Back in Spain

Hola Chicas! I’ve been back in Espana for una semana ahora, and to be quite honest, it’s been a rough ride! I’ve been sick, tired and not climbing as well as I’d like. My partner and I are sharing space at the refugio in Margalef which, for only 8 euros a night has been pretty kick ass. There have been some snorers and some random alarm clocks going off in the middle of the night in the shared ‘bed room’ upstairs, but besides the weekend it’s been pretty chill and we’ve had the place more or less to ourselves.

Since my last update in Tecino, Matt and I met up with Liv, Loic Chuck, Clerence and Marc for two full days of Photos and video capturing. The days were long and a little more wet than we would have hoped for, but we were mainly there to get photos and the weather cooperated just long enough for us to accomplish those tasks. Matt and I really wanted to climb in Tecino but it just wasn’t in the cards this time, so after comparing numerous extended forecasts, weighing pros and cons, and soaking some tea leaves, we decided driving the 7 hours to Fontainebleau was the smart decision.

If you’ve never been to Le Bleau, plan your trip right freaken now!!! It’s soooooo fun. The last time I was there was about ten years ago and it was the summer. I bumbled around in Bas Couvier and Isatis and slid off a lot of 6cs… I left under the assumption that font was all turdy little lowballs that you had to be 60 with spandex capris and look like a goat to climb… oh I was so naive. Long story short, I was wrong! Font has everything, and it’s almost all amazing. There are rumored to be over 10,000 problems in the forests around Fontainebleau and I can believe it. I’ve never seen a bouldering area better made for, well, bouldering. It’s just a playground of perfect sandstone monoliths that are seemingly shaped to be scaled by humans. The lines up the boulders are obvious and fun and never get old. I can’t wait to go back.

Mat and I had ten days in Font before we had to make it back to Zurich to catch our respective flights. Matt had spent a fair amount of time in Font before and had done a fair amount of hard and/or classic lines, but being on my first trip, I just climbed as much as possible until my arms ached and I begged for a rest day. We scored with the weather and almost every day was climbable, if not stellar. Neither Matt nor I got up quite as many hard boulders we’d hoped to get up, but we managed to top out a few things that challenged us and while not climbing our very best ever, we put away some serious pastries which probably made us just as happy in the short term. Check here for trip reports from Font on Matt’s blog.

We were with Paul for the first few days and he made up for our lack of hard sends by sending Angama (8c) on his second to last day of his trip. Paul is so freaken strong these days it’s silly. He’s sent almost every hard problem in the forest (and in Tecino) and done them all REALLY fast. I’ve never really seen anyone float up moves that I’ve struggled on so easily… It’s damned impressive. I expect Paul will establish more problems in the next year that will have us all shaking our heads while dragging our jaws on the ground form side to side…  Keep up the good work kid!

So now I’m back in Spain and Wilder is back in Colorado, preparing for the birth of his baby boy (and trying to finish his PHD, and search for bitchen, unclimbed lines, and trying to remodel parts of his house). Good luck buddy! My friend Mandi (who seems equally psyched to look explore the various plant and animal species of Catalunya than to climb and I have been thrashing our fingers on the sharp conglomerate/limestone pockets for a week and we’re ready for a change of scenery. Margalef has some really fun, steep routes and some beautiful scenery, plus all of the Spaniards we’ve been hanging out with have been really friendly and fun to kick it with, (especially Vincent!) but we’re ready for a change of pace. We’re seriusly considering just ditching Spain and going to southern France (St Leger, Gorge Du Tarn, Verdon… Ceuse!) because everyone seems to be coming to Catalunya to sport climb right now and we’re thinking that the limestone paradise of Southern France might be pretty sleepy right now, but my draws are on Pachamama and I have unfinished business at Oliana so we’re headed there tomorrow.

That’s it for now… I’m tired, and I’m on the tail end of a cold, so I’m going to treat myself to a moderately early bedtime. I’ll try to update after our stay in Oliana. Hopefully I can clip the chains on something hard! We’ll see! Oh and remember to take some pics… Here are a few sets since the last time I posted…