Yvette and Jon do Spain

Really haven’t been very good at keeping this blog going over the summer. My main excuse is I can only keep one thing going at a time and I’ve devoted myself to trying to write a book. I say trying, well I have written one. Whether it’s good enough to get published is another matter. But guess will just have to wait and see.

Valencia Center

Since I last posted, Yvette and I finally got our house. It was a fight, but in the end we moved in at the end of July. We’ve been busy getting it all homely and just enjoying having our own place. I’ve built a training wall in the garage so I can get cranking and get a good winter in the rock. That was the plan, but within a week of it being finished I tore my main tendon in my forearm pulling to hard, on too small a holds on too hard a move. It’s now nearly 8 weeks since I did that and I’m only slowly getting back into climbing.

Trying to think back for the last five months to what I have been doing. I guess one highlight was two weeks in Spain with Yvete, having our annual climbing trip (I couldn’t climb much thanks to tendon). It was a good little adventure, mostly I covered the same area as I did with Steve back in April. The main difference this time was I had a bit more money to spend, so we ate out a bit more.

Cuenca

Eating out in Spain is a bit of a lottery, the first roll of the dice is whether the restaurant chooses to open, and if it does whether it’s before my British stomach can’t wait and more and goes else were. The next roll is if the food is any good or just microwaved for you. Finally it’s the lottery of whether you can actually translate the menu or if they have an English Menu they’ve translated correctly.

All this leads to a few interesting meals. Breadcrumbs with Ham and Tomatoes, is just a plate of fried breadcrumbs, sorry Yvette for not finding Tripe in the dictionary, guess I’ll eat that one, but we did manage to translate and not order Pigs ear soup. We did have many interesting meals and probably spent more time eating than we did climbing.

Yvette's First Font 6A

Other than our culinary adventures in Spain there isn’t much to report, Yvette bouldered her first font 6A, I climbed all the easy things I could. We went to Valencia and I got Cityatitis as usual and then we flew home. We did learn that mixing climbing and culture doesn’t really work. It’s one thing to climb most the day then sit on the beach and swim in the sea. Another to climb most the day, then walk up steep hills in medieval towns and try and look around museums, the later doesn’t really work. Promise to get an update out after Christmas.

Cuenca and the Med

Albarracin came to an end with shattered tips, Steve sent to amazing lines to finish off his last days. I pulled as hard as I could to nearly get my project, but was only able to tickle the hold. But we left excited for the next stage of the trip; routes! Our first stop was Cuenca, 2 hours across the mountains this larger version of Albarracin perched on top of a limestone defile is crowded with a gargoyle strewn cathedral, inquisition court and multicoloured medieval buildings and courtyards. We arrived on an over cast day and after the half hour slog uphill to reach the old quarters was not in the mood to take photos. One thing that did put us in a good mood was the routes, 30 metre tower limestone cliffs, mainly slightly overhanging or very overhanging.

We started our mission the next day with the easiest climb in the sector to warm up on a 6c overhanging crack into crimpy headwall to finish. Then the main action a 30 metre gently overhanging 7b+, not a single hard move in it, but constantly throwing you long pulls, crimpy laybacks, slopey rails and plenty of pockets. Steve made it to the 6th bolt before his lack of route fitness showed and then bolt to bolt to the top. I was determined to beat his highpoint, but as I went through the slopers above the roof greased off and had to make do with only making the fifth bolt before going bolt to bolt to the top.
Cuenca
The next day we started on other side of the river with the warm up this time having to be a 6c+. Out main candidate for the day was a seriously overhanging 7b+ on deep pockets. Every pocket was good, with long dynamic moves between, it was incredible climbing, every move flowed, your smeared your feet on small edges and perfectly stabbed your hands from pocket to pocket with a bit of extra psyche for the deep mono just before the end. Steve went for the redpoint but couldn’t find the extra energy for the first crux dyno to a large pocket. I decided to try my fate elsewhere and have a shot at a 15 metre 7b I had tried the day before. The crux moves making up the first three clips and then a pumpy finally on slopers and long reaches of under clings. I fired off the first section fine, jumping out the crux to a huge jug the reaching through the slopey rail. I was getting so pumped, a month of bouldering had done nothing for my stamina. The final move was a torturous reach from a juggy under cling to a two finger pocket. It took me three goes off undercling to reach the pocket, each time climbing down to a slopey rest to try and get enough energy. But in the end I had climbed my first 7B cleanly!

That was the end of our stay at Cuenca, we had wanted to stay for longer, but are skin was still trashed after Albarracin and neither of us liked the idea of pulling on those sharp pockets anymore. An overzealous local official had also spotted are van parked up at night and taken our details and it seemed we would struggle to find somewhere to stay for free in the area. But there is one last bit of Cuenca to pass on, my best Tapas experience in Spain. It was recommended in the lonely planet guide so we headed into the new town to check it out. It was an old, narrow, mahogany lined bar and at 8.30 already bustling with locals, are table was only a foot of the ground. Our first round of drinks came with an aperitif of chicken soup and then a plate of fried eggs, ham, crisps, bread and salad. All on the house (although the drinks are slightly more expensive here). Our first bit of Tapas was Gaspachio Pastor, a game stew with hundreds of complex and different flavours; I can’t really describe it as it’s like nothing I have had before. Almost like a risotto, but with no rice. It wasn’t a bit plate, but we couldn’t have eaten any more. Our second choice was baby squid, they where char grilled and had so much flavour compared to the usual deep fried calamari or frozen options you get in the UK. Unfortunately being skint climber our culinary adventure ended there, but Cuenca is somewhere I will have to go back to.
Orpesa del Mer
So now we’ve given the climbing a break for a few days, to let the skin recover and muscle relax. We’ve found a beach north of Valencia called Oposa, which by Spanish Mediterranean standards is fairly undeveloped. There is even a forest covered hill which they haven’t been high rise flats on. Our van is parked up by the sea and we are just doing nothing.