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 :)