Costa Blanca - Week 3 and Home Again!

So I have just returned from what was yet another successful climbin trip in Spain. The Costa Blanca has inspired me for another season on rock.

Since my last blog post, I climbed a few more hard routes and even got my very first "First Ascent"! When I left you last, I had tried "El club de la Lucha" (8b+) and was going back for the send on the following day. On arriving at the crag, I warmed up by doing the first 5 moves of the route (just climbing up and down), then went straight for it. Initially I wasn't feeling 100%, but I decided that I would just press on anyway and give it a good blast.

Onsighting an 8a at "Cabezon de Oro"I mucked up the lower section of the climb resulting in a forced down climb to get another shakeout below a roof. I don't know what happened really, I think it was a lack of knowing where my feet should be going, luckily the climbing in this section of the route wasn't actually that hard and I could recover well enough to continue into the meat of the route. The climbing from then on was very sustained with little or no rest for around 15-20m. I climbed quickly only stopping to shake at one point mid-way and then again just below the chains. The scary part was deciding to skip a long extended quickdraw before entering the redpoint crux which resulted in an 8m runout with not so easy climbing to the top :P Luckily though I never fell and to the relief of both myself and my belayer (Jules) I clipped the chains before letting go :DOur awesome villa!

What next? Well, I decided seeing as I was climbing most of the hardest stuff at the crag within a few goes, that I might as well have a look at one of two unclimbed projects at the crag. The one that caught my eye in particular was a route called "Tendon House". It was first bolted and attempted by a climber from Madrid and had seen some interest from locals but was yet to have an ascent. The route takes a wildly blank yet still very steep wall for 25m before you clip the chains. From the ground the route looks very similar to a 9a in Gorge du Loup called "PuntX" which if i'm honest scared the living daylights out of me :P Locals at the crag estimated the route to be a possible 9a given that it had not had an ascent and I wasn't inclinded to argue based on what it looked like from the ground..."Tendon House" (8b+)

Upon inspection, it turned out very differently... I found a lot of hidden pockets (drilled) and sika crimps blind from ground view (unless you know where to look). I had a bit of difficulty with the first crux close to the ground at first, but deciphered a brilliant sequence through it which made it little more than about V7 on it's own. After this, you took a quick shake out on some small holds and from there you where firing up the wall on positive mono pockets for another 5m. The climbing itself is not hard, it's just whether or not you can stand hanging from one finger and pulling quite big locks between each of them.

There was another crux coming up which involved a powerful move to a sika undercut crimp, but once that was over you were back on mono's on slightly less steep angled wall. 

I had two tries to work out the moves - my second involved a brief attempt but I failed in the first crux and decided to work over the moves once again. The next day I came back and sent it first try with the locals watching. I pretty much cruised the whole route with the exception of one move right at the end... a hard lock off from a left hand mono, high feet on smears to a good mini jug. I missed the jug short of half a centimetre on my first pull and managed to hold it coming down and rest again on the two lower mono's... I tried again giving it a bit more umph this time and succesfully stuck the hold and topped out!The world's hardest 8a - "Ultimo Aviso" - I think it helps if you 7ft tall!

The locals were excited to see the project sent and eagerly awaited my grading of the route. I climbed it on my 3rd try, and based on how it felt when I climbed it and the breakdown of boulder problems on the route I felt it would justify anything above 8b but not as hard as 8c. I reckon that in some areas, this might get 8b. Somewhere like Frankenjura or Margalef where this style of climbing is common and people are used to it, but for Sella grading, I think this would be consistent with the other 8b+'s of the crag.

After doing "Tendon House", I was psyched to do some easier routes and more mileage. On one day I climbed a new 8a bolted by some cool Spanish guys we met at the crag, an 8a+ called "Romocop" which in my opinion was the best 8a+ I have ever climbed, then finished the day off onsighting another 8a called "Paula" bolted by Armando (Sella's answer to Jesus). And the next day I flashed "Tirali Valent", an incredible 8a+ up a slightly overhanging section of the wall and small but positive edges all the way to the top :D

In the last few days I climbed a few more routes in the low 8's and high 7's. I climbed a couple of new 8b's, one which I was one move off the flash and probably would have done so if it had been slightly cooler. This was called "La Criatura" (8b). It is the most fake, manufactured/sika'd climb I have ever been on, but despite this, it was actually quite nice :P I also did another 8b 2nd go called "Maestro Suriyoda", another route that I think a flash would have been possible with cooler conditions. When I climbed this it must have been 30 degrees and it literally felt like a sauna as I climbed! I had built this up in my mind as a really hard route as I had seen Armando battling with it for a good few weeks... On the send though it felt OK with only the easier upper section (7b-ish) feeling like I was in risk of falling off, thanks to the high temps. 

Dyno method to crux...On the second last day we headed to Cabezon de Oro. This crag is utterly amazing and I only wish I could have had a couple of extra days there. I onsighted a fabulous 8a there called "Columneta" and tried one of the best lines I have ever been on, an incredible 8b called "Clemencia". The crux move can be done as a dyno, but I managed to do it with a very high drop knee and using a terrible 2 finger undercut intermediate. This made thngs more controlled but it was still at least a V7 boulder with 8a to finish!Dropknee method to crux...

And finally, the last day we headed to a smaller crag called "Castellet de Calp". Now... my honest opinion of this place was - Total Crap! However, I can't speak for everyone as the rest of the group actually really liked it :P I thought it was short, sharp and choss... not what I came to Spain for. Despite this though, I dealt with it as it was my last day and did every hard route at the crag including 3 x 7c+'s and 2 x 7c's. For the record, "Red Bull" (7c+) and "Chasing the Dinosaur" (7c) were actually not too bad, but none would be worthy of 3 stars if you compare with other crags in the guidebook... which does make you wonder whether they actually think about what they give stars to when writing the guide?The move!

Anyway, was such a great trip and despite having ticked sector Wildside bar a few routes, I will definitely be back. It seems that there is a lot more to go at in the surrounding area as well and I am super keen to get back to Cabezon de Oro as well as the facing crag which apparently is like to Oliana!?!?!?!

Right now, all I can think about is getting back on the rock... Ceuse here I come!!!

Thanks also to Stewart Stronach for the photos at Cabezon de Oro and Amanda Lyons for the photos at Sella, Wildside :D