Flu, Tapas, Sends and Snow

                                                                             

Albarracin 2013 was a tumultuous time, unfortunatley I got a fiercesome dose of the flu a day or two before the trip and I spent the whole two weeks sick as a dog trying my best to climb as much and as hard as I could manage, I felt a twinge of dissapointment for a day or two as I knew I wasn't gonna be able to climb the projects I had my eye on this year and made the switch from project mode to mileage mode. The freaky late winter which hit Ireland was also hanging about in Spain and the temps in the forest this year were mucho frio, good for friction, bad for flu victims !! At times there was hailstones, snow and giant icicles hanging from the boulders ... luckliy I brought an awesome crew with me Jamie, Adam, Alan and myself had a great time, the craic was 90 !! When the sun did shine it felt all the sweeter, the rest days were spent strolling around the medeival village stopping for coffees and eating amazing food from a traditional tapas bar we found, brilliant, it was Alan's first ever time to get his hands on real rock and it was fun to watch him getting stuck in and making the transition comfortably from plastic to stone :) even though I was sick I still managed to put together a great little ticklist of superb quality sandstone classics, everybody climbed out of their skins and had a blast !!

Adam on a nice easy highball

Send Breakfast

Every morning we all sat down and devoured copious amounts of Irish porridge mixed with the local Albarracin honey, that is some seriously tasty bee puke, bleedin' gorgeous, it was like having a big dessert for breakfast and over the two weeks we went through 4 and half big bags of porridge and 4 jars of honey ...

Adam beastin' the classic Techo Don Pepo 7A

Adam flashing Zarzamora Stand 7A

Adam quickly fell in love in with Albarracin, he used to live in Spain and was chatting away to everyone in Spanish like a local, he was psyched out of his brains, the man was on a rampage, after spending a wee while adapting to the rock he worked the classic roof Techo Don Pepo 7A for a couple of days and sent it, then he made short work of Zarzamora Stand 7A, I had sneaky dyno beta for him from last year and I knew if he could latch the first dyno properly he would flash it and fair play to him he did just that :) Nice



Al on the lovley finger groove Empotration(stand) 6A+

Al stylin' the classic technical face La Lagrima 6C+

What a place to have your first experience of outdoor climbing !! Al was quickly getting to grips with the smaller foot holds and lack of big colorful blobs to stand on, he fought his way through many Albarracin roofs and the dreaded font elbow syndrome to climb his first ever 6C Desviacion and had an epic battle on the technical gem La Lagrima 6C+, he was chuffed and deserved the send, all the Gravity training paying off !!



Jamie on a nice crimpy 6C

Jamie under the roof Zig Zag 7A

Jamie got hit with the flu too, right on the first day of trip, he had fevers and aches but was still trying to climb 7B's and he nearly feinted in the process, a couple days rest were on the cards for him after this.  I needed a couple days of bed rest meself but after the fevers were gone and the sun came out to play we began to get some momentum going and the crushing of many classics began.  On one memorable day in sector Arrastradero we warmed up on a nice steep wall in a sun trap, Adam and myself had a great battle on a magnificent problem called L'emportament de Lament 7A, it was a burly steep roof start, powerful moves on crimps into a beautiful step through to a heel toe lock move and with a tough mantle finish.  After this Jamie led the way and we climbed the classic roof problem Zig Zag 7A, a nice pocketed horizontal roof with tension moves into an all out dyno slap to a slopey lip and another tricky, physical top out, great problem and a great day was had !! It felt great hucking myself at dynos for the first time in ages and Adam and I made short work of Gorillas 7A+ the amazing backwards dyno with a vicious corkscrew swing to hold as your body goes horizontal to the ground and you squeeze the juice out 2 pinch holds on a ledge.



Me on Fat Man Crossing 6C+

Me on the classic La Lengua 6C/7A

The food this year was amazing, on the first evening we stumbled upon a traditional tapas bar, there was Tortilla Espanol, stuffed peppers, fried goat's cheese crouquettes and the best stew I ever had, big steaming bowls of deer stew with wild mushrooms ... mmm ... I can't wait to go back just for the grub !! The mileage kept on coming, another memorable day was spent in sector Aeroline on a beautiful sunny day, I had a ferocious battle on the pumpy slopey traverse called Fat Man Crossing 6C+ and I climbed a lovely line called La Lengua / Campus 6C/7A that I had my eye on from last year. A few days later I found the problem of the trip for me, La Lapida 7A+, a fingery layback through the roof of a small cave, with a quality move backwards to the lip of the roof and then a vicious top out involving a hard to stick heel, a wee slopey crimp and locking-off and pressing out to make room to place your foot on a little smear, it was majestic, I had to fight so hard on it, the lads lost their voices screaming at me, their support was the only thing that kept me going on the last few moves, magic line and I was delighted to get it :) There was still a few days left in the trip and I felt like I was just getting into my stride but this was the end for me as I became ill again and the temps plummetted and some snow moved in ...

Me on La Lapida 7A+

Locking off and pressing out on La Lapida top out

Jamie and Adam kept on climbing through the bad weather, Jamie found a perma-dry cave with icicles hanging off it which was full of quality problems and he systematically made his way through them all, 2 6c's a 7a+ called L'Amor and a an unammed 7B traverse which he sent on the last day, he had his sequence dialled and flowed nicely through the moves and beasted the dyno finnishing move, it was a good send and great to watch :) Adam besieged La Lapida, he fought tooth and nail on it and fell off the last move twice, everything was a little damp and in the end it didn't go for him and so it didn't make it onto his massive ticklist, next time dude !!



Jamie cruising a nice 7B in near arctic conditions

All in all it was another memorable trip to my favourite bouldering mecca, great food, classic problems and good times shared with good mates, I can't wait for the next visit, happy climbing folks !! :)