Julia has written
a couple of excellent introductions to to areas around her adopted hometown of Barcelona, the Lleida-area and the Barcelona-area. In her Lleida-article she writes about the climbers bars:
In Catalonia overall, and Lleida and Alt Urgell regions in particular, it is often the case that only the locals can get through the language and information blockage and find the actual topos dispersed in Desnivel magazine publications, various blogs, and climbing bars. Climbing bars represent one of the crucial Catalan traditions. They are these dim, smoke-filled places, usually occupied by old men playing domino, reading the newspaper, or having their coffee with Whiskey for breakfast. Somewhat surprisingly, they are also places where topos are deposited by the first-ascencionists, where the piada (boasting about the hardest route sent) takes place after a good day, and where beer is drunk and pan con tomate, jamon o queso consumed in admirable quantities by hungry and dirty climbers. The topos oftentimes lack precision and specialize in naked women and/or fantasy drawings rather than such information as where exactly the climb is located or what material is necessary, – they have to be seen to be believed. For this unforgettable cultural experience, try for instance the topos in Vilanova de Meia or Puente de Muntaniana climbing bars.
Well, I couldn’t have said it better. How about this or maybe this topo? It is of course impossible to come as a visitor to a remote mountain area of Spain, find a specific bar in a little village, pick up the right collection of papers and then base your two week vacation on these topos. No, get your guidebook and start with one of the established areas. When you feel a little home, and the need for a beer and maybe to connect with other climbers, head over to one of these bars. Once there, start looking in these collections of topos and see if you find something that you like. Rest assure that there are plenty of high-class climbs that are years away from being included in a guidebook and maybe this will be the highlight of your trip! There are also notebooks available for you to write down what you’ve been up to the last days, how the weather has been and generally how life is. Kind of a a pre-internet forum. Use it, it will be read by many people!
To make it easier for you as a visitor we hope to gather all the climbers bars of Spain on our maps! They are marked with an I for Information. Or maybe for “Interesting place to watch climbers and old farmers meet”?
