Christmas is Coming!

The British readers are probably sick of Christmas already, but it’s not rammed down our throats as early or to the same extent here. But nevertheless we have bought a Christmas tree!

We've also rolled out our "Tio", the little log on the right. The Tio is a really nice Catalan tradition. You have to feed your log, sing it a song (which roughly translates as “poo tio poo!”), bash it with a stick and then, as if by magic, it “drops” some little presents for the children! I thought my students were winding me up when they first told me about this, but it’s really popular among families and there are giant tios in all the villages and schools. We won’t be bashing or singing to our little chap but he’s quite happy underneath our tree.

Montsant Marathon Part II: Barrots & Carrasclet

The second instalment in the Montsant Marathon was another beautiful sunny day split between Barrots and Carrasclet. We met up with Pete & Àngels, as Pete was keen to get a few crag shots with people actually in them!

Tash on 'Per amor a l'art' (6a+) at Carrasclets.

'El monstruo del Arbo-ness L3' (7a) - not bad positions!

I then got back on an 8a at Carrasclets that I'd tried last November called 'Ciática'. This route is so different from most routes at Montsant, with a whole mix of styles and very few pockets, but last time I was on it I just couldn't touch it - this is what I wrote in my logbook:

"A brilliant route, but NOT 8a. Steady start on solid finger locks up the initial crack to a rest. Then 3 bolts worth of climbing which I could barely do any moves of, up to a good pocket. From here fairly steady but nice technical climbing to the top on amazing small flakes & rugosities. Must have lost crucial holds around the crux section (rock scars evident), as this is the first '8a' in about 4 years that I haven't been able to do a move first go on, never mind 10m worth of climbing!"

Today was much more succesful and I managed to work out the moves fairly easily. Not sure if I was just being useless last time or if I'm significantly stronger this year. Either way I had a couple of decent redpoints but frustratingly fell both times on the last of the hard moves on the crux section. From here there's still a lot of climbing to the top but it's more sustained and less cruxy. The second time I managed to pull straight back on and go to the top so hopefully next time it'll go - progress from last year anyway! I have a habit of saying this at the moment, but it's one of the best routes I've ever been on. Really interesting climbing up a truly stunning piece of rock.

Montsant Marathon Part I: El Libro

This week's Montsant marathon began with some low level cloud and a very murky start down in Cornudella. True to form, though, after the walk-in we ended up in bright sunshine looking down on a spectacular sea of cloud in the valley below.

The destination for today was 'El Libro' - a huge open book corner, and one of the most striking and recognisable features along the Montsant range as you drive on the road between Cornudella and Morera far below. This crag has to be among the least frequented of all the Montsant crags, due to its long approach (1hr) and more complicated access, but it is also without doubt THE most spectacularly positioned of them all!

 

Most of the routes start from this very narrow ledge system bisecting the enormous plumb vertical walls of "the book", with a huge drop almost straight down to the road a looong way down - exposure guaranteed!

We started on the right-hand side of the crag, where the routes start from 'relative' terra firma. I say relative because you're still stepping off a ledge hundreds of metres above the valley floor, but the ledge is significantly wider here than further round! I did a 6b+ and 7b here before moving round to the left-hand side where the ledge narrows.

The routes were, on the whole, very good quality. If they were at Raco de Missa or another more classic sector they'd be chalked, clean, and incredibly popular. But as it is, with the more involved approach I wouldn't be surprised if they'd seen only a handful of ascents. And, like with Cogullons last weekend, with it being bird banned for half the year and summer too hot there's only a very short window when it's possible to climb here. As a result the routes felt very 'new', with some scrittly rock and lots of dust/dirt that gets washed down in places from above, giving the rock its characteristic grey and brown streaked appearance.

I had to clean a superb 7a+ crack line (El gordinflon) as I went, including a bit of gardening where the grass had grown back towards the top - right where the crux was! On the way down I cleaned up some holds on a 7c to the right (very much needed!), tick-marked a few holds and tried a few of the moves. After Tash had top-roped the 7a+ I managed to tick my route first go. Another absolute classic on perfect rock. It just needs some more traffic to keep it clean!!!

'La listilla' (F7c) - El Libro, Montsant.
Not exactly a 'redpoint' but I can't claim the onsight either...then again who cares when the climbing & positions are as good as this!

Scrambling over the block on the way out from the crag.

The end of a good Montsant day!

"Lost" sector at Mont-ral

Today we ventured to one of the slightly more esoteric sectors of Mont-ral - Paret del Grevol. Tucked away in a narrow corridor behind one of the most classic sunny sectors, and accessed by a few 'via ferrata' rungs, it seemed like a bit of a lost crag - but one which I'd walked past many times before but never noticed. Which is amazing given that a lot of the routes were up to 40m in length!

The corridor with the imposing Paret del Grevol sector on the right and Per Dins on the left.
A bit of a dingy belay spot, but once on the routes it was all forgotten! Slightly 'dusty' feeling on the lower half and definitely needs more traffic but the rock quality was just brilliant.

'La potencia de l'eunuc' (6c+) - my warm up for today and a total classic on amazing rock (40m long!).
Check the 'old-skool' stripey vest and leggings! Photo from the guide.

After the warm-up I managed to on-sight the route I'd come here to try - L'insubmis (7c+). The low crux involved pulling on some tiny tiny credit card skin-shredding edges through a bulge, and once I'd done that first go I sure as hell wasn't going to repeat it, so I fought on to the top! But 35m of thin and technical climbing with a few decent rests thrown in does not equal speedy climbing so Tash had to endure over an hour of belaying down in the darkness! ;-)

L'insubmis (F7c+) at Paret del Grevol, Mont-ral.
Again, photo from the guide and check the short shorts!

I finished off with a few easier on-sights - 'Crisol' (7a+) and 'Acebicidio' (7a), and the day was done. Definitely psyched for a return here in the near future, as I spotted plenty of other good routes and sectors in the vicinity.

A bit of history at La Riba

After our failed attempt to climb at La Riba last week due to the water level we made it across today!






Sector Xina



We went to a new sector up above the main cliff (sector Xina), where most of the harder routes are concentrated. This sector is particularly interesting as it was home to a few of the very first climbing competitions in 1988-9 when the likes of Jerry Moffatt, Simon Nadin, Ron Kauk et al competed. Some of the old legends! By the sounds of it the comps were held partly on the rock, where a few routes were manufactured for use, and partly on artificial walls. So many of the harder routes here have some chipped and drilled holds to remove obvious cruxes and create more continuously sustained routes. Despite the abuse of the rock the routes were actually really good, and it was quite interesting to think about the history of the place and the people who had been on these routes so long ago.

Photo from the 1988 competition! ©mrjonathanr from ukbouldering.com
This climber is on the route 'Jocs de llit' (F7c), one of the ones I did today.

Cogullons

One place that we've been meaning to go for a long time is the remotest place described in the old Costa Daurada guide - Cogullons, and in particular the Mola Roquerola crag. Although it turned out not to be as remote as they made out, being only a steep 45min walk from Farena village, the description of it as 'beautiful bulging white, pocketed waves of bullet hard limestone perched on a convenient raised ledge system...with magnificent views' was very true!

With a perfect forecast for the weekend we arranged to meet Pete up there and also decided to pack the tent and some food and stay up for a few days.



Looking up to the crag from Farena village.





Big, but is it edible?!

On arrival at the crag it was hot - amazing at the end of November that I was regretting bringing my shorts to the crag! The routes were largely short, powerful, pocket pulling affairs of a similar style to Margalef but without the chalk to guide you! Consequently some of the onsights felt quite stiff. The crag was amazing though, and deserves far more recognition and traffic than it gets. Given that from January - June climbing here is bird banned and then from June - October it's too hot to climb, leaving only two viable months for climbing, it's amazing that it was so quiet. Especially when Siurana, Margalef and the like are often horrendously busy these days.

 

Tash on 'Situaditis' (F6b)

'Roella Blanca' (F7c)
Best route of the weekend and one of the best I've done in a long time, with some pretty unique jug hauling on the upper wall.
Worth a visit to the crag just for this one route!

The amazingly juggy upper wall of 'Roella Blanca' (7c)

The view looking out from Mola Roquerola.

Tash enjoying the last of the evening sunshine.



Tash underneath the incredible wall with 'Tonica per tutti' (7b) and Roella Blanca (7c) - some of the longest routes at the crag and a slightly different style to the rest.
Beautiful light - shame there was no-one else at the crag climbing.



Once the sun disappeared it was a bit chilly!

Sunrise from the crag - not a bad start to the day!

One of the old dwellings along the base of the crag.

Convenience camping - belay from the tent?

Sunday was a more productive day climbing-wise, with slightly cooler temperatures thanks to a nice breeze. We were on the go virtually non-stop from 10am - 4pm, before sore fingers and tired arms made us call it a day.

I managed on-sights of:

Nefertiti 6c
Mandinga bolinga 7a
Cagada rock 7b
Bondage 7b+

and redpoints of:

Tonica per tutti 7b (which I blew the onsight of the day before)
Penitenciagite 7c+

All of which were superb. Added to 'Roella Blanca' (7c) and 'Matute' (7a) from the previous day it was a fairly productive weekend and nice to get a few decent pics of me climbing for a change - thanks Pete!

The incredible wave of perfect pocketed rock with the routes 'Bondage' (7b+) and 'Penitenciagite' (7c+) on.

Sunday there were actually other people climbing at the crag!
Here on the steep, powerful start of 'Cagada rock' (7b).

'Paella mixta' (7c)

Looking back down to Farena village from the crag.

The bad weather breaks...

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.