tanstaafl

After I saw your Jordan TR, we actually talked about going there until Rolf pointed out the wine would be abundant, good, and cheap in Spain, but not Jordan. Still, someday I'd like to go.

Thanks; be warned however this is the only climbing trip I've ever been on when I came back fatter than I was when I left. I even put myself on a little wine diet for a couple of weeks afterwards. I'm over that now though.

Rad. Wish I could have come this year. I would have summitted Silver Star finally.

Trip: Spain - La Luna de Miel Date: 4/30/2012 Trip Report: I have no time (read: I am too lazy) to write up a long trip report, but since there isn’t much on this site about Spain, I thought I’d post a few photos and a quick summary of a month in Spain. La Pedriza: Got out with forrest_m and his delightful daughter Sofía to this granite area about an hour north of Madrid. Granite slab climbing ranging from 1 pitch to 200 m with approaches varying from 20 minutes to several hours. Mostly bolted, though word is there are some routes requiring gear. Sadly we only got two pitches in before it began to rain. As a consolation prize, we stopped in the village after the hike out for some beer and tapas and a visit to the local castle. Zafra: The grow shop was closed, but without the artificial aid of pot Rolf still managed to eat almost all of the tapa I accidentally ordered that consisted of nothing but a pound of cheese. Really, the name made it sound like it was going to be some sort of omelette-like thing. Sevilla: No climbing, but we spotted an enormous housecat and a couple of imposing locals: El Chorro: a tiny little village in the province of Málaga, El Chorro is home to El Caminito del Rey, subject of a YouTube video that made the rounds a couple of years ago. The Caminito is a three-foot-wide walkway built between 1900 and 1905 suspended 100 meters or so above the bottom of the narrow gorge. It’s quite deteriorated, and at this point it’s hard to see what’s holding much of it up except for habit. It’s a belay ledge for many of the climbs and walking the length of it and back is a highly entertaining rest day activity. Caminito del Rey Traversing the Camino A little baling wire reinforcement The first day or two in El Chorro were hot, but later on the weather turned a little and I discovered some surprising similarities between limestone sport climbing in Spain and Cascades alpine: Granada: again no climbing, but we did visit the Alhambra, which has some of the most impressive architecture I’ve ever seen. Rolf: “The Spanish have an edifice complex.” Granada is one of the last bastions of “a free tapa with every drink,” so I recommend you check it out before that changes. Calpe: Finally in the Costa Blanca, we spent a couple of days in British-retiree-infested Calpe climbing on the Peñon d’Ifach before renting a car and fleeing inland. No pics, sorry. Finestrat: we spent a week in Finestrat, climbing at several areas. We started with a couple of days of single-pitch sport climbing in Sella. The longer routes on The Divino looked good but we never got around to them. The Divino We spent two days climbing on the Puig Campaña just outside Finestrat. First up was a five-pitch 6a called Diedro Magicos which involved “rescuing” some climbers who got hit by rockfall on the next route over (read: we let them rap on our ropes). Next day we got on a 12-pitch 5, Espolón Central. I cleverly dropped my belay device on p2 so we rocked the hip belays for the follower and I used biner brake rappels for the rest of the trip. I initially was going to rap on a Munter but Rolf wisely said, “No. Fuck that.” Puig Campaña Following p2, Diedro Magicos Rolf on p4, Diedro Magicos Helicopter rescue Helpful Spanish belay station, Espolón Central Our last climb was Via Valencianos on the Ponoch, just outside the splendidly named village of Polop. It was a long, vegetated, wandering, scraggy climb redeemed by two really nice 6a pitches, both of which fell to me. Sorry Rolf. First 6a pitch, Via Valencianos Madrid: Our last night in Madrid forrest_m and family were extremely kind to let us crash at their apartment and act as our tour guides to the best tapas places. Another point in favor of Spain: you can take your six-year-old to the bars. Is it time for another vacation yet? Gear Notes: Single rack to 3.5, a bunch of draws and runners. Approach Notes: American Airlines. Business class would have been better.

If you're going to do Newest Industry, might as well do Beak Beak Beak and Lamar's Trust too since they're right next to it.

Just to clarify, do you mean the #0.5 purple or the #4 purple (or the even newer #5 purple, which I *think* is the same size as the old #4 purple)?

Orange Flake on Saddle Rocks is a 3-pitch 5.8 Lost Horse has several 2-pitch 5.7/5.8 routes: Roan Way, Dappled Mare, and the Swift, and a sweet 10a called Bird on a Wire. Ball Bearing on The Sentinal is another fun 2-pitch 10a -- technical and balancey rather than burly. I really enjoyed High Strung on Foolproof Tower. Rated 5.9, it starts with really thin fingers and gradually gets wider and wider. Lots of fun. Like many JTree climbs, the crux is right off the ground. Indian Cove also has some really nice climbs, but I can't remember the names of any of them.

I want to go to there.

Maintaining fitness/training/energy/motivation as you get older, tireder, and more injury prone. And by older I do not mean in your thirties.

Rolf's 'stache in the fourth photo reminds me of the Swedish Chef. bork bork bork. Nice work guys; glad someone got after it in the alpine!

It's excellent style to photograph Rolf, but he has to be flipping you off when you do so.

Nice work taking advantage of the good weather! You really need to work on making your TRs a little less verbose, though.

Tell Mark to bring that slideshow up to Seattle!

PM sent

So ridiculously jealous.

Congratulations John! I saw a nice article about this in Backcountry magazine this weekend -- the book looks fantastic. Looking forward to seeing the final product.

The lake is low enough you can actually walk all the way around to Revolutionary Wall on Highway Rock, and it was nice enough to climb in a tank top. Yay for the desert.

Thanks! We were reminiscing about the Hyalite trip with you and Loren and my stellar dancing skillz :laf: Funny, I was just reminiscing this weekend about how Loren snores like a two-stroke motor. Thanks; will do.

I've been waiting for this one! Nice job you two.

Nice TR, and killer 'stache.

My understanding is, however, that guide services are allowed to reserve permits in advance while regular members of the public are not; which is a huge advantage. Perhaps this in inaccurate, but that's the way I've always understood it.

I also appreciated your notes. I think TRs can (and should) be whatever the author wants: conditions updates, lessons learned, photo blasts, purple prose, a story that contains no useful information whatsoever, or ivan's inimitable -- I don't even know what to call ivan's writing, but I always read it. Write the TR you want to write. I liked your original.

V -- so relaxed I think I was asleep ten minutes after that first picture was taken. Flapjack Lakes is a nice place for a nap. David -- sorry to disillusion you, but we actually drove around through Olympia instead of taking the ferry -- on Saturday morning we dropped a friend off at the airport on the way and on Sunday we were sort of on autopilot. After spending the whole time from Olympia to Tacoma Sunday night in 20 - 40 mph traffic, though, I'm thinking next time we might go for the ferry. Thanks all for the words of wisdom re Mildred Lakes.

I've totally heard of Steve Tift. And way to persevere on the west side!

Trip: Mt Cruiser - West/Southwest Corner Date: 8/21/2011 Trip Report: Der Rat and I climbed Cruiser this weekend and Dave Parker told me I needed to post a TR to up the percentage of Olympic reports. The approach via Flapjack Lakes was a straightforward slog. Needle Pass still has a fair bit of snow so aluminum crampons and an axe came in handy. We ended up doing the West/Southwest Corner variation off the flake on the west side of the summit ridge -- fun! There were supposedly two bolts from the 50s somewhere on the pitch but we never found them. Three single rope raps and some downclimbing got us back to our crampons etc., where we decided to climb the needle formation at the top of the pass as well. It was easy but if you only have one rope you can’t rap all the way back to the notch and will have to do some downclimbing. Chilling at Flapjack Lakes Rolf sounds his barbaric yawp on the summit ridge Looking for pro on the needle Back on the trail Glacier lilies - they're what's for dinner We realized later that Mildred Lakes would have been a much shorter approach -- has anyone else gone that way?