The complete guide to climbing in Spain, Catalonia, Basque Country and Andorra
Dani Andrada, who seems to be in great form at the moment (as if this wan’t always the case) has made the FA of La lay innata, 8c+/9a, just to the left of the infamous FRFM-project at Margalef (Laboratoria). Close on the heels of Dani, was Ramon Julian Puigblanque.
Source: Kairn and Ramon’s blog
Posted in News.
– 2010-03-18
As most of you probably know already (sorry for being so slow), Adam Ondra has made the 2nd ascent of Chris Sharma’s Golpe de estado, 9b, at Siurana. This is especially interesting for two reasons:
1) It’s Adam’s first 9b
2) It’s the first 9b ever to see a 2nd ascent (Adam confirmed the grade)
It’s also the route Adam had to work the hardest to take down, ~30 tries spread over 14 days. Kinda logical when you think about it. It should be noted that Adam broke off a crucial hold, making the second part of the route slightly more difficult (9a instead of 8c+). He describes it as a 9a+ followed by a 9a. Hard if you ask me…
Posted in News.
– 2010-03-16
The gorge of Terradets lies in the west of Catalunya, between Lleida and the Pyrenees.
Terradets is known for it’s three multi-pitch adventure crags between 200 and 500m and it’s famous sport climbing crag. In this post I want to focus in this last one: Paret de les Bruixes (Witches wall)
Bruixes is a limestone crag with a little mixture of sandstone, thats why the holds have a dirty touch. There you’ll find more or less 50 routes between 6a and 8c+ but most are 7c+ and 8a.
In general, the type of climbing is over tufas with moderate holds and overhangs with big jugs. Obviously there are also slabs with reglets and some pockets, anyway the crag is famous for it’s tufas.
Here is our Bruixes taste menu:
At this crag you can also climb combos of routes, like Definición de resistencia demócrata. The hardest route in the crag, 9a/+. It starts at Definición de acción, continues by La esencia de la resistencia and ends at Democràcia.
More things: at the beggining of the crag there’s a super hard 6b+, then some crappy routes where we shall highlight a 6a+ or 6b with a very ugly bouldery start but so nice after it.
You can climb at Bruixes all year because it’s faced south-west: In summer you’ll have to wake up early because the sun hits the wall at 12. It can be very cold in winter if the fog covers the valley.
The ideal day to climb there is a cold and sunny day, shorts and no t-shirt assured!
Click on the following thumbnail to download the Bruixes topo Pete O’Donovan did. Thanks to him for letting us use his pictures and topo. Thanks to Niall McNair for his picture of the crag and also thanks to Marieta for helping us performing this taste-menu.
Posted in Taste menu.
– 2010-03-12
Adam Ondra has returned to Spain and Siurana. This time he crushed Richard Simpson’s bouldery two finger pocket horror, A muerte, 9a, in 3 tries, for its fastest ascent to date. When Adam was in Spain last month, his goal was making the 2nd ascent of Chris Sharma’s Golpe de estado, when he was shut down because of bad weather and a small tendon injury he suffered while trying Demencia senil. Better luck this time?
Source: Czech climbing/Kairn
Posted in News.
– 2010-03-08
Last week, Iker Pou once again visited the Lleida crags. Andoni Perez reports, he first made quick work, as in two tries, of Full Equipe, ~8c, at Oliana, a route bolted by Victor Fernandez, before moving on to Margalef and the Hermita sector, where he polished off the pocket race Abanico de cristal, 8c, for its first repeat. This one was bolted by Jordi Pou, and first climbed by Ramonet in 2007.
Also last week, the ex boulderer now turned endurance climber, Nalle Hukkataival, fought his way up Identification y placas, ~8c, at Oliana. Not bad for a power house!
Posted in News.
– 2010-03-08
UK Climbing and The Low Down has some excellent information about what has happened in Catalonia in the northeastern part of Spain this last week.
UK Climbing:
Bolger 9a, Ojeda 8c, Andrada 9a+ and Sharma
The Low Down:
Ramonet climbs new 8c+
Cataluña report
Cataluña II
Sharma climbs First Ley, 9a+
Do you have any news worthy sends to report? Please let us know by e-mailing us or writing in the forum.
Posted in News.
– 2010-03-07
Another good weekend of climbing started with a bouldering session on sandstone in Savassona, a day on granite in Solious on Saturday and finally another amazing Montserrat-adventure on Sunday.
Clipping the first bolt
Adventure route? But isn’t it bolted? Yes indeed, like many of the routes in Montserrat it is bolted. But what does this mean? In this case only that you don’t need to bother with too many quickdraws on the first pitch. You need exactly one quickdraw and you will only get to use it if you actually find the one bolt in 50 meters… On the photo above Bàrbara is just about to clip it, after that she safely could do the next 10 meters to the anchor.
Following the second pitch
Pitch 2 offers more run out but two bolts and no ground fall. Pitch 3 was aided during the first ascent, giving me the chance to free climb an amazing 6a+. So perfect!
At the top
Pitch 4 and 5 gives way to more easy climbing and after that you have arrived on the top of this very nice tower with views on the Pyrenees, Barcelona, the sea and of course the rest of Montserrat. I really enjoyed this route and I look forward to many, many more of these classic Montserrat climbs!
Topo
Currently off-line but it will be available at La Noche del Loro. Look for Montserrat -> Sant Benet -> Elefant.
Update: Here is the topo.
Gear
Double rope & 14 quickdraws.
Posted in Routes.
– 2010-03-03
Nalle working Humildes pa casa, 8c. Photo from Nalles blog.
A couple of days ago I was going through my RSS-feeds and saw a new post by Nalle Hukkataival, the strong Finish boulderer with FA up to 8C. Now he is visiting Catalonia in northern Spain and trying to build some stamina for the long routes of Oliana. He writes “Humildes pa casa, the best tufa in Spain!” and I must say it looks amazing! I googled a bit more and found a beautiful photo of the route and a video of Sharma climbing it on-sight… I understand that the route is 50 meters long with the tufa being the last 25 meters. Crazy, just crazy.
OK, I think I will just have to realize that I will never climb this route but just looking at the photos makes me want to pack my rope, draws and shoes and head to the nearest cliff. The Oliana-area is a really nice place to climb even for us mere mortals, as I wrote in an earlier post. We also have a really nice place to stay for all of you considering heading this way, Cal Rafeló.
Posted in Routes.
– 2010-02-24
Today has appeared on the net Iker’s Pou footage on his last 9a+ sent: Demencia Senil. In Margalef.
IKER POU – DEMENCIA SENIL (MONTAJE 2.1) from jordi canyigueral on Vimeo.
Demencia Senil is a short route, graded 9a+ and first ascended by Chris Sharma some months ago. Iker Pou has done the 2nd repeat.
Posted in Video.
– 2010-02-19
Screenshot from Chris Sharma: The Legacy Continues by the PranaCollective
Are you planning your next climbing trip and you are not sure about the destination? You don’t know if Spain and Catalonia will cover your expectations? Here you’ve got some audiovisual references where you can see the type of routes and climbing you can find in this beautiful country:
Dosage V
This is the season 07-08 movie from Big up productions, considered the best climbing movies producer of the world. In this movie you can find two chapters related to Spain. First of all, an incredible chapter called “A muerte” (“to Death”, really typical sentence to encourage the climber in his/her rotpunkt attempt). This is the first time we can see Chris Sharma speaking about how good Catalunya is to come climbing, and that he has found a place to stay and settle down for a while.
Which spots can you find in this chapter? You can see images of Crhis trying his 9b project he recently rotpunked, Neandertal, in Santa Linya Cave, or the other 9b project he did before this one, Golpe Estado, also 9b in El Pati, Siurana. There is also footage of Daila in Santa Linya, Patxi Usobiaga in Margalef, Dani Andrada in Rodellar…
Trailer on YouTube
But that’s not all in this movie! There is also another small chapter of a group of American climbers going to Albarracin for some bouldering. Short chapter but with a lot of action for the boulder freaks, you can enjoy the incredible orange rock from Albarracin, and see the kind of climbing you can find there: nice roofs with mantle exits. There is also a nice graphic anecdote of the Amercians trying one of the most typical dishes of Catalonia, the “rovellons”, a kind of mushrooms.
Preview of Albarracin chapter on Vimeo
Progression
The next movie from big up after Dosage V, is the confirmation of Chris Sharma about his new live in our small climbing paradise. There is one sentence which resumes one of the main pros of the climbing here, as he says that “(from LLeida), in less than 2 hour drive, you can find 15 world class sport climbing crags: Margalef, Siurana, Oliana, Santa Linya, Rodellar, Montsant, …”
In my opinion, if you are not sure about coming or not to Spain for climbing, after watching this movie you’ll be for sure. You just have to take a look to the amazing footage of Adam Ondra in Papichulo (9a+), in Oliana, with an amazing camera travelling following Adam from the bottom till the top of the route. Or you want to see the type of climbing you can find in Margalef? Look at Sharma’s rotpunk of Demencia Senil (9a+), or his tries to First Round, first minute (9b) and you’ll be amazed with the steep and athletic climbing he performs, with a lot of bifinger and tufa-pulling. There is also some more footage of Adam in Gancho perfecto (9a), another nice climb in Margalef.
Trailer on Vimeo
Chris on Pachamama from BigUp
The Fanatic Search
Maybe the less spectacular movie of all you can find here, but for sure the one you’ll find more information about climbing in Spain. This movie, done by Laurent Triay a couple of years ago, follows one of the most famous Spanish climbers, Dani Andrada.
The has a 20 minutes clip of piscobloc in Mallorca, and then starts with Dani’s life. It’s quite interesting, first because you can hear and feel the thoughts of one of the best climbers in the world, and secondly because there is a lot (almost one hour and a half!) of footage of Spain, with plenty of really curious images.
Just to make a quick resume of what you’ll find in this movie: plenty of footage from el Pati in Siurana, like Chris and Dani bolting and trying Golpe estado, Mariona Marti doing Kale Borroka, an incredible 8a+ crack, or Adam Ondra doing “la Rambla”, 9a+ under the look of one the repeaters, Edu Marin.
But not only Siurana! In this movie you’ll find boulder in el Cogul, stunning (one of my favourites parts) routes in el Racó de Missa, el Montsant, a lot of footage of Dani in his project in “la cueva de Ali Baba” in Rodellar, some intimidating lines in el balcó de l’ermita in Margalef and a lot more!
Definitely not the best imagequality movies but one with a lot of information!
Trailer on YouTube
King Lines and Cedar Wright videoblog
Are you attracted to this “new discipline” called psicobloc? Here you can find a couple of references that we’ll make you sure (or not!) you want to try this. King lines is the videobiography of Chris Sharma, where we can find plenty of footage of him trying Es Pontàs, his supposed 9b project in “the Arch”. But not only that, a bit in the movie but a lot more in the extras, we can find more footage of Mallorca, like some spectacular footage in “la cova del diable” or other well-known crags of this new wet variation of sport climbing.
The world famous Yosemite climber Cedar Wright has also been visiting Mallorca and trying the psicobloc experience, and what is good for us, he has been taking really good footage in HD quality, and posting it in his videoblog. There you’ll find plenty of images of Mallorca, like the incredible flights without engine from Alex Honnold trying “two smoking barrels”, the 8a+ route created by Klem Loskot some years ago.
King Lines Trailer
Vertical Carnival – Cedar Wright’s blog
BlockDigital
and last but not least, the never ending resource of youtube. There is one “company” which uses youtube as a way of posting his own productions, called blockdigital. In their channel you’ll find videos of bouldering in Lleida, sport climbing in Montserrat (one of the best places in the country that you won’t find in the other videos), some routes in Racó de Missa… a bit of everything! really nice channel to fill this boring empty hours in your jobs!
BlockDigital on YouTube
We are pretty sure all of you know how to get this videos, but we can give you 3 ideas:
The first option is to bought directly to the main climbing movie company, www.bigupproductions.com
Another option which works really good (I’ve bought some of my movies in this webpage) is www.actionsportsvideo.com, which is really worth it if you are going to buy more than one movie.
www.triaylaurent.com, the webpage of the producer of “The fanatic search”
That’s all, I just hope if you were hesitating about coming or not to our country, now you are 100% sure about it!
BONUS! Don’t miss Chris Sharma trying and sending some hard routes in this video. Make sure not to miss the end of the video, after the credits… And, make sure you don’t miss excellent bouldering movie Outside that we wrote about a while back.
Do you know more good videos with climbing from Spain? Share it with a comment!
Posted in Video.
– 2010-02-18
Recent Comments