than you normally expect in Siurana, meaning it's going to be pumpy to link together. It's given 8a+ in the guide but, although it's difficult to know until I've done some overlapping sections and found the resting places, I suspect it may be hard for that - even pushing 8b. There were two sections of climbing that took me a long time to work out, and even then the sequences were desperate and runout. But it's an incredible route and in the shade all day so it'll be a good project to have for the next few months or so with the temperatures on the increase. So we'll see how it goes...
After a few days resting tired skin, fingers and forearms we went up to Siurana this morning. The temps are still pretty high, so we were in the shade again at L'Aparador - one of the better hot weather crags, with amazing crack climbs up to 40m. However, as I've done most of these and wasn't feeling ready to commence battle with the one remaining 8 at the crag (due to the lack of chalk or even any sign of it having been climbed before), I settled for a much more convenient alternative - the 7c+ that shares a lower-off with one of the 6c's on the left. Warm-up on the 6c going up; put the clips in the 7c+ coming down - easy!
I also had a quick play on the route on the way down, and worked out one or two moves - it felt steep! After a rest belaying Tash I had a 'no expectations' redpoint, but wasn't really warmed up properly and hadn't worked out the moves as well as I thought so spent a lot of time dithering and completely powered out well before the crux. I came down and had another rest and then did it next go. A strange route - 6 bolts long and with only about 6-7m of actual hard climbing, but the moves were excellent and just what I needed (i.e. bouldering on a rope to get me a bit stronger!).
On the way back we checked out the La Capella crag - home to Ondra's latest addition and another permanently shady crag, useful for the next few months. The 9a 'Jungle Speed' looks like the most do-able route of its grade I've ever seen. If I hadn't just seen a video of someone on it the other day then I'd have guessed around the 8a-8b mark! It is steep, but the holds all look big enough that I reckon even I could pull on them - the footholds/body positions must be atrocious to bump the grade up that much! Ondra's new possible 9b didn't look so easy unfortunately. Thankfully there were also plenty of nice looking 8a's to try when we eventually get round to visiting.
I might pull my finger out tomorrow and see what the final 8 on the L'Aparador wall is like - hopefully as good as the rest of the routes...
Now that the 1st of April's out of the way I can explain what really happened today. Nothing as exciting as a 9b but still a pretty good day. It was really warm and we did go to El Pati and Tash did finish off her project there with no drama at all - 'Viagraman' (yet another 7a for her!). I also finished off something I'd been on once before in November last year - a 7c+ called 'Prisa mata'. The route starts off pretty poorly, with the rock on the easy lower wall being quite rotten (I knocked a few big holds off on the way up). Then you get to the roof and have to extend the draw under it to avoid horrific rope drag and pull on some very suspicious holds through the roof until you can clip the next draw over the roof. Clipping this draw you're hanging with both hands off a hollow jug which feels like it'll break off any day, and facing an almighty and painful swing into the slab below if it does! Not nice. But despite all this the route's worth persevering with, as once you get onto the upper wall where the hard climbing is the rock is immaculate and the moves fantastic. It follows a thin crack at first requiring a subtle combination of laybacking, pinching and classic finger locks, then continues up the wall above on some hidden pockets and undercuts. After putting the draws in I did it first redpoint today, but it was pretty close!
Afterwards, as we'd both finished our routes so quickly, we decided to treat ourselves (well...Tash treated us more precisely!) to some pastries from the bakery in Cornudella which we ate in the sunshine down by the lake underneath Siurana. Not a bad way to start a Friday! :-)
Summer's definitely on the way, and with no wind today we decided to climb in the shade for the first time this year to get some better conditions. A bit worrying that we're having to retreat to the shade so early in the year! Destination: Reserva India at Siurana - somewhere I went to once in the first few weeks of moving to Spain, but didn't think much of so never went back. On second visit today it was much better than I remembered and perfect for the hot weather at the moment.
The day didn't start so well mind, as we got there to find a waterfall gushing down one half of the crag (the part where the icefall sometimes forms in winter), meaning that a lot of the routes were out, and then I slipped on the wet rock and went down pretty hard on my elbow and hip.
The warm up was 'Jeronimo' (7a) and I left the draws in for Tash to have a go. It was quite satisfying how easy this felt today, as I remember it felt tough when I did it two and a half years ago. I then did a brilliant 7b climbing an obvious groove called 'Cheyene'. The only drama was when a hold ripped completely off the wall at the 2nd bolt and sent me flying backwards! I lowered back to the ground and then did it all the way - nice route.
After working the route once on lead, Tash had a redpoint go on Jeronimo. She managed to get through the crux at the bottom but frustratingly her foot slipped in the groove on the easy part! When she'd calmed down and the red mist had dissipated she did it fairly smoothly next go, so not all bad! Her first '7a in a day'!
Next up for me was the 8a breaking out left from Cheyene and heading up to the awesome hanging crack that splits the prow. It felt a little bit eliminate at the bottom, though the climbing was still good, but once you got up into the corner below the cracked prow it became 3 star territory. Pulling round the roof with awkwardly high feet and getting established in the crack was the technical crux, but climbing the final crack was way pumpier than I expected (not helped when I forgot how to do it and then nearly blew it when my foot popped on a dusty foothold just as I grabbed the next hold which kept me on!). Despite all this, thankfully I managed it first redpoint.
Hopefully next time we go here the waterfall will have dried up and we can get on some of the other routes.
With the forecast predicting warm but breezy, we headed up to Siuranella central today. They were right about the wind, but the sun never really came out properly until later this afternoon, so it stayed quite cool all the time we were up there. Good temps for climbing but a little chilly belaying. Tash onsighted a 6b+ as her warm up, then I put the draws in a 7a called 'Boca seca man', for her to try later. With my fingers warmed up, I had a go at an amazing 7c+ (Traficans de ferralla). The crux came quite low down, just above the 3rd bolt, and was fairly typical Siurana climbing with small sidepulls and poor feet. After this it eased off, with plenty of interesting technical climbing split by good rests and finished with a rockover onto a precarious slab. I came down, belayed Tash on the 7a, and then did it first redpoint - thankfully with no dramas (and a good job, as the holds at the crux were skin shredders!). Another fantastic route, as this photo hopefully shows:-
