Xmas, crushing and wild pigs

Heya all

Another sunny day here in margaleff and another rest day in tres pins on the internet.

well since last message we have had lots of stuff happening, we had a fire one bitter cold night and drank hot sangrea and wine. with the friendly neighbours. At around 10pm we heard what sounded like 2 really big cats fighting lots of schreeching and weird noises then they came closer and closer up the river then grunting and other noizes from what sounded really big, the dogs didnt like it and guess what it was massive wild pigs, theres loads of scape marks in the floor where they have been forraging.

We had a rest day a few days ago where we went for a wander for a while and found a 500metre long cave with a vague trail going through it so i wanderred around with the head torch scrabling and squeezing my wat through all good fun with some weird formations there, if you come this way its worth checking out, from the parking head towards "Calamarta crag" then follow the resivour along the right hand edge then once oyu cross the bridge turn imediatly right and follow this to the cave then squeeze through the first bit and the back and it opens right up.

A funny thing we saw asweel was a french guy looking at a route called Photo shot(8b)  his friend had just tried it was obvious he was going to try and flash it as he was going through all the moves he felt the first few holds then cleaned them then tied in the rehursed what he was doing, there were maybe 10 people watching then he fafed a bit more then he grabbed the first holds and then went for the first move and was off swinging on the rope, so funny, he didnt look the most impressed.

We also have a christmas tree in the van now freshly sourched from margaleff  along with missle toe and other home made decorations.




we went out forraging here and got loads of almonds from a tree also the red things in the bowl next to them in the photo below, would you eat these? we have been told by loads of peopl that theyre edable, they have the texture of a peach with hardly any flavour, the dog loves them but they make her sick :).




I had another really good day  yesterday finnishing off tsunami which is a super bouldery hard 7c i tried the day before then warmed down on a 7b+ that i got 2nd go so amazing best day so far.

anywho thinking of bristol and home, speak soon all

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

More riglos photos

Hey all

Got a few more photos from Riglos that i forgot about, Lucy took them when we were climbing it kinda give another perspective on the scale of hte towers.

First one we are approaching the end of the 3rd pitch so around 80m up

second one at the end of the 3rd pitch getting ready for the 4th


third photo, ruperts setting off on the start of the 4th pitch

Photos from riglos and fiesta de los biceps

 At the top of pitch 6

 Looking down from top of pitch 7

 The village from up high

 Rupert leading the final glory pitch in the sun

 Nearing the top

 The white line on the left is the line we took

 Almost there

 Top of the last pitch

 Down from the top

Succes

Well in the last post i mentioned that me and rupert were heading to Riglos to climb the 270m Fiesta de los Biceps and i can report it was a success abet a hard and emotional day on the wall,

As we drove towards the Village or riglos you can see the amazing looking towers towering above the village from miles away, as we drove closer i though i could see a faint line snaking its way up the face near where we wanted to climb i dismissed it as silly but alass as we drover closer it became more and more defined. As the face is so steep the chalk on the holds never gets washed off so there is a faint line of chalk providing a light snakes trail all the way up the cliff. See photo ( our objective is the red line.)

As soon as we got the the village we rished upto the base of the tower to look and though it doesnt look so high it will be fine. We had heard that Leo holding had done it in 40 minutes then base jumped off the top so figured that 2.5-3 hours would be a good estimate of time for us :) deciding it was way to hot as 3pm to do anything we retreated o the shade of the bar and sat hoping someone would climb sonething so we could watch. Plans were made and a start time of around 8am was agreed on.

In the morning we grogaly awoke to pitch blackness at 7am looking at the stars and drinking coffee we though it may be a little early but not to be held back we started the walk and got to the bottom in time for the sun to be comming up and good light.

The climb itself starts with 2 reasonably easy pitches of 6a then 6a+ which we linked into one long 50m pitch to save time (and keep us on track for a 3 hours ascent). rupert started and with a sterling effort did 50 metres with 9 bolts!!! quickly up with him and noicely warmed i swap the bag im carrying for some quick draws and its my time to lead this time the hardest picth at 7a. I start off and quickly gain ground then come to a fairly blank cooking corner where the bolts sudeenly get really close together. Thats the crux i though to myself and set off bad crimpy slopey holds here reach up getting worse get my feet high look left and see huge foot hold. Left foot on my feet now really wide apart and im in a stable bridged position looking up i can see a good hold comming up a few more tenuous moves nd im there at the end of the crux looking up i can see my next good hold a metre and a bit up, it looks huge between me and it are 2 misserably small crimps grabbing them i setup and lunge it there smiling and only a easy run ahead to the belay.

Ruperts up and were ready now to face the ever steeping face above us. the next pitches are as follows, 6c, 6b+, 6b+, 6c+ then the finnishing 6a+. Rupert pushed on then im up with him swapping leads it all goes by in a blur of big holds and every growing exposure, we can see Vultures circling magestily below us as we inch upwards. The sun is now on us and we can feel the tiredness setting in. I finnish seconding the last 6b+ pitch with the bag on on super steep climbing its so strenious im pumped and spent as i arrive at the belay knowing i now have to push strait on to the second hardest picth, Rupert takes on look and asks if in still good to do the next pitch i say yeah but give me a breather for a few minutes. Rupert then drops the bomshell that hes been thinking and decides that he doesnt like multi pitch climbing and wants to be off the climb now so he doesnt mind leading on and i can rest whale he climbs. Calling him a hero i pass the draws and lead over to him. Pushing on with all the encouragement i can muster hes away and yarding easly up the super steep pitch above us. All to soon and all to easely hes up the top. i begin and with the bag and tiredness playing a part in soon pumped out of my mind hanging on the rope half way up the pitch. With load of encouragement im back on and make it to the top.

After the next easy pitch and a bit of a scramble were sitting at the top, after our speedy ascent in no less than 5 and a half hours :) get in were fast. AFtre a tireing walk back down we are met with a cold beer and tapas spanish style many thinks to lucy for being te treasure that she is for prepairing it. All in all a amazing day super exposed super fun but not something i want to repeat to often.

We have some amazing photos from the climb but they are on ruperts camera and im awaiting them byemail theyle be up ASAP once i get them.