... but just around the corner!

Siurana is not alone as a climbing destination in the Costa Daurada!

Seeking some easier routes, we also checked out La Mussara right around the corner ... it didn't have the atmosphere of Siurana's campsite, not having a campsite or anything at all as the village has been abandoned for 50 years now, but it made us realise there are plenty of climbing options out there in Spain.

 We're going to need a lot longer in this country!

Siurana ...

We arrived here on the Saturday night of a long weekend ... and quickly realised that free camping in your campervan in the carpark, up near the castle, was de rigueur. The place was packed with local and international climbers, most of whom seemed to be sleeping in their vans - just like us!

Perched on the top of the cliff, Siurana is a very pretty and very tiny town and one of the last places to be "reconquered" from the Moors - the remains of the castle are still there. It's got a climber-friendly campsite, a shop selling local wines and olive oils, a fancy restaurant and B&B, and that's about it.

It has also got a lot of pretty spectacular vertical climbing, on limestone that almost looks like Blue Mountains sandstone ...

... well, if you look at it in the right light and squint a bit.

We had great weather and soon settled into a pattern of waking up late, having a lazy breakfast, before wandering to the crag and climbing until the sun set - then dinner and beers. It was a pattern that was hard to break!

We did one quite average multi-pitch - the first pitch was great, but after that the rock quality deteriorated - so concentrated mainly on pushing our limits on single pitch, sports routes and enjoying the views to the valley below.

The only downside with Siurana? Most of the climbs here are hard. Jen felt very chuffed by onsighting a bunch of 6a's (and leading one overhanging 6a+ with "only a few" rests ...) and while Mark was a bit more in his element, he still got spat off a few routes. Although we're both improving by all this climbing we're doing, if we could climb a few grades harder, we'd probably still be there months and months later ...

Sunsets in Siurana

Some say this is the best place for climbing in Spain. For every day we were there, it certainly had some memorable sunsets.

Food and drink and more food ... and maybe just one more drink, too

Barcelona!

After living like monks in Montserrat (when in Rome, etc), it was time for some hedonism. You can read this as "a shower (preferably hot) and a meal cooked by someone else (preferably several courses)". Crazy stuff, we know.

We left Fred by a small train station about an hour outside of the city and caught the train in, as theft of all varieties is meant to be rife and we didn't want to risk all our climbing gear or Fred himself - this also meant that we had a night without Fred. (He didn't miss us at all.) We slept instead in a grubby but very cheap pensione in the centre of Barri Gothic, that satisfied our requirements for being secure, having hot water and being in a great location. 

Lunches were a Barcelona highlight. E10 lunch menus are everywhere - and they include at least two courses, a drink (wine or beer or whatever) and even a coffee. Bargain! And the highlight of the highlight? Chocolate and raspberry mud cake, served with balsamic vinegar icecream. Yes, it worked. Yum.

Not Gaudi himself ...

We also got some culture. We saw the Segrada de Familia before it was declared a proper church on 7 November, and were grateful to have paid a few Euros extra for a guided tour - which was extremely informative and, as there were only 3 people on it including us, enabled us to ask all our silly questions.

...but these guys were my favourites.

(On a side note, thankfully we missed the chaos that is El Papa in town!)







And we went to the Museum of the History of Barcelona ... which is underneath Barri Gothic, and goes under the city to the excavated remnants of Roman Barcelona (being cheifly a bit of city wall, a dye factory and a fish sauce factory ... we're guessing it was a smelly part of town).

Of course, we also went out on a tapas-bar-crawl. Starting with pulpo and beers, and ending with ... well, let's just say a lot of delicious snacks, frosty beverages and smooth reds many hours later. Highly recommended.

Bathelona

The city of Gaudi, in the country of tapas, rioja and the siesta. The climbing on nearby Montserrat isn´t too shabby either!

So life is pretty grand. We´ve been working hard on our lisps, our appetites for good food and wine and our mental headspace for limestone conglomerate rock (previously the ocean floor, and still moving about).

More posts to come ... we promise!

Montserrat - a taster ...

A friendly local climber took this shot of us climbing, and emailed it through, so we thought we´d share. It´s pretty rare for us both to be in the same image!

Cavall Bernat - or, an unexpected 75th birthday party

L'Elephantet was all very well, but we wanted to climb something tall and pointy - something you couldn't hike to the top of - and it seemed obvious that Montserrat had more than enough options!

Cavall Bernat

Arriving at the base of our chosen pinnacle, we found we were not alone - there were a few other parties there, gearing up to climb the Normal route. In a combination of French, Spanish and English, they told us that they were celebrating 75 years of climbing on Cavall Bernat - it was on this day, 27 October in 1935, that the summit was first reached up the very same Normal route as this party were about to attempt.

Not wanting to get in the way, we selected a longer and more demanding route that went up and around the side called "Perez-Verges". Billed as "7b+, V obligado", we rightly assumed that pulling on draws was not cheating, but part of the deal. Well, at least for us on that one short crux section!

As usual in Montserrat, the conglomerate nature of the rock made for a few nervous moments, but the first few pitches went by without a hitch. It was a lovely day to be out in the sun.

And then ... (because, of course there is always a "and then ...")Well, as we got higher the wind got stronger. We changed plans, deciding not to go up the overhanging 7b+ section (hauling on draws or not) but rather to curve right and into the protection of a crack (onto a route called GAM, also 7b, V obligado).

This was met with loud shouts from our audience below. "You're going the wrong way! That's not Perez-Verges! That's GAM!!" We waved back and assured them that yes, this was a conscious decision based on the strong winds. We think, as they had the camera set up on a tripod, they were just disappointed not to get some shots of us on the overhanging 7b+!

It doesn't look like much, but the traverse under that bulge is damn hard - haul away!

We still needed to cross the 7b section of GAM, however. Mark monkeyed from draw to draw in the wind, and then Jen followed, cursing and swearing and regretting not having an extra few centimetres of reach. It wasn't elegant climbing, but once around the corner at least we were out of the wind!

Up the corner, and then a final pitch joining the Normal route ... and we were at the top! Mary sat there, graciously holding baby Jesus on her lap, admiring the view (and conveniently performing double duty as a rappel anchor ...)

Well that's one I've never rapped off before ...

Apparently some photos were taken of us on the route, and our names were marked down as having helped celebrate this special day. Great timing - we certainly could not have planned the day of ascent better.