Escape to Spain for Christmas and New Year

 As the second lockdown in France was coming to an end we prepared to escape to Spain. So we set off on our first day of freedom on 15th December. We decided to return to Masriudoms (a few km south of Tarragona). We climbed there ten years ago and had a good time but it was a wet and cold Christmas holiday and it was pretty busy, so I'd not got round to doing "ATPC", the crag classic. In fact every time we'd been in the vicinity since then it had always been very windy and we'd just kept on driving to somewhere else. This time though the forecast was perfect at last.

Ruff had some friends to play with.

La Cova den Marian at Masriudoms.

View from the campsite.

Because of Covid-19 we didn't want to wild camp, so we stayed at Camping Cala d'Oques at Hospitalet de l'Enfant right next to the sea, which is very peaceful and has great showers (and does good deals based on the longer you stay).

I did get to do "ATPC", thanks to great beta from Renaud Moulin (author of the Levante topos). To the first chain is a fantastic 7c (known as "ATP") with great moves on good holds and lots of tufas but with very polished footholds, so you have to pull pretty hard. I just about managed that part second go, it was a bit touch and go, with lots of puffing and panting due to a complete lack of any stamina. After that I dogged up the 8a part to the next chain, finding the moves hard and doubting if it would be possible. I decided not to try again that day, instead choosing to finish off with a really good 7b+ called "Gollum". Again my lack of stamina ensured it was a hard won fight after 6 weeks of lockdown.

"ATP", the start of the 7c part.

A couple of days later, fourth tie-in overall, I've recovered at the 7c chain and I'm feeling good as I start the bouldery crux sequence a couple of bolts higher. Renaud's knee bar beta comes in handy here to clip the crucial bolt, then it's a series of three slippery crimps, a weird pinch, another poor crimp, a vertical pocket and then a big move to the jug. All's going well, then suddenly I just know I'm going to blow the very last move (reaching for the vertical left hand pocket). However, at that same moment, I remember Renaud's beta (using the pocket as a pinch with the right hand instead) and manage to freestyle to the jug. I've got the remaining eight metres well dialled and I'm really very happy when I finally clip the chain, forty metres above Elaine, and a dream has been fulfilled. After that I was happy to drop the grade and on-sighted "Superforn" (7b+).

The next day was one of the best: an on-sight of "Puta crisis reglatera" (7b+), and (thanks to great beta from Gis) a flash of "Sin pila me de la Risa" (7c). Both are really superb routes on the less steep and more fingery left hand side of the crag.

"Sin pila me de la Risa" (7c) at Masriudoms.

Our friends Paul and Nurie from Cornudella recommended that we go to Capçanes, which was a 40 minute drive. 4 km from the crag we were strongly discouraged by some local inhabitants who were not happy to see us in a French camper van. Not wanting to cause any trouble we turned around and went back to Masriudoms for a 2nd go/1st red-point of the brilliant "Lo Foratoradot" (7c+). Big respect to my friend Eddie Martinez who on-sighted this about ten years ago.

We were starting to feel ready for a change, so went to take a look at a newish sector at Llaberia, thanks to a recommendation from Albert Segura. We did a hard 7a+, a desperate 7b and a steady 7b+, just to the left of the photo of Albert below. Such a beautiful setting to go climbing, absolutely incredible. 

Albert Segura climbing "Chip ganador" (8a) at Llaberia.

The wind and colder temperatures finally arrived on Christmas day, so we headed south to meet up with Dave and Rhian Cross and to climb at some of the new sectors at Cabeço d'Or, near Alicante. These crags can be found in the beautiful "Costa Blanca Climbs" by Roberto Lopez, one of the best climbing topos I've ever used. As soon as I saw the photo of "De Agus.es" at Esquenall de l'Home (see below) I was psyched to go and do it. Sure enough it turned out to be an amazing 7b+, though the easier routes all proved to be very hard for their grades (especially Vicentina, which I thought was harder than the 7b+). Unfortunately the crag wasn't great for us as it was fingery and run out and I didn't fancy anything hard, furthermore it only came into the sun after 13h, even then it was cold and windy, but it was in a stunning location. Another crag we went to was the Tocayo sector at Cabeçonet, which had some nice well bolted (though fingery) grade 6's and low 7's. I especially enjoyed "Viaje a la locura" (7b+). However it had the same orientation and only got sun after 13h and again it was cold and windy.

Sunset from Esquenall de l'Home.

De Agus.es 7b+ (and below).

Buy this, it's amazing.

On my wish list for many years was Boveda de Orihuela. Eddie, Keefe Murphy and Steve Crowe had all done some great things there over the years, so I was chomping at the bit to go there. Sadly it turned out to be a massive disappointment, basically we were about twenty years too late and the routes were polished beyond belief. I slipped off onto the 1st bolt on a 6c+ ("Sugar baby") had to red-point the crag warm up ("Creando ambiente", 7a+) after falling right at the top. I thought that things might improve on something harder, so I tried "THC" (7c) but it was even worse! I got totally shut down. Despite managing to work out the moves I just got so pumped trying to hang on due to the polished holds and failed to red-point it. We bagged it and didn't go back, it wasn't a very nice location anyway.

Excellent food at Cafe Playa Restaurant in Calpe with Steve and Marje.

Great to meet up with Steve Foxley who I climbed a lot with back in the 80's.

We returned to Masriudoms for the last three days before Catalunya went back into lockdown. By then we'd rented an apartment to get out of the wind. It was nice to meet up with Gis and all the other local climbers again, as well as some of Team BTR and Roby and Désirée from Switzerland too. I didn't seem to have the best body size to do "Los Rancios de la Aldea", for sure it must be easier if you're taller than 167cm. It was nice to succeed on something though."Ricacera" (by starting up the 7c+ and going all the way to the top of the crag) proved to be a perfect 8a that was right up my street.

Gis climbing the 7c part of "Domador de Amortiguadores" on her way to sending the full 8a version.

After that we sat out three days of rain in our apartment during the first few days of lockdown, during which there were heavy snowfalls across most of Spain. As soon as the rain stopped we headed back home to France. We didn't think it would be right for us to go climbing when everyone else was supposed to stay in their village.

It's been wonderful to be back home, as we're not big fans of winter, it's been lovely to sleep in our own bed and have a decent shower again. However it's been raining lots so the crags are pretty wet. Unfortunately our department has the most cases of Covid-19 now and it's looking like there's going to be another lockdown across the whole of France. It's time to do some training for when we can next get away. Stay safe everybody.

Some photos from Christmas 2010. Climbers: Laurence Guyon, Oli Brous, Bertrand Fortanier and me.

Stay safe everyone.