The Gandia crag has always been top of my list for the costa blanca so we wanted to base ourselves in this area to explore all the other crags in the area this trip. The crags didn't disappoint and gave us possibly the best trip for crags we've had to the costa blanca.
Despite much cooler temperatures and more wind than we had ever experienced on the costa blanca we were fortunate to have climbed every day. The first day we passed off as a day of adventure climbing as it was in what seemed like gale force winds! After this everyday we were climbing on great routes and pushing the grades and fingertips to the point of bleeding on the last day. Fuelled by uncooked rice by an overly keen chef, washed only with a dripping shower stuck in a position to wash just the back of your neck we managed over 50 routes in 9 days climbing.
We returned to toix the second day and i had two climbs on my list in the amphitheatre-monkey wall (6c) and painted wall (6b+). I first saw monkey wall some years ago and I promised myself I would go back to do this-but I wanted the onsight so had waited this time to achieve it. Both climbs were great and came with relative ease.
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| Toix amphitheatre, on painted wall 6b+, monkey wall line to the left |
Montesa was a new crag for us and it has a great aspect and fantastic rock and features. There was nothing too hard here but over two visits i bagged a fair few 6cs and enjoyed all the climbs.
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| Lovely rock of Montesa, this was one of the 6c lines |
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| A short but tough 7a+ at montesa, i just missed the onsight by not being able to clip the chains-must do more bouldering.... |
Bellus was also a new crag and I was really pleased to get the onsight here of a 7a+ alto brons which had a roof of course. I also got on the classic line of the crag-popeye-pretty annoying to slip off after cleaning the hardest start section. Coll climbed her first 6b here and was completely on fire even though she wont admit that she loves climbing almost as much as i do. There is no denying it when she updates her Facebook profile pic with her on a 6b!!
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| Coll on her 6B ascent at Bellus-also her current profile pic... |
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| Clipping the chinas of Alto brons, 7a+ |
I'd always been too lazy to walk to gandia topdecko but we made the effort up this trip and it was certainly worth it. The rock was great with lots of orange pocketed rock on overhangs so I was in my element. I fell off the top of Gandia topdecko 19 (7a+ in the guide) frustrating as i just misread the top section. I did onsight some 6cs though and even the lower grade climbs were an absolute joy. Its just a shame i couldn't persuade the kids to go back the next day!
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| Gandia top decko 19, 7a+ |
We returned to Salem on the last day to give it another chance following the first day in winds which put us off a bit. With sore finger tips I got straight on the climb of the crag Sindrome de soledad 7a+ and got the onsight which I was really pleased with considering it was the last day and my fingertip had gone though and was bleeding half way up. Still I taped it up and also managed the onsight sarvachov 6c before easing back and enjoying the last few climbs of the trip.
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| Hardest part of syndrome de soledad, 7a+ |
