Escaping the mist

Well we have left margaleff a few days ago as i was ill lucy wasnt feeling great and we had been stuck in low lying fog for a few days and it was generaly cold and damp and miserable, We decided to head to siurana or Arboli as they are both A few hundred metres higher than Margaleff, Having driven through fog for 45 minutes we arrived at the top of the Ridge which siurana is situated and blessed with a few minutes of sunshine before the fog rose up and obscured it. hopping for good weather in the morning we frequeneted the super nice refugio to bask in the warmth of the log fire and consume sickly hot chocolates.

Monring broke and brung with is a super cool inversion where the cloud level was below us giving the impression we were above a swirling white sea it stayed below us all day and again yesterday , although today it has finaly gone so heading back to margaleff in a few days to contiune crushing there (see photos for the inversion)

My stomach bug is much better now im climbing, not feeling achey and my feaver has gone, although having a super rich and spicy Curry a few days ago didnt help so plain food only for me the last few days.

Had a really good day today managed to onsight a super nice 35 metre 7B+ called "Muerte De la Sponsor" it features a fuper technicl crux on small crimps and super poor feet followed by some contiunous climbing into a rest then a Goey sprint from the last bolt to the chain. With the last move being a big slap from 2 poor holds to the finnishing Jug. once again i slapped and only just caught the edge of it with 2 fingers then ajusted and it was in the bag. Just before this i also onsighted a super fun 7B which started up a thin crack then headed into a steeper jugy section with a few spicy moves in the middle, I though that once i got the the end it was in the bag but alas a Tenuous Slabby section awaited me, 4 moves on sharp crozely crimps and bloind feet lead to the warming glow of te last few easy metres and the chains. All in all an amazing day

Good and the Bad

Hey all

Great news and bad news which leads to good news.


Good news is yesterdy (saturday) i have sent my latest project its called "La insaciable" and is a 20ish metre 7c+ in margaleff, its taken me 3 days and 4 goes after working out the moves so super happy as thats twice as quick as the last one i did, the route itself consists of a 4 bold boulder problem start thats pretty pumpy then you have 3 bolts of easyer ground thats not as steep when you can recover a bit then into a 2 bolt boulder problem at the top thats lots steeper and is 5 hard moves with the last move being a super powerfull crossover from a poor crimp pinch thing. I fell off this move 4 times first moving my feet to set up then going for the move i was 5cm short of the finnishing jug. then i got 2 fingers on the last hold and my feet popped so i came off. last time was the most tired that i have felt when arriving at the move so i popped and tried to jump a little this worked and i got the hold then my feel came off, controling the swing hight right foot and its over just a few easy moves and im at the chain for my second 7c+ of the trip!! stoked

I can really feel the bouldering strength comming through as have been working on short bouldery routes here im slowly gaining endurance  but power wins for now. got a few other easyer projects in the form of tsunami which is a powerfull 6 bolt 7c in the laboaratory i have done all the moves i just need to do it now so hopefully soon, then a bit of onsighting then its time to find a 8a project and finaly get one done.

Bad news is that today i woke up with a really bad stomach bug and spent the day in bed with cramps and feeling sick. i havent eaten anything all day and feel pretty crappy but hey another day is all good for climbing, good news occuring from this is i borrowed a hot water bottle from Tray which came in a "Fungus the bogey man" cover!!! This has helped massivly and made me smile cheers tray.

Autumn @ Albarracin

Hello everyone!
It's Lucy here!!
Had such a great time at albarracin thought I would do a blog to tell you all about it!!
When me and simon first arrived it was still pretty warm, so not the best bouldering conditions but were still able to get some great climbing in!!

Firstly the people.....It was pretty much just us when we first arrived then a friend of ours vaughan from NZ that we met in magic wood turned up, which was pretty random was good 2 c him! Then Rosie and Tom from Bristol turned up who had also come to Albarracin from Rodellar, even though they r from Bristol we had never really met them before Rodellar was really good to get to know them! these guys dont boulder as much as they route climb but they r still super strong and sent some good stuff whilst they were there, we had great fun climbing with those guys!

When Rosie and Tom left Michelle and Adam rocked up, they r from birmingham and we also met them in Rodellar! They are totally amazing we had alot of fun climbing and hanging out with those guys! There were also some really cool guys there that we met, chris from south Africa, Tor from Norway & Greg from Southampton, these guys introduced us to burger mondays, basically a barbeque every monday! Every1 got involved was fun :) There were a couple of americans thrown into the mix aswell, cassie and matt, they were on an epic trip, going bouldering all over the world, switzerland, spain, south africa, all across the US and many more! It was matts birthday while we were all in albarracin so i made a card that had the sillhouete of a boulderer cut out along the edge and got every1 to sign it! and made him a birthday peanut butter and jelly pancake!:) And Jason & Claire came over from bristol for the last 10 days that we were there which was so cool! had a wicked time climbing and chilling with them, they even let us use thier washing machine in the apartment they stayed in and have a bath!!! was such a treat thank u guys!

I did get up to other activities other than climbing aswell, Me and michelle did afew long bikes rides on our 'rest days'. We did a really nice circuit that I originally did with simon 1 day that takes you in a big loop along these long winding roads surrounded by huge outcrops of rocks and trees then back through gea de albarracin, through the village and back to the car park which was approx 20.5 miles. It was pretty much up and down hill all the way so u could cycle hard/rest, cycle hard/rest kind but with a 3k continuous hill at the very end, was a proper sting in the tail, hardwork! was awesome! It was so beautiful when going along the roads surrounded by the rocks and trees, michelle said it looked like jurrasic park so we were cycling along singing the jurrasic park theme tune!! (well lalalala-ing it!) was very funny! on 1 of the evenings following the jurrasic park bike ride we watched 1 of the jurrasic park movies! Having that tune in your head just gives you and urge to watch it!! haha :)

Also whilst in Albarracin I discovered I have a candida imbalance in my belly, which is pretty much a yeast intolerance. So without going into to much detail I totally changed my diet as I was eating all the wrong things! As a result I feel like a totally new person, it really is unbelievable the difference it has made so far, so I am loving it! It is hard as there are alot of things I cannot eat now but it is totally worth it! Im lighter and happier now and loving life even more!

One of the highlights of my week whilst in albarracin was the fruit and veg market on wednesday mornings, the guy that runs it is super friendly always giving us freebees, it was fun going there buying lots of yummy veggies and speaking bad spanish at them and learning more bad spanish in the process!
Climbing wise I was really loving the bouldering, I wanted to get a font 6C whilst there but to be honest there was just so many amazing problems around font 6B I was going for alot of them and just really enjoying it!! i did get sooooo close to a 6C on the last day, wasnt even going to climb that day as was so nackered but did the '1 last go' thing, which so nearly paid off! did all the hard moves then lost concentration as thought id done it and slapped to the left of the really good sloaper I had to go for and fell! ahhhhh! was frustrating but was actually really happy to get that close as I was destroyed after 6 weeks of bouldering!!! good times :)

Simon also did super well climbing wise, he was crushing font 7a's real quick and got 2 7b+'s, Amazing!
So after 6 weeks of pulling extremely hard in Albarracin we are now in Margaleff! Did my first 6B+ onsight yesterday shortly followed but my first 6C onsight which felt pretty reasonable so was happy with that! Have already seen many hard lines Im inspired by for potential redpoints but there are just so many good lines here I think Im just gonna do lots of onsighting for now! I really am spoilt for choice here its a fantastic place! Thats all for now but watch this space for news & pics from margaleff!
Much love!
Lucy

(please see below for some of my fave piccys from Albarracin!)

Stupid finger

Stupid injuries

Heya a little rant for my next post im afraid. Well after a rainy first night in margaleff and a rainy forcast for the next few days i decided to take advantage of a break in the weather to try and rush a few routes, and in rushing i didnt clean the mud off the front of my shoe and managed to slip off the first move of the first route i tried here the result is that i now have a hole in the ring finger of my right hand what a result, (see photo)

When in Albarracin i also managed to split 2 of my nails away from the finger which stings like hell for ages. This leads me to believe that the worst injuries on a climbing trip are the little annoying ones that really sting and hurt when you climb :( but really arnt that bad and dont get you any sympathy from anyone

boo

Saca la bestia

Saca la bestia


Morning boys and girls its been a while i know what can i say ive been lazy.

well we are now in margaleff having been in albarracin for the last 6 weeks, its been an amazing time there with loads of hard boulders being crushed, Lucy got some 6b+ and i got some 7b+ so each of us pushing hard. We are both totaly destroied aching everywhere and feel like it is a good time to leave before we start hurting ourselfs, we have had 2 rest days so far and this morning it has rained so looking like 3rd one which is badly needed.

It was pretty cool on the second last day there i saw a huge wild boar running through the fields as i walked tala in the morning. It was over my waist height and around 2 metres long and huge, was pretty awsome to see one and makes you think as didnt realise they were around the area or that they were quite that big. pretty awsome though.

We have met some cool friends and been reaquanted with some old ones from days gone by, been goot to see you again Burger mondays will be remembered, We met chris and greg there who are on a very similar trip to ourselfs doing a year bouldering around europe theyre are in Albarracin for 2 months then off to font, they have a good Blog here http://operationbeastmaker.blogspot.com. Also met up with 2 americans who are starting on a 2 year trip with 3 months in europe Cassie and Matt have a blog here http://matthewandcassie.blogspot.com if you want to get inspired to go on a trip yourself theres lots of good entries to get you Psyched

Big thanks goes out to Jason and Clare who came to visit for 10 days and let us use there bath in the appartment they were it, amazing to have the first bath in 11 months!!!. especialy when its so cold outside.

Arriving in margaleff was a nice experiance as we have left the land of freezing cold, thermal leggings,down jackets and sub zero temperatures to find margaleff very warm. its going to be interesting to get back on routes having not tied into a rope for around 3 months now. we both feel bouldering strong but lacking endurance so think here will be good as there are lots of super hard but short routes.

I have also learned a new phrase in spannish "Saca La Bestia" means "unleash the beast", i think its inspiring to shout at people when theyre trying hard but the spannish guys i have said it to has started laughing and fallen off the rock, But hey its better than A friend who was shouting "Casa la Bestia" or "house of the beast" :)

Been missing you all back in bristol and will try to put up more posts and musing i have a few creative ideas i want to write about and put up so stay posted. No photos this time as bad interenet here some comming soon.

Si