Siurana and Margalef

Hey all

Lots of climbing going on since our last post we have climbed for a few days in siurana then the rain came back and we headed off to Margalef to seak sheltered climbing in the giant overhangs.

Margalef is awsome the drive in takes you right past the laboratory which is home to copious amounts of hard climbs in the high 8's and 9's. some of the times the whole road is covered by the large roofs,
we are staying in a free camp site next to the resivour, With all the rain there is a massive waterfall from the overflow its cool to wake up and eat breakfast watching it each morning

CLimbing here in margalef is intersting all the rock is a conglomerate of hardened sandstone mud with loads of pebbles in it, the pebbles then fall out leaving loads of pockets that form the holds. the river has then carved the walls of the valley to produce loads of huge overhangs and caves perfect for climbing,
we explore the laboratory on the first day looking at all the impressive climbs that are a world away from what i will ever do,looking around i found a 7c that looked inspireing a steep crack line that starts off horisontal and slowly transitions to verticle over 15 metres. had a quick play on this. then got rained off all the moves have gone except 1 and im confident when fresh i can do it. A few days later i headed back to finnish it only to find the crucial holds are soaking wet from the rain so i join jason on his 7c project i get all the moves forst session then get thwarted and prevented from sending by a wet hold near the very top. we resign ourselfs to rest and await the sun to dry it out, Back a few days later we pull on and clean the holds then dispatch it one after another first go of the day sweet first 7c of the trip and in the laboratory.

Having done this i again look around and find a sweet looking 7b+ having watched someone try it it looks like an brilliant line with a super steep start on large holds but poor feet leading to a technical wall then a hard crux entering a overhanging grove. i decide to rest and then try to flash it.

We start off the Sending day heading to a small sector lucy has spied with a 6c that has caught her eyes. With the aim of getting it in a session. We warm up and get the quick draws in and then lucys off she smoothly onsights the first 4 bolts then gets stuck in the middle of the crux and is off a few attempts later and she has the moves sorted Down she comes and waits to recover then go for it, Feeling good shes off getting to the very last hard move of the crux she cant find the foot hold and is off again sooo close, next go is a disaster the sun has moves and is obscuring a foot hold lower down off again and getting warm we decide to wait till the sun has moved and the climb is in the shade for perfect conditions, after a valliant 3rd go lucy is soo close but again comes off having exhausted herseef on the previous tries. With stunning effort and commitment she's so close to her first 6c in a session next one with be the one for sure,

 As its now getting late and conditions are cool flash time comes we head to the laboratory and i tie in and begin, i pull on and a throw for the first hold a huge move and im there, i set myself up and throw for the next hold my feet are off and im swinging, quickly putting them back on i continue. fighting on for a few more metres I reach a few good holds and compost myself, setting up for the crux i grab the first crimp sort out my feet and throw for the next crimp, its disapointingly bad, im at full stretch and cant move my feet, a few seconds later im off, i pull back on and figure out that i got the worst bit of the hold and a few cm right is a good finger pocket. from here to the top its a path cuper easy, damit sooo close to my first 7b+ flash. I rest for 25 minutes and try again only to get pumped and fall off at half way im tired and gave it all on the flash attempt, content and happy with my effort i head back to the van for tea and biscutes.



As prommised from last post here is a photo of jasons new "Cool" hair. The consensus is that it isnt the hair that makes all the spannish climbers really good its probably the abundance of good rock and the amount of effort. It was worth a try.

Anywho thats me done so speak soon.