El hombre de la cuerda
Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand
Originally uploaded by ·GeorG·. (I’ve just picked a photo from Jorge’s stream. I didn’t take the camera, it’s not the sort of crag booty I want anyone to have)
I’ve just got back from a fine day’s climbing thanks to Jorge, who I met via Flickr. For those that know my climbing history you will be surprised to know that we did 8 routes, of which two were three pitches each. If you’ve climbed Spanish limestone you’ll know that it’s not like the English stuff, where each hold might come off if you pull too hard, no, this stuff is like iron. Tiny little flake, thankyou very much pull like a good’un. None of it was hard, I think the hardes one we did was 5+ which Jorge led. But I did lead most of the others. Mainly because when Jorge handed me the rope I didn’t know the Spanish for ‘actually I’ve just done bouldering recently, and I’m not that confident on the sharp end and it would make me feel a lot more comfortable if you led’ so I just tied on and climbed.
Limestone is much more positive than gritstone, and once you’ve got your eye in and can spot the holds without testing everything within reach it’s a pleasure to climb on, you know you can put your foot on that tiny nubbin and it doesn’t matter because you’ve got at least one whopping edge that you’ve sunk all your fingers into. Even the bolting is done with an eye to making you comfy, largely because the crag we were at is just up the hill from a climbing school (with an indoor wall with 3 glass walls).
The multipitches were lovely, there is not much to match standing on a belay (un reunion)looking out over a steep sided limestone valley (1500m on either side) while eagles circle… at least I think they were eagles, rather than vultures. Jorge tells me that there are quite a few walking and climbing groups, and that some of the climbing groups rent out gear cheaply… crampons and the like… so I’ll be investigating that in the near future.
Tags: climbing
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Respect John.
Good job you could remember how to tie on ;-)