Onwards to leyva

Not a massive amount has happened since our epic walking day, we have had a sudden onset of misserable rain which has lasted 2 days, most of it really heavy. Ah well its been a good excuse to relax, Well after trying to see what we can do in the rain, On thursday mid day ish i decided i had enough of being in the van so headed to the closist crag which happens to be very

Best thing to do on a Rest day . . . . . a 5 hour walk with over 1000m vertical height gain

Hey guys

been a few days and muchos has happened, had 2 great days climbing in Sella. Love it there can see us spending a fair bit of time there in the near and distant future.



Had a really good day myself on saturday when i managed my first 7b onsight called Kamikazi took a massive amount of effort and commitment i though i was off on many occasions, managed to pull myself through the

We have a map of our trip

Hi All
We have a map of our trip that we will be updating as we go along you can look to see our journey so far it is on the right hand menu Called "Map - Our Route"

speak soon

Si

My First Post!

Hey everyone!

Sorry nothing from me so far, simon has been keeping a diary which he has put up but im pretty rubbish with that kinda thing :P

So afew words from me about our trip so far,  have been absolutely loving it! All of mine and simons hard work saving and planning our trip has been paying off big time! So far I have dropped down the grades to work on my onsighting, so have mainly been doing climbs up to and around 6b. I think this has been the best thing I have done for my climbing so far, as it helps you get used to reading the rock and just fully commiting to moves when you really have no idea if they will be the right moves and whether they will work or not! plus its loads of fun :) I have ticked more climbs since being away then I have the entire time I have been climbing! When you onsight a climb you just have to trust your insticts and its a great feeling when your clipping that belay knowing your instincts where right :) admittedly I have also made it hard for myself on some climbs by misreading moves, but I have also learnt alot from this! its all good


We have met some really awesome people 2, everyone is super friendly.
The guy that owns wildside is an amazing guy, he is a physiotherapist and eastern medicine practioner who works in norway and lives in the mountains of sella, what a dream his life is! As you can imagine we had plenty to talk about he's a fascinating person who also has an amazing dog, a chocolate brown belgium shepherd called mambo! :) I have also met so many cool dogs!! I really want a dog :P I met a dog at wildside yesterday who's owner had dreaded some of its fur behind its ears! it was super cute :)
We also met a guy called Espen in sella who needed a belay so he spent the day with us, it was only his 4th time climbing outside, he did so well leading afew climbs I had put the quickdraws up on and said it was his best day climbing ever! So we were super stoked to have helped him have a fun day!

All in all lovin the sun, climbing, people and the doggies! Oh and the cats, lots of cute cats! Hope your all good and well, more posts to come from me soon so watch this space!

Much Love
Lucy

Its Alive

Hey All

We have finaly gotten around to setting up a blog, how exciting.

Me and lucy are going to be putting our thoughts and experiances her from now on, The first 4 posts have come from a personal diary of our trip that I have been keeping. Feel free to read it or ignore if its to much, from here on it its going to be a joint effort from me and lucy hope you enjoy,

take care

Simno and lucy

Sella, Sending and Sun

15th and 16th jan Sat/ Sun - Sella 12/13th day in spain

the last 2 days have been spent in sunny Sella valley its so beautiful here all the way at the end of a culldesac up in the mountains miles away from the nearest village. Its so quiet and peacefull i really like it here me thinks were going to spend a fair bit of time in the confines of the valley walls.

Saturday was spend exporing the main climbing area here and having lots of fun on some more verticle and slabby climbs. their technical and crimpy its nice to have to pull on small holds again. After the big jug fest roofs. managed to onsight a few 7a's that made me put up a good fight was nice to climb in the relative cold again and not sweat everywhere.

Went for a walk after we got back to the van to explore other areas and ended up at the sector elephant its awsomely imposing with near verticle walls rising 50-70 metres and roling over at the top but pales in comparison to the awsomly large Divino on whos flanks it sits. the divino sits and around 1400m tall with some shear faces of many hundreds of metres. Vowing to climb here tomorrow we walk back watching the rock faces basking in a golden glow from the sunset.

Sunday we get up bright and early and go for a 30 minute walk to get some fresh air and explore one of the side tracks not much there a few farms with acres of beautifully terraced olive groves on the hillside.

after a hearty breakfast we hike the 30 minutes to our chosen face and begin battle. After setting up the clips for lucy on her chosen 6c i decide to look at some of the 7c's there and after scrabling around a bit i decide that you cant climb super technical and crimpy climbs in the boiling sun. lunch over we head off to the face directly oposit the parking spaces and i get on a technical 7b+ that relys on the smallest shiney footholds satisfyingly it goes 2nd time. Not without making me fight a fair bit and give a lot of faith that im not going to slip.


Lucy is now cooking a chilli con carni so im signing off and grabbing my weapon to devour th ensuing feast.


17 jan mon - Sella 14th day in spain

Monday a rest day in which lots happened, we had a morning walk and met up with Jak a dutch man who owns the land that the wild side sector of sella is on have a good chat he is very carasmatic and escentric. with crazy grey hair, light blue eyes and perfect smile. Companioned by his trusty Dutch shepherd "Mambo" a and we chat for a long time, and are invited to come climb at the wild side and have cup o tea with him.

back at the van we head out to resuply after much time spent driving around and getting suplies. got back to the refuge at sella at around 3.45.

i decided to go for a wander and try to get the the top of the local mountain the "divalo". from the book i have it shows there is a series of ledge systems that mean you can walk your way up the very verticle south face and get to the summet,

I set off with a small bag with some food, drink, a jacket and a head torch. Heading up the dirt track it felt nice to be walking without my normal pack with climbing gear i felt light and free. 20 minutes later im at the base of the divino looking up it looks imposing, the first 15 metres of the walk are the hardest with a brief section of grade 3 or 4 climbing i quickly get up this and continue up the hard scramble ahead after 100 metres the terain eases and i can make much quicker progress, its hard work and ive got a propper sweat on, i stop to take some photos and admire the view, its 4.30 and i need to be nack down the hard bit at the bottom by 6 as thats when the sun sets, it will be lots harder by torch light, i push on and get the the shoulder of where this ledge meets the next. another bit of easy climbing up a groove and im on the next ledge i follow this to its end and decide i should stop so give myself 10 minutes to admire the view and take some photos then go back, i have a drink and look towards the summit and decide its not that far and to not rest and just get up it, quickly go upwards further i discover that what i thought was the top was infack a role in the mountain the actual summit is another 200 metres i push on and at the top puffing and tired i get an amazing view over the top of the clouds in the surounding valleys with the sun blazing over them. i soak it all up then without pausing for to long im on my way back down, the going is much easyer as i can see the best path that was so ellusive on the way up in no time at all im at the base, a gentile jog for 15 miniutes and im back at the van, 2 hours and 15 tired and happy im treated to a lovley thai fish curry waiting from lucy, a lot of altitude has been gained then lost in this hike was loads of fun.

18 jan mon - Sella 15th day in spain

Tuesday we have a lazy morning we go for a little walk to wake up then chill for a bit and have a late morning start. we meet up with a norewegan called espen who has no climbing partner so we invite him to join us for the day. Lucy did really well today climbing lots of routes and being very confident and smooth in her climbing, it was good having espen around as we slowed down a bit and could chat and have more rest between climbs.

19 jan mon - Sella 16th day in spain

Wednesday we headed to the Wild side sector here you can find many steep and inspiring lines that soar up 30 metres on super overhanging lines full of turas jugs crimps and all manner of other holds. inspired i warm up and jump on a 7c boulder my way up and am disapointed with how hard it feels and decide to leave it and move on to other things, then looking at it again i see i have moved from the line i wanted to try onto an 8a with the crux at the top. So ive made a hybred linkup thats way harder than i want what a winner i need to look at the descriptions of where im going better. i try another 7b and feel totaly tired and ache i think i have been over doing it for the past week a rest day tomorrow will be much deserved.

back at the van we get followed by the local stray cat and after he/she starts a mournefull crying outside we put out some sardines and the remains of our pork chops it looks most pleased with itself once finnished. and thankfully is now quiet :)

Calpe, Paella and sangria

12th jan wednesday - calpe 9th day in spain

a nice easy rest day today so we had a bit of a lie in then headed off down the coast to the summer tourist hotspot of Calpe home to sun, sea, sand and the "Penon de Ifach" a stunning 332m tower of limestone that juts out into the sea above Calpe. no climbing today although we have found a route we like the look of Called "manuel" its a 8 pitch e3 with the hardest pitch being the first then getting easyer towards the top. with 285 metres of climbing its massivly higher than anything we have done before. lets see how it goes.

We spend the day doing nothing its great we wander to the beach lye in the sun and read, then wander along the prominad and treat ourselfs to some traditional spanish culinary delights in the form of paella and sangrea, what a treat. we finnish the meal and spend a while watching the sun set whalst sipping our sangrea. we wonder why the resteraunt has been so quiet. we then come to the conclusion that were both fairly drunk and that it is only 5.45 so we started eating at around 4 :) that might be why no one else is there.

Today i think i have seen the most taned man ever from the looks of what i have seen today he spends all his time reading or lying on his sun lounger only moving to get a drink or the point it at the sun more directly. Living the dream.

We wander home and prepair our gear for the up and comming adventure, planning on getting an early start to avoid getting stuck if it takes a long time and to avoid having anyone ahead of us we get a early night


13th jan thursday - calpe 10th day in spain

Up bright and early at 7 for a attempt at the Penon we discover it doesnt get light till at leas 8 so go back to sleap for a bit :) donning my rediculusly heavy bag we beging cycling down to the sea front its bitter cold. We then set off on the arduous hike to the bottom of the climb. I can see lucy is less than thriled at the steep scambling up scree and loose mud

Reaching the bottom we rack up and i begin to climb, we decided as im the stonger climber i would take the bigger bag with the shoes, jackets and water. After around 10 metres im knackered and have to rest on some gear i set off again and another few metres and im puffing and hanging on gear again. apparently i cant warm up on a steep pumpy climb with a 10kg bag on. Finaly getting to the top i belay lucy up. after a breef discussion we decide we may have bitten off more than we can chew and retreet to try an easyer route.

The next route of choise being the 8 pitch "Via Valencianos" at british VS (Very Severe) its well within our respective abilities, feeling a lot more confident i set off and all is going well. the first pitch breases by fairly easily. looking up we discover there is a big seagull looking angrley at us from her nest half way up our next pitch. not wanting to be covered in seagull vomit i choose a brief detour via a lovley 6a+ bolted Corner to our right. Lucy does a really good job of following me and only showed signs of faltering at the top when she grabs my leg which is dangling near her and uses it to assist her onto the belay ledge.

the next pitch starts easlye enough then goes up a steep crack with a strenuous leyback move with the most slippy rock ever for your feet its a massive mental battle to get up it. fully committed to loosing both my feel i make the move and im safe at the belay. the next few pitches are straitforward. untill the top of the 6th pitch which leave you at the very top of a thin ridge with a huge drop to each side sitting stradling the very top i belay lucy up, Its lush up here super windy and cool compaired to the baking face we have been climbing on with the most amazing view over the Town and harbour. The next pitch Begins with airy 10 walk along the top of the ridge at around 1-2 ft wide with a 250m drop angling away either side its memorable.

From here on its plain sailing to the top. total time 4hours 15 minutes. Were both well happy and think we have gained lots from this climb that will help us on future multipitch expiditions. And excelent day we finnish off by taking the rambling tourist path from the summet back down. decent time 1 hour.

14th jan friday - Calpe 11th day in spain

We plan on going inland to a small crag called "Bernia" in the afternoon of today (great english no?). waking up to thick fog our washing is wetter than last night and wont be drying any time soon so i go for a cycle to explore the area whalst leaving lucy to her job of cleaning the camper :). Riding through street of expensive villas the sun has now come up i stop to look out over the ocean and smile life is good here.

WE head off to look for Bernia and searching for the small side road that leads us there we over shoot the turning. doubling back im doubtfull we will make it up there so park up and cycle back to investigate seeing lots of hairpin turns and low trees we move on. we decide to head back sometime on our way up the caost and ride up to the crag. its a shame as the location looks ideal its on a open mountain face around 500 metres above sea leve looking out over the coast.

We decide to move onto the next location of Sella. Im writing this from a parking spot somewhere between the village and the valley with all the climbing. After the inadvertant rest day im itching to climb cant wait. 

Gandia, Orange groves and Tuffas

08 jan saturday - on the road 5th day in spain

woken up once again, it looks like the noisey trucker from france has found us and this time its 5.11 am that the engine must be run for 10 minutes again thanks a million. back to sleep for a bit

nice and leisurely start to today some nice blackcurrent jam on toast big cheers to our darling mother for that. then were back on the road for another 200 miles to our new home Gandia just up the coast from calpe, home to some amazing steep rock drapped in tuffas.

Did my good deed to a stranger today when i helped a spanish person take their knackered thermostat out of his car then brake it so that the water always flowed through his radiator then got him on his way, the whole time the only words i understood that he said was, thanks, please and the number 13 :) this was man comunication at its best, tools, an engine and a problem :)

we arrive and park up in the middle of a sprawling orange grove with the crag towering above us. have a quick wander up and cant resist having a play on some routes so fire up 3 nice juggy routes before the sun goes down. climbing in shorts with teeshirt off and feeling a bit warm :)  really good end to a hard days driving,


09 jan sunday - Gandia 6th day in spain

wake up to glorious sunshine pouring through our rear window. slow get ready and were off hiking up to the crag, arrive warm up then head strait to sector potent home to many splended 7a-7b's manage my first 7a+ onsight and narrowley miss out on another the route i did get "A La Babilla" starts in a steep cave and follows a dripping tufa system to a crux rockover mantle thing onto the top of a really big blob then streuous jug pulling to the top. Then did the most fun and interesting 7a that goes on and on being really pumpy and fun nicely steep with the sun beaming down on me, im happy. was impressed with lucy today i thinks its been her best days climbing so far climbing confidently and strong. well done to you.


going to stay here again tonight have a good climb i have a few targets in my sights then a rest day the day after when i think were head to the beach :)

I have also been learning the guitar and can now play 4 different chords that lucy showed me, which i can link badly to play Everybody Hurts by REM. I have always thought i should learn to play guitar so super happy that have now started. lets see how it goes.


10 jan Monday - Gandia 7th day in spain

another day of sunshine pouring into the van to wake us up, nice early start and back upto the crag headed along to the far end where lucy impressed me massivley with her commitment and excelent rock reading by onsighting her warm up climb and then a impressive 6a+ with a technical slab followed by a nice overhanging wall at the top, splendid backed up by another sterling performance later on another 24 metre line that she sent in a very controled and stylish way

we then headed along to sector Hidraulics which has some 12 meter height archway looking overhangs, managed to pull out a 7a onsight. I was particularly proud of this as have never had to fight so much to onsight a climb. totally not the style im used to but managed to pull through, it starts with some strenuous and pumpy climbing for 5 metres to a cramped hole that you can kind of wedge yourself in and rest a bit, its then really akward to get established on the rock again faced straight away with the crux a few hard pulls later and i have the lip of the overhang in my sights, a quick scrable of the feet and im onto the verticle face above i wobble my up the last few metres very happy.



tried after to onsight 7a+ to the left very similar to last time a massive fight to the lip where at i miss read where the route went and tried to go onto sloapy nothing out left ignoring the large jug to the right :( onsight failed il get it next time so much fun ive never climbed such large overhangs before. had a laugh with a few irish guys who were climbing near who had a try top roping it after and also played on a weird climb where you go up a few meters then into a tunnel through a overhang and emerge at the top after!!!!

Found a weird little camp site after full of english motorhomes who look like they have setup home for the winter, decided not to stay but filled up water and emptied waste, 4 euros bargain.


11th jan tuesday - gandia 8th day in spain

wooow spooky todays date is 11.1.11 5 1's what does it mean . . . . . probably nothing

Woke up today feeling tired and felt knackered hiking upto the crag. had a nice gentile warm up on which i nearly got blown off the wall its super windy today, decided to find any bits that were a bit more sheltered, so worked on a 7b that i had mistakenly tried to warm up on a few days ago where i got to the 2nd bolt and decided i had the wrong route, its got a really crimpy crux and is totaly unlike all the other spannish climbing i have been doing it felt like a climb in cheddar this went first go today so pretty chuffed with that was pretty much a onsight if not for yesterday.

lucy then decided she liked the look of the climb next to it which looked pretty doable with a huge overhung roof full of big good holds, checked and its a 7C with the crux being a very fingery and extremly hard few moves to get round a buldge at the very top on sharp shallow pockets, she was adiment that she wanted to try the bottom part so we pre-clip the first 2 bolts and she set off, after a good effort she was swinging in mid air, a short rest and off again this time a good way higher. im very impressed. This then left me to go and have a play to see what it was like. i tied in and went for it got to lucys high point using pretty much the same sequence we figured out for her. the next few moves although looking hard were pretty reasonable, i get to below the top buldge a cheaky kneebar alows me to get to the first pocket so far so good a swap of the knees alows a snatch at the second poor pocket i try to bump to hte last and im off pull back on an cant figure it out so clip past it. and have a play, think i can see what to do but one move i cant do as the pocket is really sharp and my skin is super sensitive from the past few days climbing decide to leave it for another day.

A rest day is now well and truely needed as i feel exhausted, hands feel like the skin is burning. going to go to calpe tomorrow and book into a camp site and chill on the beach. should be good.

I started reading a book called "Between a rock and a hard place". Its the book the film 127 hours is based on where a guy gets trapped in a ravine with his hand crushed behind a boulder and he ends up amputating his arm. Really good so far i recomend it. he talks lots about the wilderness and living you dreams and not getting caught up with living a lifestyle you are unhappy with but feel paralised so cant change. I feel i can very much relate to this. Have i said i recently gave up my job moved into a van and now live on the road. whoop whoop loving it.

Font, Rain, Cold Noisey trucks and spain

02 jan december - the start

after tearfull huggs goodbuy we finaly are set on on the road heading to where ever we fancy. the destination dover. we settle down to drive and the miles fly by and soon we're there. the ferry over just a quick then hurray were in france. a quick 100 miles and were pulled over preparing our home for the night.


03 jan monday - font

arrive in font to find all is very damp try a few problems but finding not very psyched almost get "jet set" but cant quite make the distance on the last dyno. check forecast, rain for the next week. decide to sack off france and head to spain and the sun, distance to go 750 miles. quick shower + top up the water and were on our way, get a good few hours driving in then time for some lunch. then off for another driving stint start getting higher and are greeted by many snow flurries, some quite heavy. getting a bit tired so stop for a coffee and a stretch. feeling loads better we continue then i am abandoned by my passanger who decided to go to bed :( as we still have 600 miles left and im super awake decide to push on and get some quality singing to radio time in whilst eating up the miles. distance to go 480 miles.


04 jan tuesday - somewhere in france

wake up to find it bitter cold at -6 get the heating fired up and go and stretch legs in car park, the water tank has been dripping and we have an iceicle from the tarmac to the bottom of the van, 480 miles to go. another epic days driving with the welcome break of finding a service station where we can fill up water and empty waste a good shower is welcome. all filled up we continue through france towards barcellona

passing into spain we're well happy our 3rd day of driving is heading to an end. we pass barcellona and head towards llieda looking for a place to stay passing 2 truck stops with no spaces we venture further, totaly knackered we find a place to stop and quickly get to bed.

distance travelled 1770 kilometres or 1100 miles in old money.


05 jan wednesday - St Llorenc de Montgai 2nd day in spain

woke to the sound of a really noisey truck parking next to us and leaving the engine running for ages, thanks for that. this has been the worst nights sleep for ages loads of road noise and really knacked from the 400+ miles of driving the day before leaves us with only 55 miles to go to our destination.

1 hour later and were there looking up at towering orange and grey walls, pretty phyched to climb. feeling super achey and tired from the traveling proceed to get spanked and shown that we need to rest before trying anything hard. my arms seem to have got massivley pumped from driving for 3 days and my back is silly achey rubbish, easy day tomorrow and then on to something hard

have a walk around in the afternoon and visit the twin caves on the hillside they look emense 45-50% over hangs for 15 metres at least looks so good, i have my eye on
Patiasso al pallaso which at 7c+ looks do able. seems to be a line of what looks to be big ish holds for around 12 metres of 50 degree roof. lets see what happens. really cool photo of it in the lleida book page 63.

highlight of the day finding prickley pears and watching lucy try to pick one :) theyre not called that for no reason

 Lucy Chilling in the cave

 The line im lookign at

Our home for the Week

06 jan thursday - St Llorenc de Montgai 3rd day in spain

had a wicked day today woke up to an amazing display of colours in the sky coming in from the end of the valley, took some photos and watched the thin whispy clouds wind there way up the river between the glowing orange rocks.

had a little cycle through the village of st lorrenze de montgai was a good wakeup.
decided a multi pitch climb was the order for the day and proceded to start up Gabriele a 140 m 6 pitch VI+ ? strange uiaa grades, this provided a pretty epic day with very run out bolting and getting lost and doing a pitch on another significantly hard route with the worst bolting ever, clip a good bolt go up 3-4 metres clip a rusty peg, look for the next bolt cant see it, continue up anyway I'll find it at some stage, get up 5 metres look for it ooh yeah there it is another 4 metres up and 2 to the side. scaryist runout ever. figure out thanks to someone on the road shouting at us that this isnt the correct route, gee thanks i figured it wasnt a 5/6a as was bloody terrifing. absailed down and found the correct route 2 nice close bolts to start followed by a 7 meter un protected traverse to the next bolt brilliant well done to lucy for her sterling effort in following this one. fairly straight forward from this to the top with one particularly memorable belay from a small ledge 120 metres up with the most amazing view, all in all a very memorable day, back to the van 5 hours after starting feeling knackered and starving thinking next time we would look where the route goes a bit better :)

decided to check into a camp site and have a proper shower and chillout for the evening, had our dinner sitting out the front of the van looking at the stars in total silence its so nice.


07 jan friday - St Llorenc de Montgai 4th day in spain

woke up today feeling super warm went for a wander and a nice long shower taking advantage of the camp site felt good. the morning is blissfully warm at around 14 degrees. we rush to make sure we can check out in time to find out that check out time is between 5-6 pm brilliant. leaving the van and grabbing the bikes we head a few miles down the road to the inspiring caves of the sector Disbila after a 15 minute uphill slog to get to them we set about warming up for the main event of "Patiasso al pallaso". Tieing in i feel super nervous having never climbed anything this steep or this long its around 50-60 degrees over hanging for around 15 meters. i start off clip the first bolt and head out into the roof first clip goes good then the second then im off. gett back on and try a bit more still feeling well scared i get a few more bolts up till im pumped. i lower back down and look up at the rest of the climb. 2nd go goes well i get past the move that stopped me before and get another clip further then start to feel really scared start faffing then lower off to rest for next go. 

2 spanish climbers turn up intersted in the same route so i relax and sit in the sun for half an hour watching their attempt. it turns out that the crux is the very last few meters and then clipping the loweroff. we sit high up on the hill side savouring the view for a while longer, then i tie in for one last go and get upto the 4th clip and then a foot hold breaks and im off falling into nothing. feeling ache and tired i decide to call it a day il be back in a few months when were back up this way, the best part . . .the quickdraws are all in situ to no need to strip the route. hurray for steep cave climbing

back down we hurry back to the camp site and with enough time to scrape in another shower we abuse the generosity of 5pm checkouts.

after 3 days of climbing in a row we decide on a rest day for tomorrow and to head down the coast further to costa blanca. first stop "Gandia" with its tufa encrusted walls. full of climbs of goodness

i write this from a truck stop 60 miles below barcelona our home for the night. having just feasted on pizzas im off over and out, keep safe.