[TR] Spain - La Luna de Miel 4/30/2012

[tanstaafl]

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.

[scottgg]

Looks great, looking to head across the pond one of these days!

Thanks for the inspiration!

[tanstaafl]

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.

[spionin]

nice report, kellie!

i like that the writing style seems to be following the snack-type style of the food you apparently consumed for the past month.

[fgw]

Looks like a great fun trip. If you want to slim down in Spain, you should go to Aragon... personal opinion

[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.

[fgw]

can't agrue with that! those 2 wks in Jordan were like some AA desert retreat (climbing makes up for it though - mostly)

[mountainsloth]

Spain has bumped up the list thanks to your TR. What a cool place!

Thanks.

[Pete_H]

Looks like a great trip. I'm stoked foy you guys! Looks a little luxurious for Rolf though.

[tanstaafl]

It was a little hard on him eating Iberian cured ham and Manchego instead of canned tuna dumped in pasta, but he rallied.

We did at least stay in some fleabag hotels, although I recommend the place we stayed in Finestrat if you ever want to do some limestone climbing in the Costa Blanca:

 

http://www.casafigueretes.es/01_english.html

 

Your trip to Cham looked pretty swank too!

 

[ken4ord]

Awesome looks like a nice trip. I got to get there one of these days. I remember wanting to go there and seeing there was a lot of climbing areas there. Now I would like to just get somewhere, where there is some climbing. Hopefully see you this summer.

 

[Marko]

Way to be you crazy kids! Ah, sunshine...

[wayne]

Glad I found your report Tan! Nice to see you had a great trip.