Luckily the heavy snow didn't delay our flight out to Malaga - which went very smooth with even managing to get the clipstick checked in although it was sticking out of Pauls bag! The train to Alora from the airport was so easy i don't think I'll ever hire a car for El Chorro ever again. The first day we even managed to get 6 routes in over the road from the Olive branch at las enchantadas.
The second day we headed to sector Suizo on Frontales, one of my favourite crags and a nice sun spot. The strategy was to play around on the 7s ready for Makinodromo the next day - I love the routes there - nice and slightly overhanging - perfect for me. On day 3 even though the police were around the train tunnels we managed to sneak through the tunnels - but after the 2.5 hour walk to makinodromo Lourdes was seeping wet! A bit of a shame as that was my planned route of the trip. The whole crag was busier than I'd ever seen it so we headed up further to do a 6b warm up and then onto a section not even in the guide called Mini-Maki to try out some other routes.
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| Paul playing around at Mini Maki |
Pauls 47th birthday was a pretty good day over at sector castrojo (day 4). By not letting him know the grades he lead his first 6b+ and then I went onto get little brown baby clean (7a+)-I was particularly pleased given it felt something like 25 deg C.
Poema de roca is always a must but in the heat I felt like it was a bit of struggle on day 5. I enjoyed getting on talisbana again the most achievable 7c I've ever been on a the bottom of the cave. I also got back on slimbo a crack line (7b) I stuggled on this last year - and it felt just at bad! Perhaps one to avoid on my next trip...
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| Wheres Wally? Poem de roca |
Feeling a bit sunstroke on day 6 we headed up to the steps (escaler arabe) - a usually windy venue it was supsiciously still. Therefore it was the perfect opportunity to get up on the pinnacle for a nice photo shot!
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| on top of the... El Ehorro |
Day 7 we tried abercones a crag sheltered form the sun - this was some really nice rock - with the exception of an undercut snappin off on a hard onsite attempt. By the time we moved onto sector Suizo for the afternoon my hands were battered, but still had a nice play on the slippy tufa routes in the sun.
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| Sector Suizo slippy tufas! |
