- Lurgy
- Mild hypothermia
- Unfit
- Pumped
Photographically, these look like:
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| John seconding pitch 2 of "Smoking" 6b+ at Terredets. The sun left us shortly afterwards and the combination of having a shitty cold and only a t-shirt for insulation made for a fairly miserable experience shivering at each stance. Things weren't helped by only having tight down-turned boots to climb techy slabs with; ow!! |
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| The helpful belay hangers on Smoking; no need to look at the copy of the topo we'd saved on my phone, just look at the customised hangers to know what grade the next pitch is (then add at least two french grades to estimate what it'll actually feel like - these weren't your average Spanish soft touches, no siree) |
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| Post climb view of the crag; Smoking climbs the lighter coloured rock just left of centre |
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| Rest day shinnanigans; what strange manikins they have in Spain?? |
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| Super thick and yummy hot choccy. All in aid of ridding myself of the lurgy, you understand? Honest guv! |
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| Another "rest day" - this time i actually left the house and went to Collegats with the others; here Martin is struggling with a thuggish start to a 6b. He wasn't impressed when i demonstrated that with cunning use of a kneebar, the crux could actually be reduced in difficulty all the way down to a no-hands rest! |
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| The whacky rock sculptures of Collegats inspired the famous Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudi. |
Climbing wise the trip wasn't a massive success; the combination of lurgy and getting spanked by the burliness of Santa Linya meant that i didn't get as much done as last year.
I had one good afternoon at Camarasa doing the classic 7c+ Shere Kahn on my 2nd go having dropped the on-sight catching a slopey bit of a hueco instead of the positive edge, right up by the chains.
Pegue Nocturno at Santa Linya took much longer than expected. I'd successfully dogged it on day 1 and took the ride from the last hard move on my first redpoint a couple of days later, but it wasn't until the second to last day that i clipped the chains, dosed to the eyeballs on paracetamol, 'brufen and all manner of other cold remedies. With that in mind i don't know if i have any right to comment on the grade, but it certainly felt a notch harder than my other f8a tick of the trip; Maneras de vivir on Bruixes wall, Terredets.
Maneras was a strange affair, ticked on the last morning of the trip, an hour before driving back to the airport. I ended up having an extra dog of the route due to the rope miraculously tying itself off to the belay when we pulled it down prior to our redpoint efforts. This probably wasn't such a bad thing as it made sure i had the crux fully committed to my memory banks. However, the visualisation of the successful redpoint didn't include getting my hair caught in an extended draw and having to pull a big tuft out before questing on up the route.
I'm already planning a return trip for the first May Bank Holiday; hopefully to finish off a bunch of routes in Santa Linya with John. Fingers crossed for cool conditions and a sending breeze?
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