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.
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