Took a couple of days off at the beginning of the week to relax before starting a long weekend of work. With friends of Sweden we first found probably one of the few dry crags in Catalunya on Tuesday and then we headed down to Margalef where I join them climbing for one day before driving home. Then a powerful indoor session on Friday followed by a quick escape for real rock on Sunday. Best of the week was my first 7a on-sight this year, Kagate Kid in Margalef. Good, 1 out of 3 7a-onsights done! The cool thing was that I could do this route on-sight after falling from the anchors on the route to the left of it about 1½ hour before. Before starting the training I could never have recovered enough energy to go for another long (30 meter) route the same day. Great feeling! Unfortunately still feel very far away from 7b+ (or 7b) so I guess it’s time to get some quickdraws up on a project and start working out the moves and figure out just how much stronger I need to get.
In Margalef we met the Swedish pro-climber Said Belhaj in Margalef and had time to make an interview with him during a long breakfast while waiting for the sun to show up. I hope to have time to finish it this week, maybe he comes here to climb with me in Montserrat on Monday.
Tuesdag – Santa Ana (north of Lleida) to escape the rain everywhere else. Found a nice 7a with tufas to try. Worked out the moves but it is hard. Look forward to trying the route again!
Wednesday– Great day in Margalef! Rain during the night, rain during the morning. Then cleared up and could climb in shorts in the afternoon. Despite high humidity and pockets full of water got to try some fun routes. First fell of not being able to clip the anchor of a nice 6c then on-sighted the 7a next to it. It is really different to climb in Margalef after rain when the routes are clean from magnesium, the climbing get more like in Montserrat and less like the normal sport-pulling. Very happy with the on-sight since I hoped to on-sight three 7a this fall. Added quite a lot of stress to have the key-pockets full of water, clipped two draws from water filled pockets.
Friday – Fun session at the wall. Managed to create two modify 3 old boulders and create one new to find 4 good challenging boulders for todays 4x3x13mB2/4/8 (4 boulders, 3 times each, 13 moves/4 minutes rest between attempts/8 minutes when changing boulders). On the 55 degree-wall (steepest non-roof wall) the 13 move problem was really cool and I felt very strong. This left me completely dead by the last one where I had to struggle a lot to do anything at all.
Sunday – Was supposed to be another indoor session but after a long weekend of work we choose to go to the Odio Africano sector in Montserrat to try the route with the same name and the grade of 7a+ (some say 7a but I say that this route would be 7b in most places). Got the QDs up and did all the moves on top rope. Way to stressed to make it up and down before dark to enjoy the climbing, well, still nice to be outdoors a little. Will get back to this fantastic climb, super cool route to have as a project. 25 meters slightly overhanging with lots of pockets. Can do all the moves but to do the first 8 meters and then have stamina for the end…
Then home for a hangboard-session after trying Odio Africano to get rid of a little stress and extra energy. Good session, could do the RockRings-program (10 minutes) thanks to good support from beer-drinking bystanders. First time I could do the full program after climbing, good sign!
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