Moving to Can Piqui Pugui

Hey Guys

Our first week is through in Siurana already : ( It seems that every morning I wake and hope that the trip isn't going as quickly as it seems, but trips always do. Its getting to that point now that Andy and myself are noticing our movement on rock is improving and routes we previously saw as being a little out of reach are indeed closer to possibility than we imagined.

Andy onsighted his first 7b yesterday, "Decidit en petit comite" at Can Piqui Pugui sector. He made it look pretty easy and I am positive that its nowhere near his limit. At the same time I warmed up on a 6c+ that last year I thought was 7b+!!! Hardest 6c+ ever in my opinion : P I later warmed up a little more by onsighting the classic 7c+ "Siouxie". Not the best idea seeing as some of the crimps were pretty damn sharp and it was in the sun :P

After warming up, I checked out the 8a+ "Gigololo" from the ground, hoping that it could be a potential onsight. Half an hour later I was up high on the route, feeling strong and solid on every move. I came up to a hard move to a pocket but had held the wrong part of a chalked up crimp and my left hand spat off the wall sending me off in an instant.

The annoying thing about Siurana is the unpredictability of the climbs. Compared with places such as Rodellar, Santa Linya, Terradets or Margalef were the climbs tend to be more sustained and endurance based, Siurana definitely holds true to being a boulderers answer to sport climbing. Although the routes are long, they almost always contain a single crux that far outstretches the difficulty of every other move! This is both a curse and a blessing. It means you don't get ticks just because your fit enough (or even strong enough), you actually have to be good enough to spot the sequence quickly and respond appropriately to it.
The other day I also checked out a potential 8c for me called "2x30" at El Pati sector. The route takes a first initial bulge that is actually fairly easy climbing, then into a short and hard boulder problem on vicious little razor crimps (V6-ish). After the boulder you do a sustained sequence on small but positive edges with smears for feet into a good sidepull and quarter pad crimp from which you do a wild dyno to a good flatty (Dyno is probably V5 in itself). After the flatty you climb the equivalent of a f7b+ to the top.

Its an amazing route and I am more than certainly going to try and do this soon, however the razors have temporarily held me back on any further attempts (no skin left) so I am going to try different routes until my pads heal. The annoying thing with this route is the consistently wet undercut jugs before the crux that soften your skin before pulling on the shards of glass that await only a couple of moves after : P

Instead I am going to try and do another 8b+ called "Mr Cheki" at Can Piqui Pugui that I spotted after doing "Gigololo" and then possibly another 8b+ next to it that differs in style called "Renegoide". Andy and I have written out a little tick list to stick to which will allow us to focus a bit better on our goals rather than walking aimlessly out to the crag every morning to try whatever picks our fancy. Once my skin has healed a bit more, then I will step the game up onto 8c
I am not worried about ticking an 8c before I am ready, I would much rather climb lots of fun routes that challenge me in different ways and build my mega pyramid of DOOM!!!
Then climb lots of 8c's easily :
Still having fun...

ROBZ