Inching closer…
In recent years the traditional height-of-summer, guaranteed good-climbing-weather month of August has been replaced with a pissy four weeks of damp and depressing clag… this year was predictably no exception. No bad thing really as my motivation tends to slump mid summer anyway. Last year however, we did go on to have a veritable Indian Summer, with high pressure and settled dry weather throughout much of September and October. Unfortunately i’d pretty much sacked it off by then, with a sore shoulder and various other distractions. I was determined not to be caught out like that this time around, and as such i’ve been trying to train with (for me!) some dedication and regularity! I’ve even seen a physio and my shoulder is starting to feel a bit more stable. My ibuprofen consumption has gone down anyway. Well, I think it’s beginning to pay off… Although my days off are more limited now and don’t always coincide with partners and tides etc, I had a good day at Llanddulas which was my first day back on rock for a while. I’d been working The Wirral Whip a while back with Simon and was doing fairly well and coming fairly close until for one reason or another I wasn’t able to get back there for a while. Simon duly dispatched it in the meantime. Fortunately Keith was up for a return trip. I felt quite solid and strong this time and with Simon’s heel hook beta on the crux got it third redpoint. In between attempts Keith tried various good looking routes and redpointed a 7b, El Tigre.
Very chuffed! My first 7c+, a great route and only a few hundred yards from my house. It really comes down to an extended technical boulder problem, maybe V5 or V6 in isoloation but quite tenuous and easy to barn-door off from the crux slap for a tufa. My only gripe is that someone has added another bolt since the last time I was on it – mid crux, difficult to clip and totally unnecessary in my opinion. In fact, there are now five bits of metal sticking out of the rock in really quite a tiny area: two new bolts (including the exta one), one old bolt and two bolt stumps. It’s starting to look a mess. The same point (although less marked) can be made for many of the recently rebolted routes around the ormes – the old bolts have invariably been left in place which sometimes leaves a rusting and dangerous eyesore. I suppose not having got of my arse to help with either the rebolting or removing the old bolts, I shouldn’t really criticise, and overall of course the rebolting effort has been amazing and much needed. But it has got me thinking… how hard can it be to remove / hacksaw off the old bolts or stumps? I might investigate.
Anyway, I hope I can stay on a roll and crack on with Over the Moon Direct, I just need the weather and partner on my next day off – tides are good anyway! I’m definately fit and strong enough to climb 8a at the moment, I just need the opportunity – always the limiting factor with a full time job, young child and the vagracies of the British weather.
I haven’t actually got any photos of the Wirral Whip, but it’s basically the left hand edge of this wall. Simon and Leanne are climbing the brilliant 6c+, Pearl from the Shell (or Searching, I always forget. And I can’t be bothered finding the guidebook).
Escaping the heat at Calders
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Man, it’s hot. Properly hot. On Friday it hit 39 degrees in Barcelona during the day, the highest recorded temperature for several years. Fortunately, it was the peak of a steady increase, and it came just before a rapid decline – apparently, on Friday evening the temperature dropped 11 degrees C in two hours (to a positively freezing 28!!)
In such conditions climbing is difficult, and hard climbing is even more difficult. And hard climbing after a month of no climbing is impossible. But you can still have fun! PJ and I headed out of the city to a crag called Calders. It’s about an hour from from Barcelona, and on first impressions it looks very impressive, severely overhanging and with that nice white/grey/brown streakiness that is so typical of great limestone. More importantly for us, it’s in the shade in the afternoon!
Unfortunately, on closer inspection, the illusion breaks down. The rock is actually very chossy and all the routes have obviously had to be thoroughly cleaned/trundled before being bolted and climbed. Also, the place is perma-dry – the rain never hits it, and it takes no seepage – so it is incredibly dusty; and all the dust means that the routes polish very easily, which makes it incredibly polished. It all adds up to a crag that a British guidebook would describe as “of local interest only”!!
Nevertheless we had a fun day, and it was great to be climbing back on rock again. What with the conditions and our lack of fitness, we were never going to be climbing hard, and we contentedly bimbled around on a series of 6s until we were quite tired. I never really trust the grades in places like Calders anyway – the routes are short, very steep, and repeatedly climbed by a small set of of locals, which tends to make things very difficult to onsight, yet it’s also very difficult to hang around working moves, because the steepness is so tiring.
Still, a good day was had by all. In preparation for DWS in Mallorca in a fortnight, next Sunday we are going to check out some local DWS near Tossa de Mar, about 90 minutes drive to the north. Looks fun!
Week’s review and ticklist
So I’m back in Barcelona, back in the heat and humidity. And I’m tired!
I think it’s fair to say that the gritstone beat us up a little. We arrived pretty tired after having climbed on five of the previous 6 days, and it showed. In Wales we had been climbing pretty consistently in the E2-4 bracket, but on the grit we struggled badly and never managed anything harder than E1. Climbing on grit requires a certain style and technique (and bravery close to the ground) which is difficult to fully tap into in just a couple of days – especially if you’re limestone sport-climbing wussies like us!
Still, it was nice to get back on the grit and good to show it to PJ. My biggest disappointment was backing off the final slab of Elegy at the Roaches. I did the lower crux fine but just got too scared on the upper slab (and ended up reversing from half-way up it!). The annoying thing was that as I abbed down from the top to retrieve the gear, I paused where I had got stuck, gave myself plenty of slack on the rope, and proceeded to pad up the slab with no hands. But it’s easier to trust the smears when you have a top-rope!
Overall, we had a great week. I was perhaps a little bit disappointed in Wales, what with not being able to climb in the Llanberis Pass, but we had a great a day at Tremadog. For the sad bean-counters who like stats (i.e. me), PJ and I managed a total of 47 E-points over the week, although that drops to 38 if you (rightly) subtract the routes that we climbed with a fall or rest. And 90% of the total was achieved prior the final two days on grit! But it’s not bad. Thanks to my folks and Jo and Catrin for putting us up, and to Lau for loaning us a tent in the peak.
So now it’s back to the world of bolted limestone, although my next trip, to Mallorca in five week’s time, will not involve any bolts – we’re going Deep Water Soloing!
The week’s ticklist in full:
| Route Name | Grade | Location | Notes |
| Isis | HVS 5a | Gower Fall Bay | PJ onsight (O/S) |
| Seth | E1 5c | Gower Fall Bay | Alun O/S - sandbag! |
| Lazy Sunday Afternoon | E2 5b | Gower Fall Bay | PJ O/S |
| Adulteress | E2 5c | Gower Trial Wall | Alun O/S |
| Blackman's Pinch | E4 6a | Gower Trial Wall | PJ O/S - more like F6c+ |
| Space Cadet | E3 5c | Pembroke St Govan's | PJ O/S |
| Test Case | E3 5c | Pembroke St Govan's | Alun 1 fall |
| No Man's Land | E4 5c | Pembroke St Govan's | PJ O/S |
| War Crime | E2 5b | Pembroke St Govan's | Alun O/S |
| The Straight Gate | E1 5b | Pembroke Mother Scary's | PJ O/S |
| Herod | E2 5b | Pembroke Mother Scary's | Alun O/S |
| Zeppelin | E3 5c | Pembroke Mother Scary's | PJ 1 fall |
| Falcon | E2 5c | Tremadog Pant Ifan | Alun O/S |
| (Vulcan | (E4 6a) | (Tremadog Pant Ifan) | (Jo repeat) |
| Barbarian | E1 5b | Tremadog Pant Ifan | PJ O/S |
| Seams the Same | E1 5b | Slate Serengeti | PJ O/S |
| Slippery People | E2 5b | Slate Serengeti | Alun, PJ O/S - soft |
| Heading the Shot | E4 6b?? | Slate Serengeti | Alun O/S - not a clip-up! |
| The Carbon Stage | F6c+ | Slate Serengeti | PJ O/S |
| Kubla Khan | E4 6b | Slate Serengeti | Alun O/S - soft |
| (Short Stories) | (E4 6a) | (Slate Serengeti) | (Jo O/S) |
| Hawkwing | E1 5b | Roaches | PJ O/S |
| The Sloth | HVS 5b | Roaches | PJ O/S |
| Humdinger | E1 5b | Roaches | Alun 1 fall - stiff! |
| Terrazza Crack | HVS 5a | Stanage Marble Wall | PJ 1 fall |
| Orang-outang | E2 5c | Stanage Marble Wall | PJ dog - (Alun fail!) |
| Don's Delight | E1 5b | Stanage Marble Wall | Alun O/S |
| Wild and Woolly | E1 5b | Stanage Marble Wall | Alun O/S |
| Right-Hand Tower | HVS 5a | Stanage Marble Wall | PJ O/S |
North Wales – Rain dictates play
So here we are in Jo and Catrin’s place in Abergele, North Wales, enjoying a cold beer after two great days of climbing. Although, for a while, it looked like the rain gods were going to stop us.
Despite a good forecast, we drove up the Llanberis pass yesterday and were met by driving horizontal rain. Great. Undeterred, we continued down to Tremadog, home of the last hopes of the rain-soaked Snowdonia climber. Fortunately for us, Tremadog came good again – time to climb!
I must confess that I wasn’t so pleased about going to Tremadog. I have never really got on with the place, as it requires a certain style and finess, which I don’t have. Nevertheless, I ‘warmed up’ with a lead of Falcon on Craig Pant Ifan. It gets E1 5b in the old guide, but it was continuously interesting and sustained, and I wasn’t surprised (and was actually quite pleased) to see that it has been upgraded to E2 5c in the North Wales select guide.
Another upgrade in the select guide is Vulcan, from E3 to E4. PJ tied on to try it, but backed off, and frankly I don’t blame him – it’s nails!! Jo picked up where PJ left off and led it to the top (10 years after he first did it) and I followed, sweating and cursing the whole way. Great route; just bloody hard :D
Then after failing on Pincushion E2 (we’ll gloss over that), and spending a night in the CC hut in Llanberis, we hit the slate today. Highlights for me were onsighting Heading the Shot, which used to get E5 but now is officially given sport 7a. Personally I thought the bolts were too far apart for it to be called a sport route, although it’s almost certainly not E5. E4 6b would be my guess. The climbing is excellent, though really thin.
Finally we dropped down to Never Never Land where I onsighted Kubla Khan E4 6b. I was dead chuffed as it’s the first ‘respectable’ E-grade that I’ve managed this trip, and sad as it sounds, that does make a difference. Jo had a good day too as he made a great lead of ‘Short Stories’ – three bolts in 25m makes it well worth the E4 grade!!
So now PJ and I leave the Land of my Fathers and head east to England. The Roaches tomorrow, and either Stanage or Millstone on Saturday. Can’t wait!
Mother Scarey’s
This morning I said to my Mum, “I’m so glad I’m not in Barcelona, because the weather is nice and cool here”. So, of course, today both PJ and I went and got sunburnt!
The weather today was spectacular, and Pembrokeshire was at it’s very best – although it did mean the climbing conditions were a bit greasy and hot. St. Govan’s head was shut by the army today (it’s an army firing range) so we backed up the car and resorted to Plan B: Mother Carey’s Kitchen.
Mother Carey’s (or “Mother Scary’s”, as it’s also known!) has a deserved reputation for being quite a serious cliff. It is a little loose, quite committing, and all none of the routes are soft touches. PJ started up with the excellent The Straight Gate E1, and I ticked the fine arete of Herod E2, great climbing and position, but a bit little blocky and hollow.
Then we tackled the classic E3, Zeppelin. With the tide approaching high-water, it was a quite committing to ab in – sea-cliff climbing at it’s purest. We took a hanging belay off the Rock-Idol ledge and traversed in, to ensure I wouldn’t get wet feet. Zeppelin gets E3, but with the greasy conditions it felt much harder and PJ took a spectacular fall, fortunately onto good gear and into clear air – it’s really steep. Next time he had more luck and we topped out in the evening sun with the satisfaction of having had a bit of an adventure.
Tomorrow is a rest day, so we’re pleased that it’s forecast to rain. We’re driving up north and meeting Jo in Abergele. I spoke to him on the phone just now, and he said that he also took a whipper on Zeppelin when he tried it, which made us feel a little better!
Sun in St Govan’s
Despite plenty of fog around this morning, we jumped in the car and headed west, and pretty much as soon as we reached Pembrokeshire, the the sun came out. Grand.
PJ warmed up on Space Cadet, a great E3 at St Govan’s, which is pretty soft touch so good for warming up. I seconded it but found it harder than I remember it being. So I promptly ignored the warning messages and got straight on Test Case, a not-so-easy E3. Greasy conditions saw me slip off a rest hold after the crux, and take a sizeable fall. Rats. I got back on and reached the top, but I shan’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed, I felt robbed.
After a short break, we abbed back down, and PJ, after looking briefly at the classic E5 crack, Get Some In, decided on the slightly easier No Man’s Land, E4 5c. It was a fantastic route, really steep, no particularly hard moves, but it kept coming at you!. Then I finished the day off with War Crime, an absolutely fantastic, juggy E2, which my cramping arms barely managed.
So a great day, but I’m already pretty exhausted, and but I’m not sure if I’m looking forward or dreading going back tomorrow!
Back in Blighty!
So I’ve been slack on the blog updating front recently…that’s cause I haven’t been climbing!! But now I’m back, and, most importantly, I’m back in Britain!
This week, PJ and I are doing a road trip around Wales and a bit of England, giving PJ a taste of the British Trad climbing!
Our plan is roughly as follows:
Today and tomorrow = Pembroke: We’re staying with my Ma and Pa Evans at the moment in Swansea, which means a little more driving, but a comfortable bed and nice food in the evenings! I’m going soft…
Tuesday – drive to North Wales, maybe an evening on Llanberis slate. I have my eyes on Poetry Pink on the Rainbow Slab. We’ll see. On Tuesday night we are guests with Jo and family in Abergele.
Wednesday-Thursday: Jo has taken these two days off and so will be joining us to climb in North Wales. No firm plans yet but maybe some sort of adventure up on Cyrn Las, with The Skull? Maybe a day on Scimitar Ridge? Maybe even up to cloggy if it’s dry? We’re staying a night in the CC hut in the pass, and then thursday night back in Abergele.
Friday – drive to the Peak, climb at the Roaches. I have a loong ticklist of slabs there: Elegy, Smear Test, the Swan, Chalkstorm, Track of the Cat, Wings of Unreason etc. Friday night we meet up with Ian, Paul, Fran and Kenny to camp.
Saturday – one of the eastern edges. Probably somewhere like Curbar or Millstone. I should imagine that Stanage will be heaving. Another night in the campsite.
Sunday – lazy morning, maybe a bit of bloddering, drive to airport, home to BCN.
Sounds fun, huh?!
Yesterday we had a quick afternoon on Gower to warm up. PJ did the classics Isis (HVS) and Lazy Sunday Afternoon (E2), and I ticked one of the few routes I hadn’t yet done on Fall Bay Buttress, Seth. It starts up Osiris/L.Sun.Aft. before splitting off right and up a nice crack. It gets E1 5c but at that grade it is a total sandbag, I reckon in another part of the world it would be soft E3!! (Gower is reknowned for it’s stiff-grades – small man syndrome reaction to Pembroke I reckon!)
The tide had come in, and with Yellow Wall still bird-banned, we walked over the other side of the headland to Trial Wall at Rhossili. Very different in style, a smooth quarried wall with some fingery routes. I did the Adulteress E2, which I’d be meaning to do since I saw it on the cover of the 91 guide (20 years ago! – I started climbing a few months after that guide was released!) , and PJ did the semi sport route next door, Blackman’s Pinch. It gets E4 but with a couple of bolts protecting the two cruxes, it feels more like 6c/+. Disappointingly, I fell off when following him, which doesn’t bode too well for the rest of the week!
So, off to Pembroke today, in theory, but would you believe it, it’s raining…
The Magic Flute
Managed a shortish evening hit the other night with Chris, and made a fairly wise choice considering the conditions – it was boiling. The Little Orme has a fairly small scrap of rock which is conveniently North facing and home to two great routes… I climbed the classic E3 – Hole of Creation – many years ago with Toby Keep, and had a (very) brief thrash on The Magic Flute but it was fairly obviously too hard for me. I got back there a month or so ago with Keith and was pleased to do all the moves and a couple of links, but a freezing wind and numb fingers prevented any proper redpoint attempts. This time it was perfect with the crag in shade but warm.
Quick warm up on Hole of Creation – Chris leading:
The Magic Flute is the tufa on the right of this photo, with the top bolt just visible. This point marks the crux, with your left hand on a shit pinch / crimp on the thin section of tufa in the photo, crimping an intermediate with your right before slapping out rightwards onto an undercut flake. There is a rest of sorts after this, then a couple of tricky moves to the belay. To reach this point involves some classic and sustained tufa-style pinching and swinging around… could have been Kalymnos, except that the whole route is only 10m long!
Anyway, onto the main event – Chris just before the hard moves:
We both ballsed-up the first redpoint, Chris because he wasn’t concentrating and me because I didn’t really know what I was doing; at least I got a good sequence down. Short rest, and no mistakes next time for Chris. I then found myself in a very familiar place, contemplating another day here, with the terrifying walk in and another partner, again! Thankfully I heeded a very useful bit of advice and left my bloody chalk bag on the ground… without this distraction I got up and out onto the rest much quicker. I was still dipping like an idiot behind my back after this though! Very nice to get a 7c done, they don’t come often. Very motivating too, for OTMD, which i’m starting to get quite psyched for.
Progress?
Finally got on an 8a the other day and you know what? Didn’t feel too bad. The route in question is Over the Moon Direct, a bit of a classic at LPT (where else?). Sussing the moves was definitely helped by having beta provided by Keith, who has been working the route a fair bit. However, being a bit shorter (and stronger!) than me, he’s able to walk through the lower crux and struggles a bit more on the final section, whereas I found the opposite to be true. I just about managed all the moves in isolation though, so quite pleased. The tough moves low down involved a big crucifix-style span to catch and move off a crozly pinch. I could fairly easily replicate this on my garage board, which got me thinking… is it very sad to train specifically for a mere 8a in this way? Probably, but what the hell. I’m not getting any younger!
Fiesta!
Well, that was a pretty good trip by any standards – 4 days of sport climbing in top Spanish venues and the main aim of Fiesta de los Biceps getting a good honest Welsh Crushing! This route has been on my wish list for a good few years and had aquired fairly epic qualities in my mind, thankfully the reality proved to be more amenable… But still quite scary! Nice to see that Britain’s greatest also felt it a worthy route (see Steve McClure thoughts here)
I would agree with Steve’s grade rating – I have seen the steep 6th pitch given variously 6c+ and 7a, but i’m sure off the deck it wouldn’t rate more than 6b+. It is however, very steep and very exposed and it’s fair to say I was shitting it! How those holds stay put i’ll never know – many are roughly the size and shape of rugby balls, supported by just the point at one end. There’s no option other than just yarding on them, telling yourself that everyone else has done the same.
This is the view looking up at the route with Alun finishing the first pitch – pretty well chalked line as you can see!
This is me seconding the fifth pitch (I think):
And nearing the belay…
Alun looking pleased with himself!
The next photo is the super steep pitch near the top… We suddenly felt a bit dumb for not bringing any pruissiks! The other climber in the photo is Max (or PJ?), friends of Alun’s from Barcelona who were climbing a route that crossed ours and finished with a F7b roof at the top of the Visera:
Alun’s comment: Look at the rope below me – there was hardly a breath of wind on the day, and yet that rope is hanging free, 10s of metres away from the cliff! That’s how steep it was. Also, what Jo politely doesn’t mention was that, upon starting to second him up this pitch, my left arm cramped completely and just locked up involuntarily! After a couple of minutes of mild panic where I thought I would have to climb the pitch with one arm, the blood started flowing into my cold muscles and things got better. I still had to dog my up to the belay though – a clean ascent of La Fiesta still awaits me. Jo, of course, had no such troubles, so at least Team 8amyarse got the tick!
Unfortunately, back at Rodellar base camp, our big-number ambitions had to be shelved for another year as the rain came pouring down… one day I will climb at Las Ventanas but this time we had to settle for Siurana, no great hardship in the scheme of things! We ended up totally trashed with shredded skin and, despite both of us onsighting/flashing 7b and onsighting a hatful of 7as, for our efforts we were rewarded with a display that confirmed (as if it were needed) that we reside well and truly in the realms of bumbly-punterdom: this is a photo of Max casually cruising a F8b, first redpoint… Bastard!
Team 8amyarse.com spring trip
Every spring for the last couple of years, Jo (8amyarse.com’s North Wales representative) has made the trip over to Catalunya for a long weekend of sunny bolt-clipping. Two years ago, we conquered the Cavall Bernat (see the celebratory video here), and last year we had a succesful trip to Rodellar, just over the border in Aragón, with Jo ticking a 7b+ and me redpointing my first ‘proper’ 7b. This year, Jo is coming back out here for more – as long as the airports aren’t shut again by volcanic ash! Although last year’s trip was great, we were having so much fun in Rodellar that we actually bailed out on one of our initial goals, which was to go to Riglos, a short drive from Rodellar, and do a route called La Fiesta de Los Biceps.
‘Biceps’ is reknowned as being one of the best routes in the whole world (quite literally). It is about 8 pitches long, and the final five pitches overhang at about a consistent 20ish degrees. The beauty is that the rock at Riglos is large-stone conglomerate (my non-technical term for it) which basically means that there is an abundance of enormous jugs, allowing ‘Biceps’ to get to the top at a relatively amenable grade of 7a. Everybody I know who’s done it, and everything I’ve ever read about it, all agree: it is a must-do route!
The only worry I have is that once you get past the first overhanging pitch, there is no way down, so in actual fact it is quite committing. However Jo tells me that he is redpointing 7b+ fairly easily at the moment, and I have been onsighting 7a consistently over the last few months (and have also bagged a couple of soft 7b+s), so hopefully between us we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Go to this link here to see tons of photos of the route (and, if you’re Spanish is up to scratch, read about it too).
My other goal on the trip is to have a go a a route called Pince Sans Rire in Rodellar. It is an uber-classic 7b+ that climbs two perfect tufas, up steepening rock. Apparently it is a reasonable proposition for 7b+, “but only if you’re fit”. WTF?! We’ll see, I reckon Jo will tick pretty easily, but maybe not me. There is also a nice 7c called Egocentrismo that Jo had his eye on last year. Apparently he thought it looked quite amenable, whereas I thought it looked nails. I guess we’ll find out!
Jo arrives on Friday morning earlyish, so the plan is to drive direct to Rodellar, have an easy afternoon on Friday and set up camp, go to Riglos and tick Biceps on Saturday, have an easy day on Sunday, then try and tick some things on Monday. Jo flies out on Tuesday morning. I’m knackered just thinking about it!
Margalef, sector Espadelles
I was back ‘proper’ climbing again last weekend, and it felt great. We went to Espadelles, a jaw-dropping sector at Margalef. Recently, Margalef has been featured a fair amount in the international climbing press as one of the four ’super-crags’ of Catalunya for hard routes (the others being Siurana, Oliana and Santa Linya). Last year when we were here, we saw Dani Andrada bolting a new route, Tomas Mrazeck knocking around, and Chris Sharma filming with the BigUp crew. Wow.
This year things were different, the crag was empty. At first I was a bit puzzled but by midday it was crystal clear why: Espadelles comes into the sunshine in the afternoon, and this weekend marked the opening weekend of the ’shady-climbing’ season here in Catalunya. Even though the temperature was only about 25 degrees, the sun is so much stronger here than it is in Britain, and so from now until October we’ll be hunting out the north facing crags.
Still, we had a morning’s worth of shade and after warming up I onsighted a 7a which was undoubtedly the easiest 7a I have ever been on. 6c+ methinks but as always I’ll take the tick! Afterwards I wanted a crack at a 7b but PJ was hogging it :) , so I tried a 7a+ further left (see photo) which, according to PJ and Max, is a classic. What they didn’t tell me was that it is also the living end of 7a+, so my onsight attempt ended pretty quickly. I worked it to the top and felt that, actually, it was 7b at least. Funny grading at Margalef.
So after a lunchtime snooze we all got back on the projects and went for the tick. However by this time the sun was out in full-force and conditions were crap, the heat was just so draining. After a few goes at the early crux of his 7b, PJ nalied the sequence and cruised up, before muffing the final sequence and falling within spitting distance of the chains. I got back on the 7a+ but couldn’t get through the crux sequence. I rested and had one more go but it was a waste of time, the sweat was dripping off my forehead and both hands and feet were slipping off. Max had a couple of cracks at an 8b which, like many routes at Espadelles, has a crux pretty much right off the ground. Unfortunately he didn’t have much luck, but he had onsighted 8a the day before, so I’ll let him off.
So no real ticks, but a good day was had by all nevertheless. Espadelles will have to wait til next season though. Shady crags, here we come!
Illness sucks
Well thank god that Jo has been posting (with some great photos) because otherwise this blog would be a boring place. As it happen I’ve been pretty ill recently, struck down down by a serious dose of man-flu. The worst thing of all was that it meant I spent my easter weekend in bed feeling crap. Boring.
Anyway last week I was a bit better so I went up to the tunnel for a couple of sessions, but I wasn’t fully recovered so wasn’t on form. The good news is that I’m now pretty much 100% again, and so I’m off up to the tunnel to meet PJ and Max tonight.
This weekend there’ll be no climbing but hopefully next weekend I’ll get a whole two days in row. I really want to get to Montgrony because the tufas there should sharpen me up for team 8amyarse’s May trip to Rodellar!
Summer is here!
Well, sort of. Just enough good weather to convince me that the cragging season has begun anyway… My plan is to cram as much climbing into the first half of 2010 as possible – come August i’ll be job hunting and concentrating on supporting my family rather than indulging my climbing passion, but that’s ages away!
So, Saturday began nice and sunny. We were spoiled for choice really but opted for Rhoscolyn. I’ve got some great memories of this crag and have ticked my way through most of the classics over the years. In fact, without stepping up a grade there’s not much more I want to do there (yeah, I know I harped on about stepping up a grade last time but that doesn’t mean jumping straight on nails overhanging E6s!). Except of course, for The Viper. This is an E4 5c that branches out from Centrefold, unfortunately the entire middle section of Fallen Block Zawn was streaming with water. Simon picked out the best looking dry line to warm up on… this happened to be the start of The Jub Jub bird linking into Godzilla to finish. Not the best warm up at E4 but Simon found it straightforward enough making it look about VS. I struggled, and had a bit of a paddy on the top overhang. Well, maybe it was a bit wet. Or a bit loose, or something.
Anyway, onto Plan B – Electric Blue. This photogenic pitch seems to be climbed more frequently as a DWS these days and I can see why – it’s bloody pumpy and a right arse to fiddle in gear, but great climbing. Thank god for cams (how did anyone climb before these?)
Slightly dodgy weather on Sunday led us back to the default option of Tremadog. Quick warm up on Geireagle (again casually dispatched by Simon) followed by my usual thrash with Vulture. This is rapidly becoming my bloody nemesis, but at least my annual failure point is marginally higher each time. So – closer, but still no cigar… quite.
Next up was Groove of Horror, for Simon, not me as I was fairly boxed by now. An old Roland Edwards route, with some aid I think, this route is now graded E5 6a and described as “extremely strenuous”. Hardly surprising that I don’t know anyone whose done it, or even heard of any ascents. Alas, today it was not to be – the crack was gopping and forced a timely retreat. Erebrus was a worthy alternative – what a great pitch. I had seconded it before but don’t remember it being so hard, quite glad I wasn’t leading to be honest. We finished off with the first pitch of Itch, in the gathering gloom.
Not a bad weekend, all told. My ridiculously optimistic title will already be sounding pretty stupid by the time you read this – snow forecast tomorrow, would you believe it? Bloody Wales! Nothing for it but to get back on my garage board… those 8a’s don’t climb themselves, y’know!
El Dard, Arbolí
El Dard from the approach path
Another day’s climbing in Catalunya, another amazing crag that nobody’s heard of, and nobody visits. Or at least, that’s the way it seemed yesterday as PJ and I arrived at Sector El Dard, near the village of Arbolí in the Prades mountains. Amazing rock, views down to the sea, a 5 minute approach from the car, and nobody else there. What more could you want?
It was interesting reading Jo’s post about trad climbing in Tremadog last week as it made me start thinking about trad climbing again. In general the Catalan limestone would be very difficult to trad climb as it is very compact and doesn’t have nearly as many features and cracks. However, the first few sectors we saw at El Dard were much more ‘British’ in style.The warm up sector reminded me very much of Wildcat in the Peak District – grey, rough rock set among the trees and with ample opportunities for placing protection.
However, after warming up on a couple of nice 6s, we walked a bit further round to ‘the main event’, where I was forcefully reminded that we were most definately in Spain: a bulging 35m wall of perfect orange-grey limestone, split by a handful of hairline cracks, and an entry grade of 7b. Yep, definately Spain (or, rather, Catalunya).
The goal for the day was to try a 7c called El Marginao, which climbed the central ‘climb-me!’ crack from the bottom right to the very top. I haven’t been training very much recently and I know 7c is out of my reach, but I knew that it was graded 7a+ to the intermediate lower off, so my plans were to try to onsight the 7a+ bit, and the work the moves on the upper 7c section. Luckily the first bit went to plan and the 7a+ was dispatched without too much trouble, but unfortunately the 7c was another matter. Even resting on reach bolt, I had clean run out of strength by the end, and just couldn’t do the final moves to the anchor. They weren’t particularly difficult, I was just creamed.
So anyway after one half-hearted RP attempt (where I fell off the crux of the 7a+ bit) I gave up and looked elsewhere. PJ recommended a technical 6c+/7a called Peus al Foc. Even after 45mins rest I was still tired, and I only just scraped up it onsight. I was pretty pleased but completely trashed, so it was back to the warm up sector to finish on a couple of ‘easy’ 6bs which I very nearly fell off.
PJ was climbing well and made serious in-roads on the 7c El Marginao. He did all the moves first go and had a pretty good crack at it first RP, falling off the crux moves right before the anchor (the ones that had defeated me). After a long rest he had a second bash but it was obvious from the start that he was tired, and after failing low down he dogged up to get the clips. It’s such a long and draining route – and with the crux right at the end, it’s quite a difficult route to red-point.
And at that precise moment it started to rain. It’s been a pretty miserable winter and spring in Catalunya to be honest, everybody’s sick of the rain.
So, how am I doing climbing wise? Well, the truth is I’ve been slack in the last 6 weeks or so, what with skiing and work trips and so forth, and haven’t been climbing or training that much. Jo is coming out for a ‘Team 8amyarse.com’ trip to Rodellar and Riglos in May, so my goal is get to a bit fitter for that. Still, I’m onsighting 7a/+ ish fairly confidently at the moment, so that’s not bad. But my experience on El Marginao has taught me that 7cs don’t climb themselves!
Costa Tremadog
Well, this is to be my first ever post on 8amyarse… and my blogging virginity is about to go up in smoke which is a strange feeling. Many thanks to Alun for inviting a contribution from a North Wales resident. As i’m also gunning for the stratospheric heights of F8a sometime during the next decade, a viewpoint from the traditional crucible of Snowdonia might provide an interesting contrast to the sun-drenched sport climbing mecca of Catalunya, where climbing 8a is probably quite easy! Just kidding – I just mean there are lots to chose from over there.
Anyway, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jo Bertalot, i’m 32 (and a bit), and so far have redpointed 7c, onsighted 7b and a fair few E5’s. My goal this year is to go up a grade on each of the above. Achievable? Well, maybe.
The weather last weekend was amazing: high pressure, clear blue skies, warm. Keith was free and keen to climb, and where better to rekindle the old trad-climbing fire than Tremadog, the place where it all began, for me at least. I grew up in Pwllheli, just 30 minutes away and served a fairly typical apprenticeship on the lower grade routes here. I knew I had got to the top of Pincushion before but have a hazy memory of using a point of aid on the overhang, belayed by my ever-patient Dad. Time to settle the score, and see if I had improved a smidgen in 15 years of climbing!
This really is an amazing pitch which has a bit of everything, a chimney thrutch, an awkward crux under and through the overlap followed by a long HVS / E1 slab. I certainly struggled but just about made it after an incredible shaking-leg episode. Early season nerves! Don Sargeant the omnipresent CC climbing photographer happened to be on hand snapping away – very nice, especially with the next Tremadog guide due out this year?
We followed this up with Barbarian which was one of my early HVS leads (as it was back then). I still have tons left to do at Tremadog, mostly routes that I have been putting off for years and a couple that i’ve tried and failed on before. I might even make it back this week, especially now that my Scottish Winter plans have been well and truly scuppered by tropical temperatures and collapsing cornices.
Return to Arbolí
The view of Siurana, across the valley from El Falco
Yesterday the sun shone brightly and PJ and I made a return visit to Arbolí. You may recall that the last time I was there was with Ian Lau, on the first day of our Siurana trip, I didn’t write too much about Arbolí, because the majority of the trip was spent falling off things at Siurana. But the climbing at Arbolí deserves its own post, so here it is.
The main interest in the sectors surrounding the remote village of Arbolí is a huge wall called El Falco. It is a spectacular wall, varying between vertical and slightly overhanging, and capped with overhangs. Pretty much all of the 30 single pitch routes are over 30m in length, and a handful of belay chains are a full 40m above the ground. When you consider the spacious and convenient access to the crag base, and the spectacular views across the valley to Siurana, El Falcó is definately up there with some of the best that Catalunya has to offer. PJ and I went along with French chap that PJ met recently, called Max, and when were there we met up with a couple of his Catalan friends, so there was a nice crew of us. Here’s a little video to give you an idea of what it’s like.
The wall at El Falco
With such long routes I wasn’t particularly keen to be redpointing hard stuff, and instead decided to go for a day of onsighting, which I haven’t done for a while. After a couple of nice long 6cs to warm up, I was feeling good and decided to have a bash at Borinot, a beautiful looking 7a line up the centre of the crag. 7a always gives me the willies – it’s such a psychological thing because I know that I can onsight 6c+, and 7a isn’t that much harder, and I should be able to onsight it. But that adds it’s own pressure, and so it was a little bit of trepidation that I set off. Technically speaking, I had already blown the onsight – I had half-watched Max climbing it and the clips were in, but nevertheless I was very chuffed to reach the anchors without too much difficulty. Strictly I can only claim the flash, but personally I was very pleased, regardless of what any ethic police may say.
So then after a good rest it was time to try Chanidangersch, a 7a+ immediately to the left. This was to be a true onsight attempt as I had not seen anybody on it and had to put the clips in myself. The route is a full 40m long, and after 20 minutes of climbing there I found myself, 38m up, absolutely exhausted, staring at one last final pull to reach the chains.
Well, I blew it. My left hand uncurled from the crimp and I was off. I found the ferocity and volume of the swearing that followed shocking, even as I felt the words leave my mouth. I was crushed, not just because of getting so close, but because I had held it together for 38 effing metres, which is psychologically draining. To be honest, I think mentally I was too weak, I should have just got aggressive and blasted through it (needless to say, after a couple of minutes rest on the rope, I found the move easy. Typical!). I didn’t give it everything I had and so that’s why I failed.
Still, it was a brilliant day’s climbing. PJ was chuffed to onsight a 40m 7b, just to the right of my 7a+, and Max worked the move on an 8a that looks like it never gets done, and said it was awesome. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to El Falco next, but there’s plenty left there for me to go at, so I hope it’s not too long.
Max on Bon Noi, 8a
25m slackline
25m slackline in Poblenou park
Yes yes I have been training, but that’s boring and showing you an amusing video of me falling off a slackline is far more interesting :P
Today the weather was a bit windy so Pau and I put up the slackline in the park. The advantage of this is that there are more anchors so, after playing around on a baby 10m line we rolled it out to nearly its full length of 25m. The first thing to note is that a long slackline is much more intimidating. It moves around so much more but it actually makes it much more satisfying – as the line moves you find that you have to just go with the flow, and as the line is moving up and down from side to side it feels as it you are floating. I felt like I was Chow-Yun Fat in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, in the bit where he’s balancing on the tip of a tree branch.
Well, up until I fell off…
Spring in Catalunya
Pau on the slackline, and DJ making a sandwich!
Sunshine! Warm temperatures! Yes, spring has arrived here in Catalunya. The forecast is for settled weather and temps in the high teens for the next week at least, and the air has that certain tang that heralds the arrival of longer evenings and warm weather. To celebrate, yesterady lunchtime Djanira and I went down to beach with our friend Pau. Pau is a keen outdoorsy person and used to climb a fair bit, but since becoming a father last year hasn’t found much time to get to the crags. To compensate he’s got himself a classic climber’s toy, which can be setup up almost anywhere at short notice – a slackline!
We found a couple of perfectly-spaced posts down on the beach, as you can see in the photo. I had never tried slacklining before, and I didn’t realise it would be quite so difficult! For the first half-hour, just standing on the thing was almost impossible, it wobbles so much. However, dyfal donc a dyr a garreg, as we say in Welsh*, and after a while I was able to string a couple of steps together. It’s amazingly addictive, and you learn pretty fast.
Pau is a bit of an expert and can do all sorts of fancy things like jump-starts, little skips, 180s etc. It’s cool because you can use the slackness of the line like a trampoline to help you jump into the air. I reckon next week I’ll be nailing things like this (skip to 2 minutes to see the grand finale):
* metaphorically translated as “if at first you don’t succeed…”
Paul and Ian, Masriudoms, and 7b+
Paul pulling into the sun on a 7a+ at Masriudoms
This weekend saw Paul Mealor and Ian Lau visiting us in Barcelona. The original plan was to get a crew of us down to Siurana, but for various reasons we ended up staying in Barcelona and making day trips. Fortunately, this is still no bad thing!
Not that things went to perfectly accordingly to plan, even so – the idea was that we would drive up to Montgrony for a day on Saturday, though that was scuppered when Paul and Ian’s Friday night plane was diverted to Valencia, and instead of arriving at 9.30, they rang my doorbell at past 2am!
So after a short lie in we decided to cut our losses and go to Gelida. I’m beginning to get a leetle bit bored of going there now, but the facts are that it is a great crag with loads of quality routes across the grades, so in our situation it was a bit of a no-brainer. The weather was spectacular, Ian onsighted his first 7a and Paul his first 6c, and a good day was had by all.
The next day the weather was overcast with a 100% chance of rain. However, PJ had a secret weapon up his sleeve – the cave at Masriudoms! After an hour and a half on the AP-7, we parked the van and walked in, to be greeted by this sight:
First view of Masriudoms cave
It’s very easy to run out of words when describing the Masriudoms cave. Awesome, huge, amazing, scary etc. etc. It’s about 1oo metres high from bottom to top, and so big and steep that after and hour or of being there, we realised that at some point after we had arrived it had started raining, but we hadn’t even noticed.
Paul on "Inhumana al Forn", 6b+, Masriudoms
A rare photo of Mr Lau, pulling around the arete of "ATP", 6c, Masriudoms
Needless to say, the climbing there tends to be in the upper 7s and 8s, and so not much was done – PJ was the only one with a reasonable excuse, in that he was still tired after going there the day before and ticking a 7c! The rest of us ticked the ‘warm-up’ routes, which were still awesome, and then dangled around on some harder stuff; although Lau came pretty close to red-pointing a nice looking 7a+: check out the video.
The next day PJ was working so the three of us headed to Pas de la Mala Dona. It’s a nice place with a fine selection of routes, but I wasn’t expecting a spectacular day to be honest. I had been climbing poorly all weekend, getting shut down totally on a 7c at Gelida, and dogging my way up a 7b at Masriudoms (great route, but undoubtedly the hardest 7b I’ve ever got on). So when I arrived on Sunday, I was content just to go ticking a lot of nice 6s, and completely ignore the two 3* 7b+s in the cave sector. Honest.
Fortunately for me, the rain had different ideas and, after warming up, a light drizzle picked up which forced us to shelter in the cave. It was my lead so rather reluctantly (honest!) I tied on to have a go a Les Garretes del Garraf, 7b+. To my immense surprise, I pulled through all the moves first try, resting only briefly on three of the clips. As a lowered off I realised it that the redpoint was definately on, and after a decent rest I tied on and ticked it first RP – though it was touch and go on the crux. Lau was on camera-phone video duties:
Needless to say I was totally chuffed, and after Paul ticked a nice 6c (going on 7a) first redpoint, the sun came out and it was time to take the chaps to the airport.
Enjoying the late afternoon sunshine at Pas de la Mala Dona, Garraf
So, a good weekend was had by all, and with talk of a bigger gang visiting Barcelona at Easter, and Jo B confirmed for an attempt at Fiesta de los Biceps in May, my climbing year is beginning to plan itself out nicely. And as for my goal of 7c by the end of the season? Hmm I don’t know. I need a fair bit more mileage on 7b and 7b+ to even think about it yet. But maybe.
Alun enjoying Masriudoms!
Check out the rest of the photos of the weekend, including some more of the impressive cave, here.
A rest is as good as a…err….rest?
Obviously I haven’t been posting much recently and that is because, simply, I haven’t been climbing much recently. Work commitments, both with my day job and my ‘project’, which no doubt I will write more about at a later date, have meant that I have had less (read ‘no’) time to go climbing, and neither will I have much more time during the next few weeks.
However, I don’t want to lose my hard-earned fitness, and according to Dave Macleod’s book ‘9 out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes’ if you find yourself in such a busy period, then just going climbing once a week can be enough to maintain fitness (or at least, not lose it so quickly).
With this in mind I was up to the Fuixarda to train this lunchtime, and to be honest I was expecting to be a bit crap. I haven’t climbed for nearly three weeks and was fully expecting to be weak. But interestingly, I wasn’t. I have one ‘reference’ traverse at the tunnel, 50-ish metres long, about 10-20 degrees overhanging, and around 7b-ish on big jugs. I judge my fitness by how far I can get along it, and with great surprise I found myself walking it all the way, without even really getting out of breath. I guess my enforced rest had given time for my body to heal completely, I’ll be honest I felt the strongest I have been for months.
So with not even a few seconds rest after the hard traverse, I quickly got on the ‘warm-up’ traverse (around 6a/b-ish) and did it three times in a row before falling off. Including the warm-ups I had done previously, that’s 250m of overhanging climbing in about an hour, and a pretty good work-out (for me, at least). And proof that sometimes, a couple of weeks off is very good for you!
Let it snow, let snow, let it snow
The cold snap that the UK is currently experiencing is not just confined to northern Europe: the majority of Catalunya lies under a thick blanket of snow, and our original plan of heading south to the Prades mountains this weekend was foiled by scenes like these, http://www.tv3.cat/videos/2265279, taken over the weekend.
So on Saturday we went skiing in -14C temperatures, which was cold, and on Sunday PJ and I headed to the last haven of Barcelona’s climbers in warm weather – Sector el Vermell del Xincarró on Montserrat’s south face, shown in all it’s glory in the pictures in this post.
I might as well describe the day for you as it was a fairly typical day of ups and downs at Montserrat. After the ~45 min drive to Montserrat we stopped off in the village of El Bruc, and more specifically for coffee and breakfast at Bar Anna, the Pete’s Eats of Montserrat Sur. Shortly afterwards we drove the extra five minutes to the parking and started walking in. The view that greeted us was this:
As you can imagine, the psyche levels at this moment were pretty high. While it was still very cold, Xincarró is very sheltered and a complete suntrap; our bellies were full of nice coffee and bacon and cheese toasties, and the walls were looking perfect to climb on!
Then inevitably, things turned downhill. What the photo doesn’t show you is the true extent of the Montserrat jungle. Accessing the base of the crag, even at a well-frequented spot like Xincarró, always involves a ridiculous bash through heavy vegetation which leaves you scratched and sweaty. Then you finally reach the base of the crag, look up at the walls, and remember the one shocking fact which you should have remembered before leaving home. And that fact is this:
The climbing in Montserrat is, actually, pretty crap.
Okay, okay. Let’s just say most of the climbing at Montserrat is crap. And let’s qualify that by saying most of the lower grade climbing at Montserrat is pretty crap. Because the thing is, pulling your way up featureless slabs of endless pebbles is, bluntly, dull. Dull, dull, dull.
So after an hour or so yesterday, we were a little bit depressed. We had ticked a couple of very average (read, crap) warm-ups, there was a large group of people taking turns in working a nice 7b+ we wanted to try, the two 7c’s that we fancied a play on were already in the shade, and all the other routes around looked, well, like featureless slabs of pebbles. Sigh.
But after moping listlessly for a while, things got better. We decided to look for a slightly different sector which had some long 6cs on it according to the guidebook, and upon arrival we found an interesting featured wall, some 35m high, with a handful of interesting looking routes. The key with climbing at Montserrat, you see, is to either head for the features, or the overhangs. Both of which guarantee you some form of cracks or pockets that make the climbing more interesting.
So the day finished on the up as we walked back to the car at sunset. On balance, it was a good day – but Montserrat doesn’t half make it hard for itself!
PS I shouldn’t talk down Montserrat too much, as those of you good memories may recall that it is also the site of the best route I have ever done.
Start as you mean to go on
Over the last fortnight I have been doing plenty of things that were good for my climbing, such as hanging under a fingerboard, doing lots of offset pull-ups and going to the bouldering wall. Yet I also did lots of things that might not have been so good for my climbing, mostly involving vast quantities of tasty food, and not an inconsiderable amount of Spanish red wine.
So it was with interest and a little trepidation that I returned to Gelida today although, as it happens, I needn’t have worried. After warming up I ticked Calma Tensa first try, even putting the clips in as I went. And like many succesful redpoints, it even felt easy! On the left is a picture of the route with the line marked in red. The first crux (lower red dot) is awkward but very near the ground, then it’s easy climbing up to an excellent rest on a big jug. After that is the upper crux (middle red dot) which is awkward and balancy on small crimps. This is the bit that was bothering me last time, but today I was feeling really strong and pretty much walked it. Then you clip the final bolt before an easy run out 7a-ish section to finish.
So it was with great relief I clipped the chains. Okay, okay, it is soft-touch for 7b+, but it’s definately the hardest route I’ve ticked, regardless of the grade. So I’m chuffed – the season goal of 7c is looking well within reach!
The other good news is afterwards I made a flash attempt at Chapas Negras, a 7b/+ just to the right of Calma Tensa. With PJ shouting up the beta, I made it all the way to the final clip before succumbing – totally gutted because I found a slightly easier sequence afterwards which might have let me get to the top had I found it first time. Still, a good effort!
Anyway next weekend PJ and I are headed back down south, along with Djanira and our friends Kim and Sameer, who will be going hiking. PJ and I will head for Monsant (sector Racó de Misa, check the link!!) and then to the big cave at Masriudoms (see photo below).
Wow.
Jerry Moffat’s Revelations
My christmas reading list has been dominated by climbing books, and the first to fall is Revelations, Jerry Moffat’s autobiography, ghost-written by Niall Grimes.
Jerry Moffat can rightly claim to be Britain’s first rock-climbing superstar. He was an integral part of the massive boom in sport-climbing in the late eighties, and together with Ben Moon was the public face of this new, rather controversial aspect of the sport in Britain. Moffatt was arguably at the peak of his abilities just as I started climbing around 1990, and as late as 1998 was still putting up cutting edge bouldering problems such as The Ace at Stanage (which he regards as his last significant first ascent).
Jerry Moffatt had a reputation for being a loud, brash, rather arrogant man, who just about got away with it by virtue of the fact that for the best part of decade he probably really was the very best in the world. I was interested to see whether this brashness would come over in the book, or whether Niall Grimes (who has a light comedy touch to many of his articles and short stories) would be able to soften the ego.
Although the ego is obviously still there in the text, again Moffatt just about gets away with it. He acknowledges that he had a competive streak but I believe him when he says it was never malicious – he never wanted to see anybody else fail – he just wanted to ensure that he succeeded before them!
The book is a straightforward autobiography, in that it essentially chronicles Moffatt’s climbing career, sometimes in minute detail. In that sense it is very much not a book for non-climbers. The list of places, crags and routes gets bewildering even for those who know a bit of the history already, and certainly during the middle third of the book it begins to feel like you’re reading a glorified ticklist. The book is at its most interesting in the first and last thirds, where it focuses a bit more on Jerry’s lifestyle and motivation, and rather less on recounting anecdote after anecdote. As a result the book has a slight ‘episodic’ feel about it, and I wonder whether that is due to Niall Grimes’s experience being mostly restricted to magasine articles and short stories, rather than whole books.
Yet I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the book. Moffatt’s story is a pretty interesting by any standards, but more than anything it is wholly inspirational. What you realise is that one of the reasons he was the best was because he tried bloody hard. As a result, the book is undoubtedly a must read for all climbers who want to be inspired to climb harder – and that’s a moral-of-the-story that I reckon Jerry Moffatt would be proud of.