Hasta luego...

So at long last the summer term's finished and tomorrow we set off on our jollies :-)

First stop is Aigüestortes National Park in the Pyrenees for some (hopefully) cooler granite climbing then we'll be working our way westward. So don't expect any updates until mid August when we arrive back in the UK. Fingers crossed for six weeks of perfect blue sky days...

There's more to Prades than climbing!!!

After a surprisingly stressful week at work in the form of some "open days" (where the parents of all the kids classes come to sit in on a lesson - whose bright idea was that?!!), I was ready to get away and relax. Neither of us are that psyched for sport climbing at the moment with it being so hot and it seemed a little silly to drive all the way up to the pyrenees when we'll be there later this week, so we opted for some walking and more exploring around the Prades area. Again I'll just post some photos of some of the highlights.

Day 1 was a walk down in the gorges around Siurana. A very familiar area for climbing but I'd never explored this end of the valley.

After a long and painful bush-whack along from the source of the Siurana river at La Febro (which we were led to believe was a half decent track!) we finally emerged below the Corral Nou sector at Siurana for a very welcome dip.

This little chap was sunning himself on a rock.

Another beautiful pool - this time big enough for a swim!

Another nice pool in the gorge - no swim this time!

And then we had a BBQ on the La Mussara ridge overlooking Reus.

BBQ with a view!

Best burger in my life...and ya don't get a view like that at McDonald's!!

The bright lights of Reus town!

Next day we started off from Prades village and headed up the hill...

....to Tossal de la Baltasana - the highest point in the Prades area (1,203m).
Amazing views of Prades village, La Mussara, the end of the Montsant ridge, and even across to the Pyrenees to the North





From there we carried on along the ridge, dropped down into another valley and then back up...

...to L'Ermita de l'Abellera, tucked into a rock overhang in the side of the cliff.

Nice spot for a church.



The view out from the church.



And then back to Prades for a mooch around.

Meteorologicos mañana...scorchio!!

Finally the summer looks like it's arrived properly! Perfect timing with the end now in sight...only three more work days to go until holiday time!! :-)

Long weekend in Riglos...

The original plan for this weekend was to head up to the Pyrenees proper and do some long multipitch trad routes to get a taste for the imminent summer trip, but the forecast wasn't quite settled enough so we opted for some multipitch sport at Riglos instead. As Tash's parents were going up to visit this area on their way to the Picos de Europa it was also a good way to combine the two. Normally it's impossible to climb at Riglos at this time of year, especially on the south face of the towers, but with the temperatures surprisingly low it seemed like it might be possible.

Saturday morning we started the weekend with a route on the Pison tower. It was fairly cloudy all day and there was a nice breeze so the conditions on the route were pretty ideal.



Vixente Iñuxente (7a) on the Pison - our route on Saturday.



Tash on pitch 2 of Vixente Iñuxente.

Climbers high above the village on the classic Murciana route (6c) to the right of us.

The final ab down from the Pison tower.

Aguja Roja - the tower on the right - was our objective for Sunday. This is the most impressive of the smaller towers away to the right of the main ones.

On top of the tower. We climbed the route 'Pecho Lobo' (6c+/7a) - only five pitches on the West face of the tower but still a good route.

After doing the route in the shade in the morning it was starting to get pretty warm so we did the classic circular walk around the back of the towers.

The back of the Fire tower (right) and the Pison (left).







Admiring the views and birds of prey





Tash's parents on the way down for a well-earned cold drink and BBQ



Monday morning we visited some more towers above the village of Agüerro. Not quite as spectacular as Riglos but still a nice place.

In the afternoon we went down to check out the river.

Then in the evening to the spectacular Loarre Castle.

Big nasty bug!

The Mallos de Riglos from the campsite pool.

So all in all a nice relaxing weekend with a couple of quality routes on the towers, some sightseeing and relaxing in spectacular scenery (there's so much more to this area than just the climbing!). A bit more luxurious than our normal weekends away too!