2018 Jordan – Part 5 – Jerusalem, Jerash and return home

So this…

Yes. I’ll just post few pictures, as i don’t have the strength to write about it. The trip itself was tough and long drive from Aqaba to the northern border crossing (the other 2 aren’t good for foreigners). There is enough info on the interwebs of how to actually make the crossing – but I wouldn’t recommend it to any but the most adventure seeking travelers. If you decide to do it get ready for adventure :)

Wailing wall

Some important building people were taking pictures with.

 

From Jerusalem, we went back to Jordan’s Capital Amman, and stayed there for few days until our return to Dublin.

We did go to visit one more place, north of Amman called Jerash, definitely worth a trip – a half day stroll through some of the oldest remains of the Roman Empire.

Jerash theather

The other half day we spent in some local climbing spot – bolted, but meh. (on top of that we were all tired as well).

Meh crag

The trip home went uneventful (as expected). Returning the car went smooth (we did get couple of flat tires during the 2 weeks stay, but managed to get it changed and patched up as needed).

I’d like to come back in the future, perhaps better prepared for climbing, and maybe later on in the year, that will give better chance of good conditions.

 

2018 Jordan – Part 4 – Aqaba

From Wadi Rum we moved west towards sea side resort of Aqaba. Peter and Phillip aren’t very aquatic, so they mostly sat this one out, mostly chilling out after a week in the sand

Monika and I went scuba diving, which is what people mostly do in this place.

Leisure time

 

All the dives are from the shore, and have fantastic coral reefs, as well as some cool artificial features (such as sunken plane, a tank and a boat).

Sunken plane one of the the dive sites in Aqaba

It was time well spent, however after 3-4 days you kind of seen it all. One thing that stood out was a night dive. Monika’s first of this type.

The most interesting part was the fast that all the divers had to be escorted by and accounted for by the local military personnel – mostly due to the fact that one technically could swim across the sea to Israel. A big nono.

We did go see the town one evening, but it is a town – nothing special that I remember now.

Next stop from Aqaba was Israel, and oh my, that’s a mini epic of a journey on its own…

2018 Jordan – Part 3 – Wadi Rum

The thing with Wadi Rum is that while it is remote desert location, it’s actually surprisingly close to civilization (1h drive to Aqaba, which has airport, hospitals etc).

Generally speaking I think that by general population sees Wadi Rum  as 1 or 2 day adventure destination. People want to see the desert, be guided around by ‘the locals’, maybe spend a night in the desert camp,  but with all the comforts of modern, western hotel.

 

I’ll try to describe it form a climbers perspective, people who  generally are independent, don’t need much beside a bed.

Location:

Wadi Rum is located in southern Jordan. You can get there by number of ways – we opted to rent a car and just drive – it’s a long one – over 4h if to be done in 1 day.

Other methods are a bus from Amman, taxi from Aqaba, or an organized tour by your hotel.

The area can be divided into 2 main categories:

Wadi Rum Village – which is essentially a town of couple hundred huts where locals live. It has very basic facilities, with 1 place where you can eat, and 1 or two mini shops.

Wadi Rum Village

Wadi Rum Desert – It is vast area of sand and stone – it is around 720km2, where 40km drive through the desert (no roads!) will eventually get you to Saudi Arabia Border (not recommended!).
Some 30+ commercial camps have been setup, and every local will try to ‘recruit’ you to stay at their site. Those things cost more than a hotel room in a city.

There are no hotels, b&b’s, hostels  or other organised accommodation in the Wadi Rum Village – so you have 3 options for accomodation.

1. camp (wild in the desert)
2. stay with a local family
3. stay in a luxury camp

There is nothing stopping you from just driving to the desert yourself and setting up your own camp in the shade of one of many high mountains that are out there. Locals don’t seem to like it though – they seem to be under the impression that it’s their ‘turf’ and one should be using their ‘guiding’ services.

Now, it is the desert – it is VERY easy to get lost or  get stuck (driving in sand is hard, there are no roads!), and it would be costly to get rescued.

Either way those are the choices. For serious climbers specifically, I feel the best no hassle approach is to have your own tent, food and water supplies for few days – and just get driven to the area of your choice, climb, and be picked up after few days.

Now, our group was definitely not of the ‘hardcore’ climbers types so we picked middle option – stay with a local family.

Dinner time

Initially I was planning to bring the camping gear and just go to the desert (like we have in Oman), but the group decided we will stay in the village and make our way from there.

It was probably a good choice, since there is plenty to explore on foot, without having to go deep to the desert. On top of that the immense heat meant we couldn’t really climb any way and we cut our visit to Wadi just to 5 days.

Looking into the desert

 Having said all of that, the views are absolutely stunning, but again – it’s not for everyone.

If the weather is not cooperating, there isn’t much to do – its sand & rock everywhere.

On top of traditional climbing, mostly long multipitch , there are plenty of ‘Beduin Routes’ – which is the local name for scrambling to the top of surrounding walls. Those can be all completed in runners and with no rope – mostly run at M with occasional S.

Rock everywhere

Another Bedouin route.

Sport climbers won’t find much – its all about that trad on questionable rock – we did though find 2 spots with bolts, but honestly, they were poor.

One of few sport climbing slabs – just 4 routes with 5 bolts each.

 

The draw is with sense of adventure, breathtaking views and humus. Humus for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

2018 – Jordan – Part 2 – Petra

After getting to Wadi Musa the gateway city to ancient site of Petra, we had to make a decision on how we’ll spend time we have there. The Jordan Pass we purchased before arriving to Jordan gave us 2 days for sightseeing.

The site itself is huge – at first I didn’t realise its just a massive place with many different buildings carved into the walls.

Treasury from ground level

Our itinerary, in short was following Route1 all the way to The Monastery (visiting all the major points, incl Treasury, then its vantage point, some lesser important temples and the amphitheater) the return path from the Monastery was via a route that lead through High Place of sacrifice, a mountainous trail that has easy scramble to get you down to the Treasury.

Treasury from the vantage point. Worth the hike!

I won’t be getting into details of what’s what – as this can be easily found on wiki, but i’ll give those few tips:

1. Stay in Wadi Musa and start your sightseeing at 6.15 when Petra opens.
2. If you are outdoorsy person, you can do the whole thing in 1 day – it took us 11h of walking around around 20km (all the trails combined is around 40km) – but it was a lot. Not a problem for us though
3. If you are not hardcore hiker, get yourself 2 days – albeit do to the layout of the park you’ll be walking some of the trails twice (mainly since its 1mile between the entrance gate to the Treasure-  the first major feature).
4. Guides are not required to move around, but they are present everywhere and will try to lure you in to avail their services. To be honest it was very good experience for us to explore on our own (make sure to grab a map at the entrance).
5. Bring plenty of water, but don’t stress out if you run out –  I brought 3l with me and finished it after 4h) – local people sell water, often ice cold – it’s expensive – 2JD per 1.5l, but that’s the way it is (to compare 6×1.5 in a shop in the city costs 1.5JD).
6. Have your own food – it’s extremely overpriced, and only available in 1 spot.
7. All the ‘best view in the world’ viewing spots are free, BUT you are expected to buy a drink/tip the bedouin that mans the post.
8. Enjoy yourself – it’s easy to just forget that you are there for fun. Don’t stress out if you get lost – the place is so busy that someone will show you the way!

Long way to the Monastery.

 

Either way, the 2 nights at Wadi Musa went fast, and we promptly moved on to Wadi Rum – a desert which meant to be our main climbing destination.

Trail from the High Place of Sacrifice

More about Wadi Rum in the next blog… (As i type these words we actually already completed the Wadi Rum leg of our journey, but the net is slow, so pictures are still uploading – and I’m not writing blog with no pictures!)

2018 Jordan – Part1

For holidays 2018 we decided to go back to the Middle East and this time around visit country of Jordan.

This place seem to be one of the less popular destination for climbers (or tourists in general), probably most due to the fact that there are so many other places that don’t neighbour states that are currently at war…

I did my research and all reports make it safe enough for a visit (especially if you stick to the sourthern parts of the country).

And that is exactly what Peter, Phil, Monika and I are planning to do.

The rough plan for two weeks is:

1. Visit Madaba & Dead Sea (lowest point on Earth)
2. Visit Petra (main tourist destination)
3. Visit Wadi Rum (main climbing destination)
4. Visit Aqaba (main scuba destination)
5. Visit Jerusalem (main weird access destination)
6. Visit Amman & go home

 

While I was hoping for this trip to be focused mainly around climbing (Wadi Rum is world class trad climbing spot) – it seems that on the very first trip to the country it’d be a shame not to visit at least some of the world famous tourist attractions – hence the list above.

Since we are equipped for both sport and trad climbing (both gear and skill), we decided to see how it goes and climb when possible (we are a bit early as far as climbing seasons go, as It’s still a bit hot).

In this series of blogs I’ll write every couple of days on how the progress go.

 

Part I – getting in & around

We arrived on Sunday morning, after quite interesting flight with connection in Istanbul. It’s a very odd  setup with Dub flight departing at 4.30pm on Sat, and with 3h layover in Turkey we were in Jordan Capital city at 4.30am.

Phil’s bag came out VERY last, so it took a while at the airport, but after that we picked up few sim cards, got the car sorted (again, big 4×4 since we have tons of bags) and were on our way to the hotel in Madaba. Luckily enough they let us check in early (7am!, for a small fee) – so we were able to get quick nap (not much sleep on the plane) and make our way to Dead Sea.

Our ride for next 2 weeks.

The problem with The Dead Sea is that while its public, the best spots are all taken by resorts, so you have to dish out between 20 and 40 JOD to get access (you kind of want to do it anyway, since the supersalt water ruins everything if u don’t shower straight away.

After some floating around and mud baths and lunch we wen’t towards nearby JC Babtism site, however we were to late for 4.30pm tour, and to early to wait 40 mins for next one. Oh well… Back to Madaba for an evening stroll.

 

Part II – due South

We hit the King’s Highway towards Petra, with a quick stop over at Kerak Castle & some climbing at nearby Weida Slabs.

On the way south

Castle was ok as far as castle go, it seemed to be restored in some places, but mostly it was ruins. Still worth a visit if you are passing by.

 

Climbing however was something else – and it wasn’t for the rock or the fact it was all bolted (pretty well actually) – It was the heat. We got there just after 1pm, which isn’t ideal, but there was no other option – we still had 2.5h drive to Petra so couldn’t wait for it to cool down. It also goes without saying that TOPOS are rare and any material on routes you find is priceless. I found THIS website –> http://tropicaldesert.me/kerak-weida-slabs

It  seems to have decent descriptions of places (other than obvious Wadi Rum) worth visiting.

With 35C heat it was impossible to do anything other than 1 or 2 climbs – the sweat was rolling in, dehydration was imminent  and all of it was attracting those nasty flies – they were everywhere – big nasty flies.  I wish I had my head net, so useful on those hot day in Wicklow or the Mournes.

Another thing is that since routes don’t get that much traffic some of it is quite loose. Monika experienced it first hand, when a handhold she grabbed (around fist size) just detached itself and went flying my way. Luckily she had strong feed and didn’t fell off.

We are in Wadi Musa now- which is the gateway town to Petra. Plan is to get there for 6.15am (it’s only 5min drive from our hotel), when they open – and start before the crowds come in. With Jordan Pass, that guarantees no queuing for tickets,  as it has  tickets to Petra included it should be a good day out.

Wadi Musa by Night.

Scotland Day 3 – Buachaille Etive Mòr Mountain, Return home

Buachaille Etive Mòr Mountain near Glencoe was the place we chosen to climb on yesterday. Standing just over 1000m tall it provides climbing and walking  routes for all.

After very exhausting previous  day on the Ben we have decided to pick an easier option of Curved Ridge (II/III 3) that gave a pleasant experience in truly amazing setting.

40min drive from Fort William, roadside parking and easy approach on a much calmer, but still cold day made both of us happy.

Our objective ahead of us

On the approach we have met 2other parties, which always makes it easier in terms of route finding by using their steps (albeit you can’t just blindly follow others!).

Our route – nr 14

The route itself was rather easy,  started by couple hundred of snow gullies climbing (with one easy ice pitch) and then one mixed move onto a rocky ridge. We soloed all of it and when we roped up we realized that we were actually past the Crux already.

At the ‘crux’

Another couple hundred meters of easy snow climbing and we were at the windy top.

Victory photo

The descent is rather tricky to find. Generally it was meant to be an easy walk around.

To the descent gully (on the right).

We opted however to follow our companions and go down a massive gully through a  break in the cornice.

The local Scottish guys paving the road down.

5hours  car to car for 700m elevation gain was pretty good time. We were home by 3pm.

Long but pleasant walk to the car. The ridge seen above is how we got down.

Unfortunately today marks end of our short trip. Pity, as the weather just gotten very good. There is zero clouds and full on sun today. If not for the fact that I’m pretty busy at work and can’t really afford extending this stay I’d definitely would be up for few more days.

One of the stop overs on the way to the ferry. Clear skies are so rare in the highlands.

Since our ferry wasn’t until 3.30pm we decided to stop few times on the drive back. First stop was by Buachaille and took couple of aerial shots of the mountain and it’s surroundings, results of which you can  see below. I have more interesting shots, just dont have time to put them together yet. I’ll come up with some nicer, more refined cut soon.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaDORY5Y-cQ%5B/embedyt%5D

Scotland day 2 – Ben Nevis Green Gully

The most famous, the most sought after, the most bad ass, the most scarry and allso the highest mountain in all of Great Britain. Here we come! All of the bellow happened yesterday, on Paddy’s day 2018. A tradition by now, when on this day we go out and climb some ice.

After the  previous days fail, we decided to use all of the energy and enthusiasm we have for a proper alpine day out on the Ben.

I actually don’t have that much experience in tackling massive objectives like that, particularly not in the winter setting, so I was quite excited to be able to go out on an adventure with much more experience Del.

We got up just after 4am and by 5 we leftthe B&B we are staying at in Fort William.

It’s only a short drive, so by 5.15 am we were at the trail towards the CIC hut. For those lucky enough that get a bed there (people book it as far as 6months ahead), it’s a major win. The rest of us have to walk… And it’s a long a terrible walk. Especially when the conditions are not great (so almost always).

The CIC hut

The walk itself is long. And steep. And on this particular morning it was super windy, with gusts going as fast as 100km/h. It took us over 2.5h to get to the hut  (it’s only a short stop to gear up, non guests aren’t alloeed inside).

It was so windy that when I put my bag down it immediately tumbled away. 13kg….

The wind chill made the -7C feel like -15C. Taking the glowed off to tie down the crampons wasn’t an option.

It was actually difficult to decide if we should set off at all. The forecast had it wind and cold, but it was meant to calm down as the say progressed. It did not.

Either way, as all of the parties around us (there’d be total of around 15 or more teams of climbers on the Ben that day) we set off with intention of getting to the base of our climb and assessing the situation  further.

Del looking at the guidebook

It took another hour of steep snow slopes uphill battle,  with winds that put both of us at our knees more than  once when I had enough.

We looked up at the gullies ahead of us, and I totally lost all willingness to climb.

I’ve learned that day that perhaps I’m not cut out for this winter Scottish mountaineering thing. People warned me that it’s hard. It’s not enjoyable and mostly suffering. Now I know.

Del knew  that conditions were in were  poor,  and was ready to retreat if I wasn’t ready to go. After all we are a team. I looked up last one time, found some weird force inside me that pushed me forward though. ‘Let’s go’  I said and we pressed on. It’s not that I’d be super dangerous to climb. Technical difficulty is well within my range. I’ve climbed much harder routes. It was the general high wind and cold,  as well epic walk in that drained my tank that made me want to quit.

Anyway, we picked Green Gully ( IV, 3) route in the Scottish grading system, which was a fitting name for a route to be climbed on Irish National Holiday. It’s around 200m long.

We were already at 900m when we ropped up (so already had some 500m elevation gain that day)  and Del grabbed what we considered first pitch. Just a 50m snow slope with one ice screw and one nut. Belay was constructed on two weeds of grass and a Snickers bar wrapper, which is a standard Scottish practice.

I quickly followed and led up P2. It was as blank as they get. I think I’ve put half an ice screw in the whole 45m. Despite the wind it was easy and we should have soloed.

Me on p2

I run it out to  good patch of ice. This is where the ice climbing ad I know it started. A patch of ice that actually made you use your crampons front points.

Del grabbed the gear and moved on. The thing is that in scotland you climb until you can find something  to belay on, and if you run  out of rope, then your partner just moves with you. Luckily Del found a nice steep section he could put two ice screws in. And they went all the way!

P2 belay

The cold wouldn’t give up, the wind was as bad as it gets, but we were powering though. The most annoying part was that it was impossible to take more pictures. Neither of us wanted to take already cold  hands from the gloves…

I grabbed the next pitch, which was nice and solid 15m of proper ice climbing (wi3+ if I had to guess, with another possible more direct  line of wi4)  , followed by another big snow slope, with  massive cornice finishing the climb. I went as far as I could and constructed a belay with a dubious screw and two lollipops.

Del followed and immediately attacked the cornice. Unfortunately no photos as there is no way to grab the camera….

The finishing moves were on Del now and it wasn’t easy. There was no obvious break visible  in the cornice, so he had to get under it (which is super dangerous as those things are massive and can be unstable), traverse left as far as he could to find a ‘weak’ spot to hack through to the top plateau. It was around 40m effort protected by half a screw somewhere along the way.

When he topped out and disappeared behind the lip I knew my turn was comming. I also knew there will be no proper belay. Just him sitting down and pushing with his feet – a think called bucket seat. Totally legit.

I moved up under the cornice and now had to traverse. No gear ahead of me meant that if the fragile snow under my feet went I was facing  a big swing. The fact that Del didn’t see me and was pulling on the rope making me unstable didn’t help either.  But that’s how it is.

Luckily I kept my cool and topped out like I should.

Me immediately after topping out.

We quickly  unropped and wanted to get off. As we were packing we noticed our fellow Irish Mountaineering Club members Niall Hed and Aidan Roe topping out adjecent Comb gully (which was our original objective, changed in last minute to the green gully). No cornice on Comb, Niall said, and they quickly descended via no1 gully to the CIC hut. Lucky them.

Winds were still strong but at least the visibility was OK, so finding the descent route wasn’t  a problem. The problem was a long walk down to the carpark though.  Cold and tired, these 2.5h seemed like forever.

Overall, this 12h car to car day was pretty epic outing. I got the full on Scottish  experience. I’m definitely not going back here, until obviously I do.  Next year. Hopefuly by then Peter will be able to join us.

Due North. Day 1.

I’ll start where we left of yesterday. We left the ferry around 10.30pm and drove for 1.5h to Kilmarnock. Had a hotel booked there for a quick rest,   before we hit the road again in the morning. The idea was to make it before morning Glasgow traffic rush and make it to Orchy Bridge around 10am and find some climbing.

In the mean time we got some intel from our trusted base camp adviser, PG on possible crags and routes in that area. Good guide book pictures etc.

 

We decided on Beinn Udlaigh black wall. Strong enough winds from the beginning… Welcome to Scotland, said Derek…

Steep enough walk, but nothing serious. Took just over an hour to get to the crag.

Guidebook description is accurate. Get to the farm, park outside and go through the farm up the trail. Can’t miss it.

 

It was pretty wet all along with rain from every direction  and wet ground.  When we finally arrived and  stood there near the base looking at the routes,  avalanche came down on either ice screw or quartzvein scoop routes (difficult to say as visibility was very poor, and with all the snow we weren’t 100% sure which one was which.

These are the ones we were planning o doing. After short discussion we  decided to turn back… It just wasnt worth risking getting swiped out. Scotland 1. Ireland 0.

We went back then to the car and drove to Fort William (1h or so).

It’s a nice mountain town. Kind of reminds me of Banff or Canmore.

We checked in to the B&B we have booked 3nights at and went do some supplies run.

Food is kind of important. So are ski goggles. Both Del and I picked up a new pair each.

 

They most definetly will come in handy tomorrow, on a big and windy trail to Ben Nevis. Start at 4am…

Costa Blanca Day 4 – Espolon Central

Since our trip is coming to an end, and we are flying back tomorrow today was the last day we could attempt a full day adventure.

After the washout yesterday we were thinking all previous night which one to choose.

To add to these problems (of the good kind) with selecting a route, a bad problem returned – Gerard ankle wasn’t in good condition and he opted to sit the day out and perhaps return in glory tomoreow.

We finally decided to do a local mega classic – Espolon Central route on Puig Campana. One of the best known rock features of the Costa Blanca, our route took us 13 pitches via long slender ridge of the massive overlooking the village of Finestrat.

Our today’s objective, with the route marked in red.

 

The route is graded HS 4c (although some give it 5+, depending on the choices you make on some pitches), and while technically it is not hard, the difficulty comes from its size (430m of climbing), exposure and the tricky descent. More on that below.

The three of us left the car at the side of the access road and set of around 8.50am. The approach is a scrappy and steep walk up via set of terraces. It’s really easy to loose the path, but it’s not hard to get to the base of the route itself as it’s just massive and clearly seen from any point of the approach.

Walking in tshirts.

Once we got to the base, as it seems to be a tradition by now, I quickly racked up and claimed the first, very easy this time pitch.

Me leading P1. Picture: courtesy of our resident free-soloist Peter “Honnold”.

At that point Peter, who actually climbed this route twice before (he has been in the area multiple times) decided he wanted to free solo some of the pitches (he ended up going rope-less for 10 out of 13 sections).

At this point I should mention that on long routes like that sometimes the nature calls, and there is nothing else one can do than just do it.

Peter and I were crammed on a small ledge, with Seamus following, so I just pulled my pants down and did what had to be done.

Someone once said that in moments like that you have two types of friends – the ones that will turn their head and give you a moment of privacy, and those that will pull their camera out and take a photo. I’ll let you guess which type Peter is.

Anyway, we more less followed the route swapping leades with Seamus and having Peter occasionally join us (although when he did rope up he barely put gear in anyway). I won’t go into pitch by pitch description, you just need to know that there is no drama, but route finding can be tricky at times (as it usually is on long outings).

Peter soloing one of the lower pitches. I marked him in Red Circle, as he seems to be wearing his camouflage outfit today (going full stealth!)

For gear, we only had 3 small cams and handful of wires, but as I said, route was fairly easy, and we tried to go as fast as we could anyway (which meant running it out often). Forecast had rain after 3pm and it wasn’t uncommon for people to get stranded on the mountain overnight.

Seamus on a lead. Still in a tshirt, I think this was pitch 5 or 6.

Pitch 8 marked lunch, and also was a place that marked point of no return. Abseiling from above it would be very hard.

Peter on P7 (leading to the lunch ledge). It was one of the few ones for which he roped up. Not sure why, as the 1 piece of gear he put on it wouldn’t do him any good anyway ;).

We were on schedule and moved on for the last 5 pitches, knowing that after we reach the end of the route there is a lengthy and exposed walk off waiting for us.

Totally not posed photo of me clipping rope. Leading out of Pitch 8.

The upper pitches went surprisingly fast, especially that it got quite cold. We actually all put  all of our layers of clothing on, as the cold cloud covered the mountain. Quite a change from tshirt ground level.

Peter leading 50m P11.

Victory top photo. Peter showing how many hours it will take to get down now.

The descent is a quite long and sketchy traverse towards a scree gully. It has some fixed wires and many down climbs in M to Vdif variety.

Start of the walk off, with fantastic views of surrounding areas in the background.

One dodgy step can have serious consequences, so since we weren’t strapped for time (the big cloud that arrived didn’t produce rain), we took our time.

Climbing down. Quite few of these donwclimbs are very exposed.

We were by the car around 4.20pm. So car to car in 8 hours for a party of 3 of middle aged man is quiet decent.

I honestly have to say that this is one of the best multipitch routes I’ve done and if not for terrible descent, it be a great for all climbing enthusiasts, but because of that I would only recommend it to the adventure seekers.

Tomorrow we are flying back home, but we will definitely visit one more crag (Most likely a neighboring Sella) for some pre-flight single pitch fun.

Costa Blanca day 3 – Single pitch adventures at Guadalest

Today’s blog will be written by another guest climber, this time Gerard, who definetly was the top performer in todays adventure.

Me looking at a bolt.

And over to me……. I’d had an enforced rest day on Saturday as I’d twisted my ankle on Friday night, so – while the others battled seagulls and polished limestone on the Penon d’Ifach – had been left at our hostel in Finestrat, clasping a packet of frozen vegetables(an improvised icepack) to my foot. That left me hungry to get back on rock but unsure about how much I could afford to challenge my ankle. Luckily the group vote was for a venue with a short walk-in: the crags clustered around  (and under) the hilltop town of Guadalest.

The citadel of Guadalest – the walls on left and right have bolted routes

Guadalest is well worth a visit – even for the non-climbers amongst you. It was once a Moorish citadel (the “al-” in the name betrays its Islamic origins) and some of the fortifications still remain. We started the day in the Penya l’Alcala area (the rock wall to the right of the above photo) which contains a range of routes up to 70m in length. Unfortunately the day started in cloud and the drizzle came on as we finished our warm up pitches. We held out for longer than the Spanish climbers but by 11am abandoned the crag to the inquisitive robin and legged it 100m downhill to the local refugio for hot drinks and buns.

A friendly visitor – we left before lunch so he didn’t even get the crumbs

The drizzle eventually cleared and we moved on – this time to a smaller crag, Penya Maura, across the road for the refuge. It diverted us for the rest of the day with solid sharp rock and a number of interesting lines. Today didn’t have the sunshine and blue skies we had enjoyed Thursday and Friday but at least the cool air resulted in better friction. We were lucky – our frends in Sella (10 km away) got only one route in before the rain hit there while in Guadelest the rain was never more than weak and intermittent. My ankle held out and my enforced rest meant I was ready for it – my highlights being the the overhanging jugfest that was Jana (luckily I’d been tackling overhangs at the wall all winter) and the varied delights of Garrofer (bridging chimneys followed by a delicate precise finish, both 2 star 6a+ routes. Sadly tomorrow is our last full day here — what will it bring?

1st 6a+ of the day – the flake of Margallo

 

Costa Blanca – Day2 – Peñón de Ifach

Today’s blog will be written by a guest writer – our own Seamus, who will typing in words about our today’s adventure  climbing the south side of Peñón de Ifach.

It is a massive limestone outcrop emerging from the sea and linked to the shore by rock debris – one of the most iconic features of the coast.

Our today’s goal. Picture credit – Wikipedia. (as it’s very difficult to actually take a good photo of the thing from far away)

I’ll update the blog once the words are in.

Writer at work

Below is Seamus’ recollection of today’s events. All is 100% his words (I added pictures  and the comments):

Day two of our climbing trip and the plan was for the Peñón de Ifach in Calpe. The route selected was Via Valencianos 5c.

Our version of the route had some variations that made it around 6a A0.

Eight pitches of fairly polished fun. Our group was made up of Micheal, Peter an myself. Gerard was missing due to injury.

On the way. The walking is short from the marina car park. It’s best to leave the car there.

 

On the walk in we passed 4 locals who were heading to the same climb. So we had an audience for the start and felt a little under pressure to get moving. Micheal lead first pitch.

Mic running out P1. Definitely not grade 3.

The second offered a variation. The choice was between a 3+ and a 6a. Peter set off up the 6a which turned out to be extremely polished and we all ended up pulling on a piece of tat to get through the crux.

Peter at the Crux of P2.

The next pitch fell to me and as l watched the guys ahead of us struggle up using an etrier I began to think this 5c pitch might not be for me. The lads were very encouraging, which made me think they weren’t keen either. I set off up the well polished corner and decided bridging was the way to go and meant ditching my rucksack. I connected it to a nut and left it for Michael and Peter. What followed wasn’t pretty. Grunting and swearing I made it, though had to pull on some more tat.

Seamus powering through P3. Notice geo-cached backpack in the corner. Apparently aiding was left to minimum.

The rest of the pitches went ok.

Mic at start of P4. 30 meters of no gear (just odd threaded tat). Trad is rad!

There were some issues with very sore feet, angry gulls, hard boiled eggs and running two pitches into one.

Fantastic views of the Mediterranean see and the adjacent wall (that also runs some fantastic climbing lines)

Mic at the start of P6 (top of the ridge). Easy enough, but very scrappy. Hard work in the making…

As Mic was fixing gear on P6, the boys enjoyed some hard boiled eggs. Couldn’t ask for better setting!

Getting ready to do the final 2 pitches (run together behind Peter’s lead for most of it, right to the top).

Nevertheless we made it to the top and joined the tourists, more seagulls and hungry cats for lunch.

Peter enjoying view from the top (and definitely not peeing).

Satisfied we headed for a beer, a full debrief and a discussion on the best way to remove seagull crap from your clothes.

 

Costa Blanca (days 0 and 1)

This trip is kind of a last minute decision. Peter pitched that idea some time ago but I wasn’t really keen on clipping bolts in February Spanish sun. After all this is middle of ice season!

Unfortunately, my standard ice buddies aren’t really keen on doing anything this year (Scotland doesn’t count!) so after consulting my wrist injury with a specialist (I got diagnosed with TFCC) I decided that some change is good and joined Peter, Seamus and Gerard on their exploration of the fantastic climbs of Costa Blanca.

We arrived to Alicante late last night and made our way to Orange House (a very well known climbing oriented hostel) in Finestrat.

Orange House.

We only have until Tuesday (evening flight) so the plan is to make most of our time here.

For today the plan was to get up early, pick up some supplies and go to Sierra de Toix. Around 30min drive. Not bad.

Area has abundance of both single (all grades) and multipitch routes (including sea cliffs).

View from Orange House towards one of the climbing areas

The morning was spent getting to know (or refreshing for the rest of the boys, as they have been here before) the rock.

One of the single pitch areas of Sierra de Toix

After few leads each (including amazing Energico, 6a+).

Peter clipping 1st bolt at Energico, 6a+

 

The main course of the day was what is described as one of the top 50 routes overall for and a mini expedition on its own: “Rowland’s Magical Mystery Tour”, 160m, HVS 5a.

The guide book grades it as trad HVS and suggests bringing some trad gear, but to us, seasoned trad climbers, it looked like a decently bolted sport multipitch route (also, we didn’t bring any trad gear that day anyway).

On the way to Mystery Tour. It’s on one of the see cliffs seen to the right.

The route starts at the edge of the cliff with free hanging 50m abseil. We were lucky that an abseil rope was already in place as it saved time getting down.

 

Seamus on the way down. The Abseil is much more long and exposed than it looks.

You go slide down the rope next to some next level dodgy fisherman ladders. Definitely not something I would ever want to use.

Once at the bottom you traverse 3pitches. The first two are easily done solo (at about vdiff), third is very exposed 4+.

Easy traverse at first.

Peter and I went first with me leading the final traverse pitch. Gerard and Seamus were just behind us.

Peter checking out the ‘doubious’ holds of the hard part of the traverse (that I just lead).

Peter grabbed next pitch – well spaced out bolts added to the exposure. The rock was pristine though. All holds are rounded by being exposed to the elements, but with enough grip to let the climbers go. And you just have to go. I guess that’s what this sport is about ;)

Peter on P4, with Gerard leading the previous pitch.

I grabbed the final, Crux pitch which was also very pleasant. It had everything one might want in a pitch – exposure, good face climbing and a perfect crack leading to the top out.

Me setting of on the 5th pitch lead.

The route took maybe 2.5h-3h total (including the walking), and because it’s a bit remote there was very little people around (while the crags close to car park were overrun by mostly British and German climbers).

It was still early enough. We decided to walk back towards the car, and perhaps find a pitch or two to finish off the day.

Overall first day was a great success. We had a fantastic t-shirt climbing weather and everyone had a blast.

We still haven’t decided what the plan for tomorrow (but it looks like we will the local mega classic of Peñón de Ifach.

Aiguilles mixed – Day 6

For our last adventure day we decided to go easy on ourselves and following Jerry’s advice we went to check out the artificial outdoors ice wall at Aiguilles.

It’s a village around 1 hour drive in where, almost at the center of it the locals installed artificial ice climbing wall. There is no walking, plenty of ice – something for everyone!

Remember to purchase 4euro ticket at the local tourist office.

The way it is setup is dead simple: there are water hoses installed at the top of the cliffs that sprinkle/drip water. That water freezes, creating all sort of ice formations at different angles. From 90deg vertical walls to less steep, more beginner friendly lines. The overflow goes directly to the river at the base of the cliff.

The wall is around 30 meters tall in it’s highest point. There are 3 or 4 sectors along the river. Room for 20+ people to climb at once. Access is ensured by fixed ropes, but leading is also possible. The tops are equipped with number of bolted anchors for easy setup. Water hoses can be easily moved so you don’t have to get shower with water as you go.

Peter on the way up to setup a TR.

When we arrived there was already around 10 people climbing on the most far right hand side of the crag, so we ‘claimed’ the middle section. Set up couple of top ropes and picked the most outrageous, steep and overhanging lines we could come up with. After all, it’s top rope – and it’s all about testing the limits.

Ronan climbing out of a cave.

Around lunch time we relocated to the right hand side sector where friendly locals let use their ropes (while they went out for a lunch break).

We quickly clocked in as many laps as we could.

Ronan with his famous dropped knee.

Sarah decided to try one of the bolted dry tooling routes so we quickly tied in and send her off.  There are good couple of lines of this type – ranging from M5 to M-VERY_HARD.

Sarah on the M5 route

Peter also gave it a go, sending it to the top with only one break. Not bad for a novice in this kind of discipline.

Peter cruising through the final crack section

 

After that the locals got back and we decided to just go home. The long week and steep lines of this crag took its toll. We were all wrecked.

Evening was spend with the final game of K2, the board game, where we were trying to not kill our little climbers… With little to no success this time.

One of the many sessions.

Today Sarah, Ronan and I are flying back to Dublin, while Peter is driving to Chamonix for another week of adventures (skiing this time)  with his brother and his friends.

 

Back to FREISSINIÈRES – DAY5 – “Happy friends of Ice Pocalypse”

Because of our long day 2 days ago I’m delayed in doing the write-ups. I’ll try to keep it brief.

For our 5th outing  we decided to do it differently. Sarah and Ronan set off early as per our usual routine. They decided to get back to Freissineieres to do the routes they missed on the previous day (main focus on  “Ice Pocalypse”, WI4).

Ronan on P1 of Ice Pocalypse. They had early start, which means queues at belays…

Peter and I were still tired from Day4 mini-epic so we decided to take it slow and perhaps check out some other places. We left around 10 and drove towards Fournel. Unfortunately it quickly became clear that our little ‘Black Lion’ couldn’t make it far into the valley (even with snow chains on) and we just gave up (since we didn’t want to waste too much time).

At Fournel. Unfortunately inaccessible for us.

We hatched a plan of late start at Freissineieres, which would mean that we could be climbing Ice Pocalypse (that is the route number 3, left hand side on the Y split,  on picture on previous blog)  alone, since the morning crowds would be mostly over.

And that exactly what we did. We showed up at the bottom of the route around 1pm, and all the parties (car park was full, 6 or 7 cars!) were queuing at the bottom of the top pitch, or already abseiling.

Going back to Freissnieres to try to beat the queues!

We decided to swap the pitches (since I did the 1st one last time), so Peter went 1st now , then I did the 2nd.

Me hacking it at P2 of Ice Pocalypse. Fast and light. This time bag stayed at the base of the route.

When I reached the anchors we met Sarah and Ronan, who just abseiled  off the 3rd pitch and were getting ready to move right on final pitch of Happy Together route (right hand side).

Happy friends meet again.

 

As we expected the crowds were all nearly gone, so Peter grabbed the lead again and finished our route on fairly traveled out P3. It was a long one, and definitely crux pitch, when in condition graded WI4+. Another fantastic performance by Peter.

Peter on a wee break mid pitch 3.

By then our friends were also done and we all met up by the base.

All happy together!

Evening was spent in a company of our host Jerry Gore, who is not only very friendly, knowledgeable (about the area, but also all sorts of climbing & adventures in general) and accommodating, but also accomplished climber & mountain guide himself he understands the needs of people like us – regular weekend warriors.

We picked Jerry’s brain about possible suggestions and ideas for our last day (in light of less than favorable weather forecast).

We actually got to talk to him almost every day (and not only about ‘what to do next day’, but also about general climbing & life stuff), and I got to say I’m very impressed with the way it worked out. Having access to a local climbing legend on daily basis is indispensable on short trips like this one. I probably will do a separate post on ‘picking the best accommodation for climbing trip’, but for me personally I’ll be always looking for places affiliated/owned with/by mountain people.

Anyway – the consensus for our last day was to try to visit the artificial single pitch Ice crag in the village around 1h drive from Vallouise. I’ll write it up on how it went in my next entry (tomorrow).
Spoiler alert: nobody got injured this time.

Freissinières Climbing – Day4 – “Pushing the limits”

WToday we drove  to Freissinières Valley, with intention to climb one of the shorter and quite popular route in the area: Happy Together or Ice Pocalypse (both around WI4, 100m), but changed our mind after 2 pitches of Happy Together and took the right varian that brought us up to up on 550m WI5 epic: Au-delà des ombres (eng:” Beyond the shadows”). We did 85% of the route (skipping last 3 pitches, do to late hour) – had to retreat around 3pm to make it to the ground before dark – it’s not easy to navigate 480m of abseils in unknown terrain in the dark.

Started with route 3, then switched to 4 and continued up on 5.                                                       Photo credit: http://www.planetmountain.com

According to the guidebook, the route climbs in 12 pitches, but as it is with ice climbing, these things are never set.

I’ll do detailed (pitch by pitch) write up tomorrow, as it’s pretty late now, and we are very tired right now. Either way the whole thing turned into somewhat epic, with a lot of simul-climbing, near lead fall on 90deg steep terrain, bloody face after meeting with falling ice, series of dodgy abseils on dubious V-Threads, stuck rope on rock roof… to name just few.

Luckily we got both safely to the ground just before it got dark.

 

 

Me on the last of series of free hanging abseils.

 

UPDATE:

As I said yesterday here’s how the route went.  Pitch by pitch.

We showed up at the bottom of the route at around 9am (it’s 30 min walk from the car park, mind the steep walk in right up the avalanche path) with intention to climb Ice Pocalypse (WI4, nr 4 on the map above or Happy Together (WI4, nr3).

The area is so busy that once I did the pitch 1 (WI3),

Me near the end of P1.

and Peter did the 2nd one via it’s steepest line (WI3+/4), we decided to take the right turn (Happy Together), and perhaps see what was beyond.

Peter on P2 (3+/4)

I did that 3rd pitch (WI3+/4 55m, easy with 10-15m at 85 °).

Me trying to pull stuck ice axe out at the first part of P3

 

But since we only had  50m ropes I essentially run it till end of the rope and belayed from 2 poor screws and an ice axe.

This marked the end of Happy Together route. To our surprise there was no one here ( except from 2 French guys who passed us on P1, everyone must have gone the other route, to the left)  and it seems like an adventure in the making.

For P4 we agreed that Peter will climb the remaining 10m of the pitch,  see what’s beyond and if it’s easy enough we’ll simul-climb for as long as possible. It turned out to be probably 2.5 rope lengths (so over 100m) of easy enough terrain (some small ice steps and a lot of snow slopes, where Peter was only able to put 2 pieces of protection.

End of what we’d call P4.

For non climbing readers: simul climbing, or moving together, is a technique where both climbers climb at the same time, with the full rope length in between them. No one is belaying and the protection is ensured by whatever the leader will put (sparsely), but generally falling of is rather not recommended.

When I got the tree which marked the last protection we had (seen on above picture on the right) and belayed Peter from there (since he was already at the base of the start of the next bit of steep ice. (there was an option to climb the pillar (seen in the middle of the photo above), but we opted to just take the bit of ice on the right (since we still had loads of terrain to cover [we werent sure how much exactly, it later turns out to be 300 more meters] to go and were time cautious.

Peter quickly disappeared around the corner and I could only be giving rope… 50 meters went and I could just start climbing once there was no more rope to give out. Communications wasn’t possible, as he obviously was traversing out of sight and reach of sound. We have procedures for situations like that, so it was all standard for us at this point.

What wasn’t standard was what I’ve seen after ascending the small bit of ice – a small, very exposed mixed traverse. The thing about traversing, is that even if you go second and have a rope, with sparse protection put by the leader a fall means a massive swing…

The scary, exposed, snowy traverse.

The rope stayed tight as I was moving, so I knew Pete found a belay and we were going to be ok (aka won’t die).

My poor soul happy to see Peter waiting with the camera at the end of the traverse.

We quickly did a swap of gear and I set of for another rope length of easy enough terrain (WI3 or so).

Peter’s belay, we swapped here and I moved for as much rope I had.

I brought Peter up, we swapped over again and agreed to move together  once the rope gets tight, should the terrain be easy enough again.

He only got some 10m of ice and disappeared again. Rope was going fast, meaning he was probably going on a snow slope. Once I had 10 or so meters of it left I started disassembling the ice anchors and moved on once the rope got tight.

Indeed snow slope it was. And not a regular one – it was a massive funnel that went for some 150m and was the escape route for all the avalanche snow coming down. Luckily we knew the avalanche danger wasn’t high and it was safe enough to move that terrain.

Looking up the small funnel passage. This is not the place to be if there is a lot of snow above.

The snow was deep and there wasn’t many foot steps. We were obviously in adventure zone not generally visited by regular weekend warriors.

The other side of the funnel. The pictures don’t reflect the seriousness of the surroundings.

What was in front of us though was the ‘money pitch’. A massive curtain of super steep ice and since  technically it was Peter’s lead (the snow slope wasn’t really a pitch) it made me happy inside as I wasn’t really looking forward to lead WI5.

Peter on the WI5 pitch. The hardest he ever lead.

He moved confidently and I knew that he will make it.  When he was around half way up, the two French guys whom we met at the beginning of the route started their abseil.

We asked them about the route and were told there’d be another 3 pitches of moderate ice (for around 80m, which matched the books route description), and a long, tedious abseil to the ground, mostly by time consuming V-Threads.

Now Peter was out of sight for me and to best of my knowledge he was just plowing on. It did take a while, but that’s expected.  Eventually he shouted “safe” and It was my go.

The route went straight up on near vertical Ice for some 20 meters and then traversed right on a really dodgy snowice and up for another 10 meters on less steep ice.

After I joined Pete at the belay we decided to start our descent as it was already 3pm and it would take at least 2 hours to get down.

Victory photo at ‘our’ top.

Something felt off though as Peter seemed a bit shaken up.  He told me straight away, without me even having to ask that he nearly lost it on that pitch. He told me how he lost his footing and essentially was hanging by 1 axe scrambling not to fall. Luckily he recovered himself and was able to finish the pitch.

Anyway, the abseiling adventure begun. First thing off, no bolts, so I had to construct first of the series of V-Threads. This time I decided to go 0-thread – and it worked like a charm.

Peter impressed with my V-threading job.

I backed it up for him with a screw and off he went. Next two abseils were off trees, which was handy as it saved a lot of time. They were also spaced so our 50m ropes were enough.

Unfortunately during one of the abseils Peter got hit and banged up by falling ice. Few open wounds on his face made him look like he met pissed of Mike Tyson.

Time for first aid!

We obviously both carry first aid kits, but there was no need for any serious doctoring so we decided to just keep going (as there was still few abseils to go).

Another 3 rope lengths were on V-Threads again. We were able to reuse (and backup) some of them which sped up the process significantly.  Drilling a V-thread is always time consuming.

The last 100 meters was the most nerve wrecking though. First Peter overshot abseil point, so he had to make himself safe, I got down and pulled him in. Then we abseiled of a roof into free-hanging situation with into naked wall, with nothing to abseil off!

Luckily for us again there were a pair of ‘hidden’ bolts directly under the roof! Peter was able to use his ice axe and pull himself to it. We were nearly done.

The Bolts are here! I thought he should be definitely more happy to see them :)

Quickly now, let’s just pull the ropes and hope they won’t get stuck – we are only 40meters to the ground, and in a point of no return – there was no way to climb the ropes back as we were under a massive roof.

And of course the ropes DID get stuck… the knot seem to lodge itself at the mouth of the roof… We were cooked… Almost. One end of the rope was already touching the ground – worst case scenario we tie it off, and abseil of it, leaving both of them behind.

– We looked at each other and almost at the same time said – one more tug. It worked. The knot connecting the two 50 meter ropes dislodged itself in whatever groove it was stuck in and we were ready to rig for final abseil.

Peter on the final abseil. Free hanging ones are always fun!

Me under the roof getting ready to get down.

Few more meters and we are safe! Kind of.

Once at the base of the wall we quickly moved away as stuff started to fall from the top, as at least half of us were done getting hit in the face that day…

25 minutes later we were back in the car, happy as always after big adventure. After all we got exactly what we wanted. Yet another set of unforgettable memories!

 

PS.

In the mean time Sarah and Ronan did a route on the other side of the Valley, so we didn’t see them all day. They also had mini epic, but that’s a story for another post. A guest write-up perhaps guys?

PS2.

Today (Day5) we actually got back to the same area, and did other routes. I’ll do a write up tomorrow (too much going on right now).