To chip or not to chip...

After the mixed weather over the weekend the sun has finally returned and the temperatures are up. Once the morning cloud inversion had burnt off it turned out to be a beautiful day up in Siurana. Today we headed to one familiar sector (Can Gans Dionis) and one new (Ca la Boja).

Tash admiring the view before heading down to the sectors.

I warmed up on a weird 7a+ called 'Pendre la tete', and then did a 7b starting out of a tree! Both routes were a bit strange, in that they climbed slightly away from the bolts so you never felt 'on route'. But they both had nice climbing on them despite this. Tash did a nice 6a+ and 6b:

Tash on 'Eto e diferente' (F6a+) at Can Gans Dionis, Siurana.

We then went to a sector that I hadn't been to before. It's not huge, with only a few decent routes, and I'd always been put off by the fixed ropes that I thought you had to start off, but it turned out that it was better to start from the floor. I did the brilliant 7b called 'La loca mas loca del bedevil' - chipped / drilled into existence, but it's one route that I can forgive the creator for!! It was amazing. Steep, with big moves between pockets on an otherwise totally blank wall and then a satisfying dyno to finish! I had a play on the 8a+ to the right afterwards (Fam de Mai) but it was starting to get a bit warm by now and it felt very tough for the grade (there was one move I couldn't do) so I sacked it off.

As much as I hate the idea of massacring a piece of rock by chipping / drilling holds, especially ones as perfect and aesthetic as the Siurana crags, I have to admit that they did create some pretty nice routes on occasion! That doesn't excuse them for doing it, but I guess it was a while ago and they had a different mindset back then. I can see why linking seemingly blank sections between obvious pockets and other features might be appealing...but they weren't to know how much things would move on, in terms of climber's abilities. An impossibly blank wall to one person might just be a 9b+ in the waiting for Ondra....

One down...not many left to go!

Not much to say about today really, and I'm not sure whether to feel pleased or disappointed.

It was very cloudy up towards the hills but sunny down on the coast so we opted for Masriudoms again, hoping that the rain from Friday hadn't caused too much seepage. The crag was still bone dry, so we were worrying for nothing!

Everything went to plan - I warmed up, put the draws in the lower half of 'Los rancios de la aldea' and left some draws in the mid-height belay to collect on the way past. Then had a bit of a rest belaying Tash on ATP and chatting to Karin & Steve. Then I climbed the route first go. The lower half felt pretty steady, so I'm pleased about that - if I compare it to how hard it felt a year or two ago when I was trying it. I managed to rest and de-pump at the chains of the lower half, and then the climbing on the top half just felt like a case of keeping it together to the end (even the scary crux cross-through didn't feel too bad) so I'm pleased about that too - nice to know I haven't lost all my stamina! The climbing was just as good as I remember, and the whole route makes for easily one of the best and longest routes at the crag.

But lowering down I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. As much as I wanted to get it done, I also didn't want to tick another route off the 'to-do' list, as I'm running out of new stuff to do there too quickly - I wish there were 10 more routes just like it! I only have one more extension to do in the main area (Ricacera 8a+) and then the rest start off the ledge on the right, which is a bit more of a pain to get to, up the fixed ropes. There were draws in the 8a 'Tango Ferez' today which did look good so maybe I'll get on that next time?

 


Steve Crowe on the crux starting moves of 'Ricacera' (F8a)

 

I belayed Tash on ATP and got some shots of Steve on 'Ricacera', before it was time to go.






 




Try to spot Steve on the extension to 'Ricacera' (F8a+) - another HUGE route!! Today's route for me follows the pink dots to a belay below a roof about 10m out of shot!
Half-height belay marked with the big dot :-)



 


Bouldering & cave paintings?!....in Arbolí?!

Well....not exactly!

After the torrential rain all day Friday and a poor forecast for Saturday we decided to buy a new coffee pot and resign ourselves to a day of mooching and watching films. Unfortunately the coffee pot didn't work (damn Chinos!!), and it didn't even rain a drop all day :-(  But after so much rain the day before and a better forecast for Sunday we settled on convincing ourselves that everything would be wet and we'd be better off inside. During the afternoon I also had to convince myself that what I saw out of the window WASN'T blue sky. They'd forecast rain so how could it be blue sky? Best not to look outside.

On Sunday morning I obviously regretted this decision, as the cloud was back and hanging low over the hills. It wasn't raining, but it was cold and very grey. We decided to head out anyway, but changed the original plan of Margalef or Raco de Missa in favour of somewhere closer.

Destination today: Arbolí - and the sectors around the Ermita de Sant Pau.

The not very picturesque 'Ermita de Sant Pau', Arbolí - complete with a yapping ankle-biter guard dog.



Overlooking Arbolí village. It was pretty grim on first arrival...and stayed that way all day!



This is, again, somewhere that I've never been so thought it'd be a good day to try it out - if it turned out to be rubbish then no great loss.



The crags were easy enough to find, but unfortunately not the most inspiring. Pretty short (15m) and vaguely reminiscent of somewhere like Horseshoe quarry in the peak, only natural. The routes actually turned out to be better than they first appeared, with some interesting moves, and the rock was very solid, if a little damp today. It was hard to get warm and then stay warm with the really cold, damp air that was around, but we managed to get plenty of climbing done. I on-sighted five 7a or 7a+ routes, despite not being able to feel my fingers once. I had to resort to redpointing another 7a+ though after getting a ridiculous cold pump about 4m off the floor!


Tash managed to on-sight the worst looking 6b in the world and redpoint a nice 6c with "icy sausage fingers", so a good day for her too.




After we got tired of fighting the battle to stay warm we went to check out where some guys had appeared from earlier in the day with a Black Diamond Mondo pad. I'd forgotten that a new bouldering guide to the Prades area has been published - must check it out some time. Anyway we had a quick look around and found some half decent looking problems. It's not Fontainebleau by any stretch of the imagination, but worth a day or two!




Nice looking traverse line.




Very good looking problem on small crimps up the overhanging wall.

 

The other highlight of the day was finding these neolithic cave paintings under one section of the crag...amazing that even back then they were climbing hard!





Cave painting man climbs F9b+

We ended the day with a scout around some of the other crags in the area to see if they were worth coming back for. For future reference:

El Cremat - no.

Forat del Serratell - yes.

El Duc - half day?

So despite the crappy weather it ended up being quite a productive day. On-sight mileage, tour of a new bouldering area and some potential new crags as well as taking in some culture with a bit of prehistoric art!

Masriudoms in the rain...

It had rained overnight and after my intense climbing day yesterday I was a bit achey so we were very tempted just to stay in bed, but with a poor forecast for the next few days we decided to make the effort!

Destination: Masriudoms again. This place is so steep and overhangs so much that it stays dry even in the heaviest rain (apart from after prolonged periods when the seepage comes through).

I put the draws in the first half of 'Los rancios de la aldea' and then re-redpointed it again. I came down and collected some more draws and then headed on up the extension. It's another incredible addition to the crag - 50m long and with incredible tufa climbing right the way to the top. The crux of the upper half involves taking an undercut with your left hand and then getting your feet really high and doing a strange off-balance cross through move right across your body to get an undercut sidepull which you have to almost fall onto. One final rock-over onto a really high right foot leads to a clip and a rest before another 15m or so of easier, but still pumpy climbing, gets you to the top. The crux section is quite scary, as you already have your feet a few metres above the bolt when you start the hard moves and then it's another 3-4 metres of strange off-balance climbing before the next one. After getting the draws in to the top I managed to link the second half of the route on top-rope, despite being really tired from yesterday, so hopefully next time I manage to get through the bottom half (definitely still the crux of the whole route) I'll be able to have a good go at the extension. Anyway, it's a good one for building up some endurance on, as it's really long with plenty of shake-outs in the upper half and pumpy climbing in between.

Tash made good progress on her project (the pumpy 6c first section of ATP) so she was happy!

The incredible long routes at Masriudoms - 'Los rancios de la aldea' full route (F8a+), 50m on the left and 'ATP' L3 (F8a), 40m on the right.

It snowed a few centimetres in Siurana today and more forecast for tomorrow, with changeable weather on the way at the weekend so we'll see what we manage to get done in the next few days...

Walking out from Masriudoms in the rain after another successful day.

Masriudoms in the sun...

Another cold start (though not as cold as it has been of late) and an earlier start at work on Wednesdays meant that we (me & Javi) decided to go to my local crag, that is Masriudoms, in order to maximise climbing time.

   

Masriudoms - home of free oranges, limes, almonds and most importantly...tufas!



"Old French dude" trying the 7c+ (the connection comes straight up from the left to join the route here)

I started with my usual warm-up on the mega-long line of ATP. The climbing is relatively consistent all the way and pretty juggy, and has belays at different points up it so you can just go as far as you want depending on how good you're feeling, until you get nicely warmed up. Today I stopped at the 7b+ chains for my warm-up (other days I've been pumped at the end of the 6c so I knew I was feeling relatively good today)

I've been to Masriudoms so many times now that, although I never get bored of climbing there, I am running out of new routes to do very quickly. One of my only potential 'on-sights' left to do was a connection route on the left wall linking the start of a 7c into the end of a 7c+ to give, unsurprisingly, another 7c+. It sounds a bit pointless but, in fact, it's a more direct line than either of the other routes and is probably the most obvious way up this bit of wall. Anyway, despite having climbed both the 7c and 7c+ before and this connection having very little new climbing, I was nevertheless pleased to do it first go (on-sight / retro-flash / whatever you want to call it!!)

[This French guy's mate had the most amazing hands I've ever seen - ridiculously fat sausage fingers!!!]

"Old French dude" higher up on the 7c+

One of the other routes I have left to do here is the 8a+ extension to 'Los rancios de la aldea'. This is one of the best routes at Masriudoms, even just to half way (hard 8a), with amazing varied and technical climbing up some quality tufas. Unfortunately it's starting to show signs of over-use with some crucial footholds getting polished, to the extent that it's quite reminiscent of the catwalk at Malham! Anyway, with the intention of attempting the extension some time soon I decided to try and repeat the lower half and familiarise myself with it again. So I put the draws in and worked the crux moves. After a quick rest I managed to re-redpoint the route, though it was a bit touch-and-go moving rightwards to the final big tufa, where the difficulties end and there are some jugs to shake out on. Bring on the extension!

Me on 'Los rancios de la aldea' - the first belay is just below the top of this picture - the full route is twice this length (50m!!)





I finished the day with a lap on what is fast becoming my party piece at this crag - ATP again, but this time to the chains at the top of the 8a. It's such a fun route to climb - 40m of the most perfect tufa climbing and when someone has the draws in all the way then you can just keep going 'til you fall. By now it was time to leave, and after packing A LOT of climbing into only a few hours I was feeling pretty tired too.

Two 'wad' ticks in a day in Siurana...

The temperatures remained low this week so it was another cold start to the day driving up to Siurana (-4°). The icefall below Reserva India seems to be forming nicely again! We went to Can Piqui Pugui, one of the most classic 'old-school' sectors in Siurana and somewhere I hadn't been for a while. It's always a good bet that it'll be warm down there and today we weren't disappointed. Perfect climbing temps - t-shirt for climbing and down jacket for belaying. I warmed up on a new 7a (Marvi Forever) to the left of Delicatessen, which was bolted only last year and turned out to be a great route. It still needs a bit more traffic to clean it up properly but the rock and the moves on it were fantastic, and there wasn't even a hint of polish - something which you fully expect to find in such an old sector. Then I got on 'Decidet en petit comite' (soft 7b) - a bit of a one-move-wonder going off the top of the massive flake, but another good route. Tash managed to get the draws in 'Toca-me-la Sam' (6c+) and had a decent redpoint go but fell at the final undercut crux. I then finished with 'Cleptomania' (7c) - a route I'd been saving the on-sight on for a while. I was pleased (a) most importantly to finally get this done, as it has a bit of a reputation as a hard 7c with some quite technical climbing (typical of Siurana!) and (b) that it didn't feel too bad - every move felt totally in control and I still had plenty left at the chains - time to get on some more 7c+ on-sights?! Above all though it was yet another brilliant route - I love Siurana!

The French Petzl team turned up mid-morning (including Alizée Dufraisse and the 15 year old 9a+ wonderkid Enzo Oddo) so we watched them for a bit before it was time to go to work.

Alizée Dufraisse (French wad-ess) on the awesome looking 'Chicane' (F8c+) at sector Can Piqui Pugui, Siurana and another French guy on 'Gigololo' (F8a+) in the background.

Temperature plummets 15° in a week!!!

Saturday

On Tuesday this week I was climbing with no top on and worried about it getting too hot. Today it was -1° on leaving the house and -4° driving up the hill. Originally we were planning to go up to Raco de Missa (Montsant) but as soon as we got outside and hit the icy air it was clear this would have been a mistake (despite it being glorious wall to wall sunshine). So a quick change of plan and we were on our way to Siurana instead, in search of a sheltered suntrap.

Destination: Two sectors that I hadn't been to before called Can Parasit and La Planxa ("the iron" - see pic to see why it's called this!) for a day of easy on-sight mileage. First stop Can Parasit on a mission to tick the crag between us. I did all the routes 6c+ and above, and Tash (tried) to do the sub-6c routes. She started well, on-sighting a 6a and 6a+ but got shut down right at the very end of an awesome 6b+ where the wall steepened up. We then moved on to La Planxa where I did a very nice short but explosive 7b+ and a 7a+ rising traverse along the edge of the boulder. I was quite pleased with the 7b+ on-sight, as there was no chalk to follow and the pockets were quite dirty - which makes a big difference on something so short and bouldery.

'Intercity' (F7b+) on the La Planxa block at Siurana. Well named - it means 'the iron'!

Some Spanish girl climbing 'El tiempo se ha reido de los que no han venido' (F6c) as we were walking back to the car.

We bumped into Mac & Holly walking back to the car so went for a brew in their van to catch up and end a very nice sunny but cold day.

Routes ticked:-

Cara Estaca 7a

El pupes 7a

Montazer al Zaidi 6c+

Ma mola molt 6c+

Libertarias 7a

Mr. Muss 7a

El caganer del ruc 7a

Kagarro malababa 6b+

Intercity 7b+

Tupac Amaru 7a+

Sunday
Today we went to another new sector; this time one of the Arboli crags called Mas d'en Rei. It was bitterly cold again walking in (despite blue skies) thanks to an icy wind.

Tash walking in along the ridge with great views down to Reus and the coast.

After walking around in circles for a while at the old farmhouse trying to find the path dropping down, we finally found the right one and headed down into the trees. It's always a bit worrying going to brand new sectors like this when you can't see the place until you arrive, especially when there's a bit of a walk in. When we arrived at the start of the crag we were a little disappointed to say the least. The rock was a bit vegetated, dirty and broken and none of the best looking lines were bolted. Plus it wasn't very sheltered so it felt damn cold, even in the sun.

Tash underneath the left-hand side of the crag - it looks better in this photo than it actually was!

So we were pretty close to just opting for a token route and then leaving. But there was one more little sector hidden round the corner, separate from the rest, which held a glimmer of hope. After a bit of bush-whacking through some pretty nasty brambles we arrived at what looked like an outcast from Siurana - a small but awesome looking wall with some really nice clean lines up it. And to top it off, it was a total suntrap - perfect! I warmed up on a good, steep, but slightly dirty sandbag 7a crack - it felt like very hard work to start the day with and I got a bit more pumped than I'd have liked (but things always feel a grade or two harder with no chalk or tickmarks, and when the rock's a bit dirty) I left the rope up for Tash to top-rope on for the rest of the day - she had quite a few goes up it but it was a little too steep and bouldery for her, although she got pretty pumped trying!

Next up was a fantastic 7b up the centre of the wall. Brilliant thin cracks and flakes linking between some horizontal breaks - really nice climbing, and I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the rock was, given how little traffic this crag obviously gets (we didn't see a single person the whole day and there was no chalk on any of the routes!) Then came another brilliant 7b+ on the extreme right of the wall, starting with some nice technical vert climbing leading to a steeper wall and finishing up a perfect jamming crack! The final route turned out to be another total sandbag. I tried for the O/S, but after going up and down at the crux a dozen times I just couldn't figure out how to do it and sagged onto the rope. It's either lost a hold or two, or it's badly graded. Even after the low crux moves, which felt desperate once I'd actually worked out the best way, it wasn't all over. But the route was such good quality that I was psyched to give it another go, despite feeling pretty tired by this point. After a rest belaying Tash, I managed to redpoint it first go (although it was a bit of a fight at the second crux). It felt like hard and bouldery 7c, but it's difficult to tell when there's no chalk and the rock's dusty. Equally, I could have just been more tired than I thought - who knows?

By now we were both knackered and the late afternoon sunshine was starting to go off the wall so we headed home for thai curry & christmas cake :-)

Lazing in the sunshine between routes (the best bit of the crag is just round the corner out of sight)