European Roadtrip Fall 2008

Climbing in Kalymnos is pretty damn amazing. The climbing is within walking distance of great restaurants, accomodation and the scenery is constantly breathtaking. Not to mention that the climbing is super fun as well. Some people call Kalymnos a paradise for climbers and I can see why. However even in Paradise there needs to be some bad weather, if it never rained here then there wouldn't be the amazing rock features that we climb on. On my travels, through the US and in Australia last year plus in Spain this year I've had some bad weather. Lots of rain in Kentucky, snow in Potrero, snow in Hueco, rain and snow in Australia, rain and snow in Spain but somehow Jean-Hughues and Karine have had great weather on their trip. While I was in Kalymnos with them we figured that it was two of them to one of me so the weather should be good, and it was. Now that JH and Karine are gone however...

When I woke up Monday morning it was looking pretty cloudy, I mean actually no blue sky visible. A few of the other Canadians (Kelly, Vicky and Ian - Ryan was feeling sick) and I decided to hike up to Spartacus, even if it started raining we'd be pretty protected there. The wall itself is covered with classic 5.11s, a few classic 5.12s and apparently one of the best 13b routes in Kalymnos called Daniboy. Kelly decided to warm up on a ridiculously hard and slabby looking 11b/c while I belayed and then encouraged her to clean the draws. I elected to try an 11d called Kerveros that looked nice and long with opportunities to rest. It had a few hard moves down low that were unexpected but then nice fun climbing to the anchors. I actually think an extension could be added to this route and it'd be awesome. In typical Kalymnian fashion you'd need an 80m rope of course. After warming up I decided to try and onsight Daniboy. From the ground I couldn't really see the crux too well, it looked like pockets through the mid-height section but the roof didn't look that easy either. The roof turned out to not be too bad although some of the holds were starting to feel damp from the humidity in the air and then I was into the pocket section. I couldn't fit two fingers in a few of the pockets and had to do some mono pulling but fortunately they went quite deep and I didn't tweak a finger. There were a few tricky rests but then I was through the crux and in the upper tufa section. Definitely a fun route. Ian and Kelly both tried Daniboy after me with Kelly psyched to be pulling moves on the hardest route she'd ever been on. By this time Ryan had dragged himself up the trail and decided to play on a few of the 5.11s to the right. I was belaying him, not paying attention as usual - trying to explain to someone what a z-clip was when Ryan slipped at the second bolt and dragged me towards the wall. Who falls at the second bolt??? I mean really... He was fine although straddling the rope and finished up the route with me playing slightly closer attention. I then tried a vertical 13a called Arena which was quite technical, way too technical for me after two months of tufa and stalactite pulling. The crux was a hard lock-off off a pocket that I couldn't get my fingers into (I hate pockets), to a pinky jam with bad feet. I fell there and managed to do the move a few times in a row but didn't try the route a second time. Next up was Vicky on a long 11b/c called Los Amazones, yet another 30-35m Kalymnos classic. This would also be the hardest route she'd ever done. Many people in Kalymnos climb their hardest level and while a part of it may be the soft grades, generally considered soft, I also think that the bolting standard allows people to get on harder routes than they normally would. They tend to bolt quite close together here (hence the z-clip issue) but that also means people aren't afraid to get on harder routes. Anyhow Vicky crushed that route second try and it seemed pretty casual for her. Ian tried Daniboy again and fell at literally the last hard move. This would be his hardest route ever as well. I did a few other routes including Neska Polita and Sparticus Maximus before calling it a day.

It rained Monday night. Hard. It was windy, thunder and lightning, a proper storm. I even got out of bed to watch the lightning. When daylight broke I looked to the cliffs and they didn't look too bad. The grey slabs were a little darker but the steep routes looked fine. We decided to try and hike up to a close area called Kalydna and check it out. The others started ahead of me as I had pretty much written the day off and needed to pack up. Just as I was hiking up the hill from my studio it started to rain so I stopped in under the cover of Fatolitis Bar, and then the rain really started. It was absolutely pouring. Probably some of the hardest rain I have ever been in. There was a river running down the street and by the time I ran back to my studio to get my camera I was drenched. I managed to snap a few photos but the rain had already subsided and I didn't catch the full glory of the storm. I was wondering how far up the trail the other Canadians had hiked but it turns out the had managed to get back before the main rain and thought maybe I was hiking in it. As soon as the rain stopped the sun came out and it was actually quite pleasant. It was now after noon and we decided not to climb but I went up to hike the cliffline and maybe find some people climbing. Sure enough by the time I got to the Grande Grotta there were people climbing. I ran into two people from Norway (Thomas and Judith) that I had met a few days previously and luckily for me they were getting on some of the steep routes in the afternoon light. Thomas tried Ivi and just missed the crux sequence but sorted it out and went to the top. Judith was going to try D.N.A. but was really nervous and not used to climbing such steep routes. I asked her if she was good with kneebars and she said "No, but I'm good at sitting on stalactites". I laughed because I thought everybody was good at sitting on stalactites but boy did she prove me wrong. She took sitting on stalactites to a new level. On D.N.A. I had found some really good kneebars and maybe 1-2 stalactites to sit on but I don't think Judith went more than four moves without finding a sit down rest. She was looking pretty casual up into the crux but then it got a little steeper and a few hard clips. All in all she fought to the top in a very impressive ascent. The pressure was on Thomas to follow up this effort. He made it through the crux of Ivi but wasn't comfortable and downclimbed the move to a rest. Not only that but he had skipped the bolt at the crux and had he fallen he would have come very close to the ground. I actually had to remind him that the bolt existed he was so focused on the climbing. He pulled the crux, got to a better rest and then cruised to the anchors.

Once again on Tuesday night it rained with a big lighting storm but after resting Tuesday we all wanted to climb. With the forecast calling for more rain and thundershowers I left my camera at home and we hiked over to Odyssey. The only reason I mention the camera is that a storm passed over Telindos (sp?), the small island across from the climbing and it would have been some amazing photos. And of course it was probably the best sunset since I've been here. I did a few warm up climbs then wanted to get on a 13d called Inti Watana, just to the right of Sardonique. As I roped up the storm that hit Telindos was bearing down on us and I didn't want the route to get wet before I had a chance to onsight it. HaHa... my onsight attempt didn't go so well. I got into the crux but pretty much tried to dyno for a non-existent crimp. The sequence I ended up working out was super cool and complex involving a cross-under-reverse-two-finger-pocket-pinch-with-off-balance-feet-intermediate-then-dyno. Never done that before... I was psyched to figure out the move that would work but it was super hard for me. I went to the top, lowered off and helped Kelly get a draw on Sardonique (she was climbing right beside me) then ran for cover from the rain. The main storm didn't hit us but a small trailing system did although by that time we were all tucked away safely. I ended up trying Inti Watana two more times but couldn't hit the crux move from the ground. Honestly it was really hard after that crux move and I started feeling quite tired, I probably wouldn't have linked it even if I had stuck the crux. That was pretty much it for me.

On Thursday I teamed up with a British guy named Ben and Thomas from Norway for another day at Odyssey. I was still tired from climbing Wednesday and wasn't optimistic about a redpoint but these two guys were keen to go to Odyssey and it seemed like an ok plan. After warming up Ben managed the onsight of Dafni, his first 7b (12b) onsight and he had never even climbed harder than 12b, although he had climbed many of them. Thomas followed this up with a redpoint of Dafni which he had been on previously, but prior to this trip he had never climbed a 12b so they were both psyched. Trying to feed off their energy I tied in for Inti Watana and started up. I felt pretty good through the bottom and managed to get my breathing up at a rest just before the crux. I did the weird cross under move, hit the intermediate, shifted the feet and threw for the vertical slot. It was a mixed feeling hitting that slot. I was psyched to do the move but really didn't want to fall in the next five or six moves. Fortunately I remembered my sequence (sloping pockets, bad feet, even skip a clip) and managed the redpoint. Next up Ben tried to flash Alfredo-Alfredo a 7b+ that I had put the draws on. Ben had never done 7b+ and had only been on them on toprope so it was good to see him going for it. He almost flashed it but fell and then had to sort out the beta. Thomas has been on the route five time previously, so much that friends were calling him Alfredo and was hoping to redpoint but already happy with just doing Dafni. Just to make his day a little better Thomas redpointed Alfredo-Alfredo on his first try of the day. At somepoint while we were at that area I got on Gaia, a short pocketed 13c/d that didn't really inspire me but I figured I should try since we were there. That and a friend from Canmore, Dung Nyugen, had told me to get on it. Dung and I don't have very similar climbing styles, he likes short powerful routes while I like long endurance routes so I knew I was in for a butt whooping. I went up it, figured out a sequence but wasn't very hopeful for a quick send and the route didn't inspire me enough to try it more than twice. When I roped in for the second time I just tried to convince myself to try hard and see what happens. I managed to pull the first hard move, get a quick shake and then pull another hard move. Then I was at the last hard move, fighting to get my fingers in a pocket that I ended up just monoing and throwing for the last pocket, quick shake and pull up over the top to clip the anchors. Phew... Dung would never let me live it down. We finished up the day at the upper end of the wall. I did a new 12b called Kulturistika and a classic 5.11 called Feta while Thomas managed to onsight a long 7a that I can't remember the name of. At the end of the day I was pretty tired and looking forward to a rest day.

On Friday I rented a scooter and rode around on it for rest. Actually I had to go up to the airport to try and sort out my departure flights. I wanted to change the date but none of the phone numbers I had were working. The airport is so small that it is only open when there are flights and I had to go back a few times to get lucky when there were people there. In the end I couldn't change my flight date and pretty much wasted the whole day. Oh well.

Saturday I climbed with Thomas again and we started out at Kalydna a sector with a 45m long 13b I wanted to try. It was super windy and threatening to rain all day. It didn't end up raining but the sand blowing around was a pain in the ass. After warming up, and watching Thomas redpoint another 7b I went for the onsight. I did the bottom just fine even onsighted the crux of the 8a extension but at literaly the last move of a route 45m long I had to pull on a mono. I couldn't fit my finger in and only got about 1/4" in and thought that was how deep it was. With 45m of rope weight on me and being fat I didn't feel I could pull on that small of a hold without injuring myself so I let go. I managed to pull on a draw past the move and get to the anchor. As I was lowering I discovered that the mono was really deep but only my pinky finger could fit in it. I didn't even think to try other fingers than my middle finger since it is my strongest and usually the one I mono with. Going to have to work on that. Before hiking over to Iannis Thomas redpointed his second 7b of the day. Over at Iannis I wanted to get on a 14a called O Draconian Devil, I just wanted to see how hard it was and whether I would be able to do it in my last three days on Kalymnos. It's a short route and was supposed to have a tricky crux, from the ground I could see where the crux was but couldn't figure it out. You climb up a steep arete feature and then meet up with another steep arete in a corner and you have to figure out what to do on bad handholds to get set for a big move up onto some good stalactites. I got up to the crux pretty easily but then proceeded to spend about half an hour and a crapload of energy trying to figure out the crux. I tried hard gaston moves with weird bicycling feet. I tried stems, I tried kneebars, I tried dynos, I tried cross-over-undercling-reverse-this-and-that-and-pull! They all kindof worked until I found the magic. Now I'm not going to tell you what the magic was but I used a hold without a lot of chalk and I didn't put my feet on the right wall until after getting the stalactites. Hee hee... good luck! The move was still incredibly powerful but it seemed to work, I even did it twice in a row after hanging there. After lowering down Thomas tried yet another 7b called Sevasti and actually looked pretty close to the onsight but fell near the top. So it was my turn again. I roped up, tried to convince myself to try hard and went for it. Unfortunately on my first time up I had kindof aided my way up just feeling the holds and hadn't sorted out all the clips, especially the crux clip. As I entered into the crux I had to scramble to get into a position to make the clip and then I had to do the crux moves! I did the crux move and got set for the throw and barely stuck it. Phew again. I really didn't want to get on it again, too much effort and work required. Thomas did Sevasti his next try for his third 7b of the day! Now he's done enough where he can comment on which ones are soft :). I finished up the day on a 12c called Tufa King Pumped which has a short extension at the same grade. I like long routes so I did the extension, boy was that ever a mistake. The climbing wasn't that good and the anchor was crap. I ended up downclimbing to the first anchor.

It was stormy again Saturday night so I think that's to blame for not sleeping very well. Everyone seemed pretty low energy Sunday morning and the crux of the day was getting out of bed. Thomas and I decided to go to the Grande Grotta in case it started raining. I was pretty sore and tempted to take a rest day but with only a half-day avaiable on Monday I figured I would at least try to tick off some classic pitches. I started out on a 35m long 6c+ (11b/c) called Kaly-Pige that was super fun but felt like an eternity of climbing. Next I did Tufantastic, a newer 12c that followed some stalactites and tufas for 40m just left of Trela. I honestly don't remember a hard move on it. After that I tried Super Carpe Diem, a 12d extension to Carpe Diem at the Panorama wall. I had seen people on this route a few times and really wanted to try it. It looked forever long with some really cool rests. On rest was actually a saddle between two stalacatites that felt like a recliner, it was awesome! I wish I was more pumped when I get there to really experience it. Thomos did a 6a+ to warm-up then Kaly-Pige then onsighted a 35m long 7a+ on Panorama that I can't remember the name of. I was already exhausted but decided to try Nawrizul Syndicate, a 35m 13a near Aegilis back in the grotta. Fortunately there are only a few short, hard sections and the other sections had huge rests in them. We ended the day early. I was tempted to take a nap but elected to have a coffee instead and then I took some more sunset photos.

So my last day in Kalymnos (for this trip) was Monday. I feel like I have done enough in this area for one trip and I know that when I return I'll have to be stronger, in shape and willing to project more. For my last day Kelly, Ryan, Ian and Vicky all agreed to go to Iliada, a sector with a small cave and a few long routes outside the cave. There was a 7b+ that went straight out the cave that I wanted to try and I had been eyeing the cave for weeks now. We were a little slow going and fortunately Ryan was kind enough to give me a lift on their scooter after dropping Kelly off. To warm up I suggested the route with the same name as the area, Iliada, a long 6c+ that got three stars in the book (out of 1,2,3 and musical) so I thought it'd be good. It was incredibly sharp and Ryan hated it. I didn't mind it but definitely didn't like it and don't really recommend it unless you are there and bored. After that we headed over to the right to try some of the long 7a/7a+/7b routes. Ryan and Kelly tried a nice looking (musical) 7a while I tried a musical 7b called Zagreg Le Gros or something like that. Cool route for sure. In a hurry to try the cave route I asked Ian to belay me and we hiked back to the cave. The route is called Dolonas and it is incredibly short, only five draws maybe and at most 8-10m off the ground. Not your classic long Kalymnos route but a very picturesque and fun looking route nonetheless. I onsighted it and left the draws on for Kelly to try. She had never onsighted a 12c and wanted to but in the end she asked for beta, electing to go for the flash instead. Unfortunately she just didn't quite control this huge swing and fell as she was finishing the crux. After Kelly's attempt I hiked out, packed up and took a cab to the airport.

So that's where I am now. In an airport preparing for a hellish voyage back to North America. There were no flights leaving Athens tonight so I'm going to spend a night in the airport and another 18 hours traveling tomorrow before arriving in Columbus for a little Red River Gorge action. Hope the weather improves...

I know what you're thinking. There's no such thing as adventure in Greece. It's all just simple, steep sport climbing. Well we had to put some effort in to having an adventure but I'm happy to say we did it and it was pretty awesome. Of course you'll have to wait for that story. It's farther down. First of all you'll have to read some simple, dry, journal entry-type stuff. The weather is finally starting to get a little cooler. This means great climbing conditions but not great sitting on the beach conditions. I think if you want to sit on the beach more than climb then you should come in late October. If you want to climb more than sit on the beach then November is amazing (so far). We've been able to do lots of climbing but only in the last few days have I had to carry my puffy jacket to the crag for some warmth in the morning while belaying.

On Tuesday I was finally able to visit the Odyssey Sector. I had seen the cliff from the road a few times as we drove past it on our scooters. It looked amazing; slightly overhanging with lots and lots of routes. It is quite a far hike from Massouri but definitely worth it. Many people use scooters to get there but we've walked a few times and the walk is nice in the morning but gets a little long on the way home. Odyssey is also nice because the routes (generally) get harder from the right to the left, from the approach to the far end so you walk right up to your warm-up area. We warmed up on a few easier routes and then started making our way further up the cliff. Both Jean-Hughues and Karine had an idea of the routes they wanted to try and I just wanted to do some more onsighting. I had a few route recommendations from friends that I was a little wary of checking out. Friends of mine are like me, jerks, and I know they would love to see me struggle. I did a route called Meltemi which Karine then promptly redpointed and then I tried a long 13a called Marci Marc that looked amazing. I really enjoyed this route. It was long, fairly consistent with decent rests and a few funky sequence moves. With the rests I was able to recover the whole way up and managed to onsight. JH then tried to onsight another fun looking line called Daphni, a 12b with the crux at the top. JH and Karine have been complaining about their endurance. They just took four months off climbing to travel in Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, then the Middle East) so when they arrived in Kalymnos they were not in the best climbing shape of their lives but each day they are getting more fit and more in tune with how to climb again. For JH a long 12b with the crux at the top was quite hard and he fell just finishing up the crux moves. Karine tried it as well and worked out a sequence, saving the redpoint for a later day. Some other Canadians from Calgary were at the cliff. Actually there are six that we have been hanging out with; Kelly and Don, Kelly and Ryan and then Vicky and Ian (I hope, but I'm bad with names). I had met Kelly (of Kelly and Don) a few times over the years either at the CCC or while climbing in the rockies but being dumb I couldn't remember her name when I first saw her here. Anyways, Kelly and Kelly had set their sights on a 13a called Moon Bridge that was supposed to be technical and crimpy, just their style, not my style. A friend of mine, the famous Read Macadam had also recommended that I get on Moon Bridge saying it was different than most Kalymnos climbs and one of his favourite routes. Now for those of you who don't know, or don't remember Read Macadam, shame on you. Read was one of Canada's best young climbers when I just started coaching and one of the few climbers that actually can remember competing when I competed as a junior. Read is still a remarkable, low profile climber. Well low profile because he lives in Oman and for some reason there isn't a lot of news about the climbing happening in Oman. Read also happens to have fingers of steel, three fingers of steel at least, and very good technique. Knowing that this route was one of his favs and that he recommended it to me, I was a little scared. Both Kelly's assured me it was "easy" so I went for the onsight. I flailed miserabley. The crux is near the bottom and requires holding onto a ridiculously bad crimp while deadpointing a few moves with the other hand to bad sloping holds. On onsight I tried to move off one of the bad sloping holds but slipped and fell. In fact I fell a few more times before the top and didn't even redpoint next try. The only reason I did try it a third time was because I knew that while Read would laugh when I didn't onsight it, he would never let me live it down if I didn't even redpoint it. Fortunately on my third try I did it. So much for not trying a route more than twice. Thanks Read. So yeah, for anyone out there. I highly recommend Moon Bridge. Truthfully it was a good route, not typical of Kalymnos and not my style but still a good route. I finished off the day by flashing a 12d called Polifermo and pulling the draws off Daphne.

Wednesday it was cloudy, well partly cloudy but still the most cloudy it has been since I got here. We headed up to the Grande Grotta for another round of super long endurance climbs. After a quick warm-up I decided to try and onsight a 55m(!) long route called Super Priapos. It starts up a long 12d then pulls the lip of the Grande Grotta cave and continues up the headwall. I had no idea what to expect, I couldn't even see where the anchors might be. All I knew was where it started and then somewhere up there hopefully it would end. I also knew that a 55m long route would require some serious thought for reducing the rope drag so I loaded myself up with a few long slings and set off. I tried to skip a bunch of bolts down low, moving draws up and extending them as necessary. I think in the end I had 4 bolts clipped when I got to the Priapos (12d) anchors. The moves off the anchor were not too bad but as I started moving up the headwall I ran into an obvious crux. It was almost vertical and I was standing on big holds but couldn't quite reach what appeard to be a good edge. I downclimbed back to a rest, tried a new sequence, had to downclimb again. I was probably 45m in the air and didn't want to have to repeat all that climbing. I finally decided to try and grab some really small popcorn style crystals to the right and move off them. The problem here was that my feet were in terrain that doesn't get touched much and with 45m of rope drag I had to put a lot of weight on them. I was sure I was going to break a foothold and fall but fortunately I didn't and I managed to continue climbing to the anchors. Cleaning that route... well that was another issue all together... Despite cooling down while I climbed Super Priapos Karine then onsighted Trela, an 11d that was the first route I did while in Kalymnos. She fought hard through the crux and was definitely happy with the onsight. JH followed this up with a redpoint of D.N.A. and I tried to keep the momentum going by onsighting the extension to D.N.A.. From the ground I could see a small section that looked pretty blank and sure enough this turned out to be the crux. I misread it and tried to do a big move up instead of sideways... silly me... sometimes I hate onsighting. After only three routes I was done for the day. JH and Karine tried to climb at the Sparticus sector but were quite tired as well and only did one route. The sunset was gorgeous and I tried to get some good photos. That evening all of the Canadians sat around playing a card game called Salade. JH and Karine introduced it to us and imagine a mash of pretty much every card game you could imagine. Confusing to say the least. Somehow the idea came up to try and do the multi-pitch the following night by moonlight.

So Thursday night was supposed to be the full moon ascent. Waking up I looked at the scree slope above the route and decided it would probably be prudent to climb it in the day time to find the rappel station rather than walking around in the dark and a loose scree slope with 200' below us. I didn't try to find a partner. To be honest I wanted a little adventure on my own. I hiked up to the cliff with a small nagging thought to free solo the route on my own. Taking one look at the grey rock above me I gave up that idea and instead I rope-soloed it, or at least my idea of rope soloing which is not very elegant. Basically I had a gri-gri on my harness, would secure the rope at the bottom of the pitch, have loops of slack clove-hitched on quickdraws and as I need to clip a bolt I'd drop a loop of rope and clip it. I'd feed slack through the gri-gri using whatever means possible and when I reached the next anchor I'd secure the rope and rappel down to get the draws then climb it again, self-belaying with the gri-gri. So basically I'd have to climb each pitch twice. The route itself traversed a lot more than I thought so even for the second it would be a little scary. The rock quality was ok but that grey prickly slabby limestone and I felt like a foothold could break at any moment. I made it to the top safely though and it was a good thing I went up in the day though, the anchors were hard to find and the first anchor you come across for the rappel was absolutely horrible. I was inclined to hike off rather than trust my life to it but fortunately there was a better anchor just a little farther along. I got back to Masouri and told the others what it was like. We decided to wait until it was well past dark. The moon would be up but it would still be off the cliff face, headlamps would be necessary. In the end it was Me, Karine and JH on one rope while Ryan and Ian followed on a separate rope. Wanting to climb fast JH, Karine and I simul-climbed with me in the lead, followed by Karine and JH bringing up the rear. I loaded up with 40+ draws and was going to leave a draw on every bolt on the route. Ryan and Ian elected to do the route in two long pitches instead of four. I'll be honest, I wasn't too concerned during the first two pitches but once I was out on the grey slab of the third pitch I really didn't want JH or Karine to break a hold and fall. I could picture them ripping me from those sharp holds and dragging me down the slab to the bolt below me. As I clipped each bolt I didn't always have enough slack to clip-in the rope so I would connect my leash and keep climbing until I could connect the rope. We moved pretty fast, I was on the top in less than 40 minutes, Karine about 10 minutes later and JH about 10 minutes after that. It wasn't long before Ian and Ryan joined us and we went off looking for the rappel. There were no issues at all and we all made it back safe from a fun adventure in Greece.

So after a 'rest' day where I only climbed 15 pitches we somehow managed to rangle ourselves out of bed on Friday and hike up to Odyssey. All of us were a little tired and after a single climb Karine decided to rest for the day and save her energy for their last climbing day on Saturday. JH and I climbed with JH cruising on a few 11d routes he had tried before and onsighting a few 11c routes. After warming up I did a super long 12d called Sirene. I saw Kelly from Calgary on this route previously and the line looked amazing. I knew the crux was near the top but had no idea how much of a crux it was. It's pretty cruising climbing up until the last 10' and then it really kicks back. Still fun though. After that I felt ready to try and onsight another Read Macadam recommended routed called Sardonique, a near vertical 13c. The crux section was obvious from the ground, where the crux was that is, not how to do it. Sure enough I got to the crux without any issues but then misread the sequence and had to fight through a few moves. I got up to a bad rest, shook quickly and as I was reaching for a handhold my foot slipped and I fell. Literally the next hold was a jug. Crap. Another 13c onsight down the drain. To be honest though the route didn't feel that bad, more like 13b. I pulled the draws off it knowing I could return another day to send it. In between JH's onsights I tried to onsight Anaconda and failed but did onsight Orion, then did Anaconda second try when I was tired at the end of the day.

On Saturday it was JH and Karine's last day and Karine really wanted to do Daphni, 12b at Odyssey so we made the long trek in the morning again. Karine warmed up then went up Daphni slowly to try and remember all the beta. She rested on a few draws and sorted out some new footwork for the top. It was really cold today, definitely the coldest it has been with a stout wind and a real chill in the air. Climbing as a group of three I was worried about Karine or JH getting too cold between climbs so I didn't climb in the morning. JH felt like he had used up all his energy the day before so he wasn't super motivated although we knew he wanted to do Daphni as well. He tried it and looked strong through the bottom and just forgot his sequence getting into the crux where he fell. He went to the top but was dejected and convinced he didn't have any more energy. On Karine's first redpoint attempt she looked super strong but just didn't quite get her right foot up high enough for a big reach and ended up trying to reverse the move and used up a lot of energy and ended up falling. You could see she was disappointed. I then spent a little bit of time trying to convince JH to try again. This was Jean-Hughues of Hueco fame. In 2007 when Audrey and I met them in Hueco JH impressed me but summoning the energy on his fourth day of bouldering to do Mushroom Roof after falling completely exhausted up on the slab. It took all he had just to get back on the problem but he sent it! Earlier this year, again in Hueco, JH did Loaded With Power after falling twice at the lip and tearing huge chunks of skin off his middle finger. The previous links take you to my journal entries of both ascents. JH is definitely a great guy to climb with and he shows you what it means to try hard. I was surprised to have to be the one psyching him up. He was exhausted. Three weeks of route climbing was taking its toll on him. With enough goading however he tied in. I strapped in the belay and he started up. Even as he was climbing I reminded him that he could skip the final draw if he felt too tired. He nailed the sequence leading up to the crux and looked relaxed going into it. He grabbed the tufa with the left hand, big move to a sidepull with the right, slot in the left kneebar and then he pulled slack to clip the final draw. Even as he was pulling slack I was telling him to keep climbing. He pulled slack with his left hand, reached for the draw and dropped the rope! He barely grabbed back on with the left hand, fought to reposition the kneebar and then started to pull slack with his right hand! He was pulling slack of a crux sloping pinch! "Come on JH! Allez!!!" we all screamed. He made the clip, got his right hand back on and was breathing very heavily. He grabbed the small crimp, moved the feet up and launched for the jug to finish the crux! He had done it! Ahhh.... JH... never one to let me down for a little drama. It was a good show. People had their cameras out waiting for the fall but he disappointed them and sent. After JH's send Karine tied in again. She was tired and really wanted to do it. She cruised through the bottom but mixed up her sequence leading into the crux. Feeling powered down she tried to change her sequence a bit and when her foot slipped she couldn't hold the holds she was on and fell. She was too tired to try again and really didn't want to leave Kalymnos. There's no consoling someone in that situation. The route will still be there but who knows when she will be back. Sorry Karine, I feel for you. We've all been there. I tried a few other routes and finished up the day by redpointing Sardonique, really should've onsighted it. We had a final dinner then I said goodbye to JH and Karine. I'll miss you both. Thanks for your support, belays and positive energy. I hope Fontainbleau is good to you guys.

On Sunday it was a well needed rest day. I had to move out of the studio I was in since it was closing for the winter. I decided to hike up to an area called Jurassic Park, it was pretty far out there and looked cool. I hiked up there with Ian from Calgary and we then traversed over the ridge to the Olympian wall and then back down past Odyssey. I knew some friends (Benoit and Cynthia) would be at Grande Grotta so I hiked up there hoping for some nice evening light for photos. I sat around, watched Benoit on Ivi and hiked out. I think tomorrow we'll go to Sparticus.

So Jean-Hughues and Karine are gone, the weather forecast finally has rain in it and I think my time here in Greece is running out. I just hope to get a few more days of climbing in and maybe, mabye try something harder than 8a+.

I have to say after the weather I had in Spain it was a welcome relief to arrive in Kalymnos under blue skies and a clear forecast. So far I've been here three days and this place is simply amazing. Climbing on these stalactites and tufas is like playing in a big playground. The routes are forever long and I've actually not been able to get on a few routes due to the length of my rope. It's not that I can't lower back to the ground or get down, there are ways around that, it's that my 70m rope will not reach from the bottom of a route to the top of a route! That's right. There are routes here over 70m long! One pitch! How cool is that?! For a climber like me with minimum strength and pretty good endurance it is very cool.

I flew to Kalymnos direct on a flight from Athens and took a taxi to Masouri, the town where most of the climbers stay since it is walking distance to many of the different sectors. I had directions from a few friends one which studio to try and located to stay in and had the taxi drive drop me off right out front. It's the start of low season and many people are starting to shut down so it took some convincing to get a room in the same place as my friends. While I was moving in I recognized the voices of JH Lapointe and Karine Pellering, two friends from Quebec that Audrey and I had met in Hueco the last two years. I knew they would be here and was psyched to run into them right away. They had been here two weeks and were full of ideas for where to climb, what to do and had the next few days already planned. That was fine by me. Other than knowing that there were stalactites here I didn't really have any idea what to expect. It was dark when I arrived so I hadn't had a chance to view my surroundings. Boy was I in for a surprise...

I awoke on Friday morning to blue skies and beautiful view. From the street I could see the cave of the Grande Grotta and knew that was where I wanted to climb. I hadn't climbed for two days and was dying to touch some limestone. JH and Karine were resting but were excited that I had arrived and were willing to show me around and give me a few belays. They had warned me that the sun comes around on the walls around noon and most climbing in the Grande Grotta had to happen before that time. After the sun hit the walls it was just too hot to climb. We hiked up there. Well, charged up there more like, and I was amazed by the features and stalactites. I had climbed on tufas before but never stalactites. Or at least not stalactites like these. Everywhere you looked were these small to huge stalactites hanging from the cave. Some of the stalactites were probably 20' long! I was excited to start climbing and elected to warm-up on a 12a called Trela. It's a totally surreal feeling climbing on these routes. The actual angle of the route might be 45 degrees overhanging but with the stalactites you often have your feet directly below you, like climbing on a vertical wall. So while the route is very steep the climbing actually isn't. Next up was the mega-classic Aegilis, one of the most picturesque and photographed routes in Kalymnos. Again, it is super steep but you honestly are never more than a few moves away from a no-hands rest! It wasn't until I clipped the anchors and started to lower that I realized just how steep the route actually was. With two warm-ups under my belt I was willing to try something a little harder. There was a super fun looking 13b called Fun de Chichune near the back of the cave and I decided to give it a try. The book said you needed 28 quickdraws for 40m of climbing but I only brough 22 to Europe so I racked up knowing I'd have to skip a few. Once again this route blew my mind. Every five feet or so I'd come across a no-hands rest. Either sitting on a stalactite, kneebarring a stalactite or stemming between stalactites. The crux was short lived and the last 40-50' of the route was like meandering through a forest of giant stalactites. I couldn't help but laugh. The hardest part was trying to figure out which side of the stalactite you wanted to climb around. I lowered off and unfortunately nobody around wanted to try the route with my quickdraws or wanted to try it on toprope to clean my draws so I climbed it again on toprope. I finished off the day with another 12a but on the Panorama wall just right of the Grande Grotta. While I had only done 5 routes I had climbed over 200m of steep climbing. That's more terrain than two days of sport climbing in Squamish! That evening we rented scooters for the next three days. We rode into town to a super market for groceries and I stocked up before returning back to the Artemis studio to crash for the night.

Saturday morning found us up early again but this time we were using the mopeds to get to a few climbing areas. We started out at Arhi as Karine and Jean-Hughues both had projects there. Karine wanted to try Kastor, a super cool looking 11d. I put the draws up for Karine and apparently used different beta than her so she was conflicted about how to do it but stuck with her own sequence and fired it first try! JH had his sights set on a hard looking 12c called Eros and I wanted to try the left variation called Ne Pas Toucher A Mi Bite. JH went first and sorted out some beta for the crux but it was quite powerful and he was getting tired doing the move again and again to figure out the feet. I went up and onsighted through the Eros section and started the traverse for Ne Pas Toucher. The traverse was awesome. Small stalactites as underclings and no feet. I made it through the stalactites pretty easily and then had to pull a few hard moves before being faced with the last big throw. I couldn't even fathom this throw. Absolutely nothing for feet, off a bad sidepull and the throw was straight sideways to a jug. I tried but fell, pulled back up, clipped the anchors and cleaned my draws. After Arhi we rode over to Ghost's Kitchen. The main wall there was covered in these absolutely funky features. Not stalactites or tufas but blobs. Huge weird blobs. JH wanted to do a route called Dafni that he had tried before while two other friends from Quebec, Benoit and Cynthia, wanted to do a route called Remember Wadi Rum. I went up a route to the right of both of these and hung out for while taking photos of JH and Karine on Dafni. Both JH and Karine redpointed for the camera and didn't seem to mind posing for a bit on some of the blobs at the top :).

On Sunday it was another gorgeous blue sky day. I hope I can keep writing that so it reminds me to appreciate it. We decided to ride out to Sikati Cave a very unique geological feature. This cave is basically a hole in the ground with the climbs starting at the bottom of the cave and coming out. There was a Petzl Roc Trip in Kalymnos a few years ago, 2005 I think, and the Sikati Cave was the location of the Ultimate Routes. I was eager to check it out. I hadn't really studied the guide book but had seen a video from the Roc Trip so I knew the routes were long but I wasn't prepared to see routes that were 80m long! One pitch, 80m! Unfortunately I couldn't do that one. As it turned out JH, Benoit and Cynthia all wanted to rest so it was up to Karine and I to do the climbing. While Karine warmed up near the entrance to the cave I decided to try a route called Lolita and if it felt ok I would try to onsight the extension Super Lolita. The bottom of Lolita was hard with a few damp holds but by the time I reached the anchor I felt pretty good. There is a little cave at the anchor so I had a chance to rest and stretch out before trying the extension. Note to anyone who is reading this and will try Super Lolita - extend the first draw after the anchor of Lolita. I wasn't thinking and by the time I had pulled out of the cave, pulled a few hard moves and clipped the next draw I could really feel the rope drag. In fact it was rope drag that bothered me the most on this climb. I don't actually remember a hard move or a hard sequence but pulling slack to clip or trying to move when I was above a draws was really hard. Even cleaning the route took a lot of effort. Fortunately Karine was willing to clean Lolita the bottom 25m. While Karine was cleaning previous route I was looking at a 13c called Les Pirates de Sikati Plus, a route that again starts up an easier route and then adds an extension for the given grade. The upper part looked pretty slabby but still got three stars in the book so I decided to give it a try. Heck, it even looked like my rope would reach the top. I onsighed up onto the slab but got sucked left after a hard move onto some good holds. While I was up there I could see that I had to go right but couldn't reverse the hard move to do so and ended up falling, pulled back on and went to the top. Sigh... another 8a+ onsight failed... I finished up the day on Adam, the first 30m of the 80m route. This route was awesome. Incredibly soft in the grade but awesome. Every few moves you could get a huge rest; kneebars, stems, sitdowns... incredible. I highly recommend it. By the time I had toproped it to clean the draws I was spent. I only tried three routes today but at 45m, 45m and 40m that's still over 100m of climbing!. One thing I didn't mention was that in the morning just as we were leaving Masouri my gas light lit up on my moped. The gas station is in the opposite direction of the climbing so I ignored it but the ride to the climbing was much farther than I thought. On the way back I was sure I would run out of gas. JH thought it'd be fun to tow my moped with the other two but I figured I could run for gas easier. On the way back I coasted down all the hills and only turned the bike on for uphills. I made it back to Masouri but the gas station was still a few kilometers away and I thought I'd better wait unti the following day to push it farther.

I slept in a little bit on Monday and was psyched to drive the moped around the island. Provided I got it to the gas station of course. I had to coast out of Masouri pushing my moped with one leg like a scooter and then started it to get up the big hill. I'll be honest, I was kind of hoping for a little adventure but it was not to be. I made it to the gas station just fine and actually had more gas left in my tank (or a smaller tank) than JH and Karine! We then rode into Pothia, the main city on the island and once again I was surprised. For some reason I expected a small town not much bigger than Masouri and that it would be a quiet fishing village or something. Instead we were fighting traffic in roundabouts, having cars and mopeds go whizzing by us as we tried to navigate the narrow streets. I don't know what the population of Kalymnos is but it is much larger than I had anticipated. JH and Karine went to a travel agent to try and figure out their best/cheapest exit from Kalymnos in order to be in Athens on Monday the 17th for their flight to Paris. After getting all the different options; ferry to Kos then fly to Athens, ferry to Athens, fly to Athens, ferry to Kos then ferry to Athens etc... they elected to go with the sleeper ferry from Kalymnos to Athens. 17 hours is what they ticket said for the ferry! After that we rode through Pothia and around to the far side of the island. It is quite beautiful on the far side from Masouri and you can even see Turkey from some viewpoints. We stopped for lunch in yet another small town and then made our way back over the island to check out a cave we had heard about called Skalia Cave. I had heard it was pretty impressive but had no idea what to expect really. Just as we hiked up to the cave a group of Australian friends were coming out. They were sweating and said it was quite warm in the cave. They also refused to tell us anything other than "If you find a string, follow it.". And that's all I'm going to write here. I've posted some photos as well but you'll have to check it out yourself to discover the adventure that awaits. Not a bad way to spend a rest day.

So after three days climbing and one rest day I have seen much of the island. There are many more sectors of climbing to check out but I know I want to return to the Grande Grotta at some point :).

Goodbye Spain! Goodbye Rain! Goodbye Snow!!! (I hope...).

Our last few days of climbing were a disaster. Saturday night it just poured. All night long and it was really cold when we woke up. However both Pete and I are down to our last days in Spain and wanted to make the most of it. The cliff had been mostly dry two days prior despite lots of rain in the weeks leading up to that point so we were optimistic the cliff would still be dry. Boy were we wrong. As we hiked up the cliff looked a little more wet but many of the climbs are protected by a large roof so we thought they might be dry. As it turned out only two climbs were dry with maybe one or two more climbs being 'climbable'. Water was just running down the cliff and areas of the cliff that rarely get wet were just soaked. Not a good sign. When we hiked up to the cliff a couple from Australia was there and had scoped out the lines for us. We managed to warm-up on the lower, dry section of a route we had done previously then Pete tried to onsight a 12d that was only wet at the top. Not only was it a little wet at the top but it was also quite hard! He fell but managed to do it next go while I managed to flash it (barely). After that a few more people had shown up and with crappy conditions, only a few dry routes and the promise of better conditions in the days to come Pete and I called it. We went back into town and sat drinking coffees and playing on the Internet for a few hours.

Monday was definitely better. We awoke to blue skies and a slight breeze. Maybe that would be enough to dry the rock? Unfortunately little was changed at the crag. The one good thing was that Red Bull, the classic 5.13a was dry for Pete to work while I managed to seek out another dry 13a for an onsight and then set my sights on a slightly wet 13b. Pete did Red Bull second dry after sorting out some good beta through the crux and was pretty happy to have accomplished something at a wet crag. The 13b I tried was hard for me. Through the lower crux a few holds were wet and I ended up having to skip a few holds and throw off a wet hold to a sharp pocket. I didn't onsight it, heck I didn't even do it 2nd, 3rd, or 4th try! I kept falling at the lower crux. Either my hand would pop off, my foot would pop off or I'd just plain screw up the throw. Finally after lowering, resting a few minutes and getting back on it I was getting tired and managed to nail the crux move. I hat forgotten that the following moves were hard as well, on wet holds with wet feet and I almost blew it. Fortunately I managed to struggle my way to the top to get a few pitches done on a wet crag. In the late afternoon the sun actually came out but was pretty low in the sky and didn't really bring a lot of warmth. That night it was quite clear and we postponed when we had to return the rental car in order to get a few hours in the following morning.

In hindsight postponing when we returned the car might not have been such a good idea. It was only 3 degrees when we woke up and the entire valley was blanketed under a thick cloud of fog. It was super cold and we went for coffee before hiking up to the crag. We pretty much knew it would be a write off as we hiked up in our puffy jackets. Since we were there we wanted to climb and I decided to warm up on Occident which was dry except for the very top. It was cold. My hands numbed out, my feet were numb the rock felt slick and the top was wet. However I was pretty happy to push it through the wet tufas at the top and make it to the anchors. At least that meant it would be easy to clean. Pete followed and cleaned it, screaming a few times at the pain in his hands. After that we called it. It just didn't look like the sun was going to burn off the fog anytime soon and even if it did there was only one more dry route for me to try. In cold temperatures like that it is easy to hurt yourself on routes you don't know so we hiked out and drove off. Of course within 10 minutes of driving we were out of the fog in gorgeous sunshine. In fact since I am leaving Spain it looks like the forecast should be quite good for the next week at least and I'm willing to bet they'll have a great rest of the fall... After bring lots of rain to Australia when Audrey and I were there last year and now lots of rain in Spain I don't think I should ever travel to climb again! Sorry everybody else who suffered through the rain because of me... Once we arrived in Barcelona we tried to save a bit of money between the rental car agency and the hotel. It was supposed to cost 30 euros for a taxi so we instead took a taxi to the metro station (still 9 euros somehow, we got ripped off I think). Then we decided to just go to the airport and try to find a shuttle to the hotel. We were told it wasn't far so we took a cab. Little did we know that a taxi was a minimum 15 euros for a pickup, plus kilometers!! So instead of taking a 20 minute taxi from the rental agency we took over an hour to take the metro and two taxis for the same price if not more! We were definitely BOHICA(ed)... damn cab drivers.

My flight to Greece involved a stopover in Madrid (Barcelona->Madrid, Madrid->Athens, Athens->Kalymnos). Unfortunately leaving Madrid my flight was delayed by two hours and I missed my connection to Kalymnos. Fortunately Olympic Airlines just put me on a plane the next day. Unfortunately I had to then stay in Athens. Fortunately I found a small hotel near the airport called Peri's Hotel. It was a small, family run hotel and they came to the airport to pick me up and drove me back the next day. It wasn't far from a small beach and a few good restaurants, and they served me breakfast in the morning! So right now I am sitting in the Athens airport about to hop on a plane to Kalymnos. I can't wait to get settled and get back to climbing!

My how a week of bad weather can change things. Just last weekend I was raving about Fiesta de Los Biceps and the nearly perfect weather that Pete and I had while we were climbing it but since then the weather has changed for the worse. Right now I am sitting in a cafeteria just outside of the Terradets climbing area and it is soaking wet outside. Every cliff for hundreds of kilometers is wet... WTF?

Both Pete and I needed a rest day following Fiesta De Los Biceps but we decided to climb Sunday. It was a cold morning and we wanted to warm up in the sun so we headed to Pince Sans Rire. I warmed up on Pince and so did Pete. This was followed by me onsighting Marie Ponte El Arnes another 12c just left of Pince. I then decided to try and onsight Gracias Fina, a classic 13b that I had heard about but had been reluctant to try. I could see it was a little wet but decided to try for the onsight anyway. I totally misread the sequence and was fighting way too hard to stay on the wall. It was ugly. That's all I have to say. But I did it. After that we hiked over to Surgencia for Pete to try Evasion again. Pete had been through a rough night. Let's just say his system wasn't processing nutrients... He was tired and it showed. While he did end up giving it three burns he didn't have the power required to link through the crux section. In between Pete's attempts I managed to redpoint Las Chacals(13d) and Aporia(13c). So far this day I had done a 12c, a 13b, a 13c and a 13d. Pete suggested I try for the 12a-13d day, all new routes. Since he wasn't feeling well and was willing to belay I managed to flash a 13a arete route that Evan had tried on his last days so I had the 13s done, just needed to round it out with some 5.12s. I decided to try and flash a 12d route called Ironman that was supposed to be a classic. The top looked a little wet but it was past the crux so I thought I'd be ok. Boy was I wrong. I made it through the crux with relative ease and was looking at the last 10' of a 70' climb. It was tufas and it was soaking wet. I worked my way up the tufas never really sure when me feet would slide off. I managed to get a hand jam between two wet tufas (thank you Indian Creek) and made a big move to what I thought was a flat hold in a hole. It turns out it was a sloper and it was soaking wet. As my hand was sliding out, and as I was falling off the route I managed to turn my hand to a fist and just catch it inside the hole. I quickly brought my left foot to a foot jam and managed to clip the anchors from the fist jam. Phew... I did not want to climb that route again. I was starting to get really tired but managed to flash a 12a and 12b that Lori and Craig had tried earlier in the day. I had bugged Craig about his sequence on the 12b and had to try really, really hard not to do the same sequence. So there it was. 5.12a-5.13d, one new route in each grade. Don't think I've ever done that before. This was a good day.

The following day Pete still wasn't feeling great. We started up at Ventanas where we both did an 11d, twice, to warm up. I then went over to check out Philipe Cuisinerre, a 14a I had tried over a week ago and felt I should be able to do quickly. I went up it and it felt good until I got near the top where it was soaking wet! Pretty much unclimbable. After that it was Surgencia for Pete to try Evasion. Second day on combined with his gastro-intestinal problems was not a good combination. With tired arms and low motivation I got back on Florida but didn't even make it to the top. After that we hiked back up to Ventanas where Daniel was trying Montserrat a long 13c. He convinced me to try for the onsight and I did try but screwed up the crux sequence and couldn't recover so I fell. Daniel cruised it next go and we hiked out. Not nearly as good of a day, only an 11d. But I did it twice... :). This was a bad day.

I remember hearing the rain overnight on Monday night and both Pete and I slept in. Needing another rest day already. We hiked up to the village of Rodellar and into the canyon in the afternoon with Craig and Lori. The village of Rodellar is pretty cool. It is similar to most small villages in Spain where even the new buildings have an old look and feel to them. There is also a new hostel which is located right out on this point with great views up and down the canyon. We walked around, took some photos then hiked out and had some beer. Not a bad way to spend a rest day.

On Wednesday it was really cold. Surprisingly cold. Pete and I bundled up and decided to give Rodellar one last chance. As we drove up we could see snow just above the climbing. How crazy is that? Snow in Spain!! We warmed up at Aquest Any Si with the hopes of getting Pete warm enough to be able to just walk over and do Evasion. Now something else you should know about Pete. He's a little OCD, just a little. He has recorded every climb he has ever done over 5.12a. Apparently Pince Sans Rire was number 498 and Maria Ponte el Arnes was number 499. This meant that he had been saving number 500 for a special route and he hoped it would be Evasion. He had purposefully skipped doing some 5.12s just to save number 500. So the pressure was on as we walked over. Our last day in Rodellar possibly and his last day to do Evasion as number 500. His first burn was good but he fell in the same place as before, just through the crux moves but without the power to do this huge crossover. Finally he pulled back up the rope and worked out some new beta that he felt might work. He decided to briefly match on a really bad hold but it moved his body slightly to the right. Sure enough on his next go he managed to stick the "Puta Paso" (as noted by some friendly spaniards there) and fight to the next rest. Evasion was not over yet. Pete still had to pull quite a few hard moves before being able to clip the anchors at the 35m mark. Fortunately he rested lots at every opportunity and cruised to the anchors. Number 500 was in the books and it was one of the few routes he has ever had to try 10 times. After that we hiked up to Ventanas where I managed to redpoint Montserrat and Pete onsighted (barely) a 12c. I then set my eyes on Botanics, it looked dry and it looked good. My first burn up I managed to do all the moves and I thought I had sorted out some rests. My next go and made it through the bottom and into the roof before forgetting my foot beta and falling. Cool route but it took a lot out of me and I can't wait to get back on it. I finished up the day by trying, and failing, to onsight a 13b that was pretty dry in the Gran Boveda. We hiked out in the cold and started packing that night.

It was snowing and freezing cold Thursday morning when we finally woke up. That was it. We had enough of Rodellar. We packed the car, said goodbye to our friends and drive to Terradets. We actually had to drive through some snowy passes on the way there and the snow/rain never stopped. When we finally arrived it was easy to find the climbing area and we were surprised to see people climbing. We hiked up and the crag was mostly dry!!! We had been in the car for a few hours and it was quite late so we didn't have our climbing gear but we were psyched for the next day. We stayed at the refugio only a few minutes from the climbing and there were quite a few other people there; Spanish, French, German, Australia and Swedish.

So finally some climbing. Dry climbing. Well almost dry. It was overcast but not actually raining when we hiked up to Terradets. To our surprise Daniel, Tom and Dominic from Rodellar were there. They had woken up at 6am and driven from Rodellar and were still the first people at the cliff. I tried to warm up on a 12b but it was a little wet on the top slab and I slipped. Pete elected to go with the popular, dry warm-ups and did a 12a and a 12b. I then did a 12d Una Beunita Session de mete y saca, followed by a 13a Xarop de Basto, another super classic 13a Red Bull, a 13b Latido del Miedo and another 12d Occident - all onsight! Red Bull and Latido del Miedo are two amazing lines while the others would be classic lines in most climbing areas but pale compared to the top lines here at Terradets. Pete managed to onsight Occident and tried Una Buenita Session and Xarop but didn't flash those. With so many lines it's hard to justify trying routes twice. All in all we were happy to have a full day of climbing under our belts.

Today is a rest day. We are hoping the weather will dry a bit and we can climb lots our final two days. We drove into Tremp briefly for supplies but everything was shut down for a fiesta of some kind. We then drove about 40 minutes to Santa Linya, a huge limestone cave. Unfortunately even the Santa Linya cave was pretty wet. We weren't hoping to climb but I was hoping to see some people trying some of the harder routes. In this cave are two 5.15a rated routes! Some Swedish friends we had met at the refugio were trying to climb and managed to find a dry, or mostly dry, 13b to do. After the Santa Linya cave we drove back to Terradets had a nap, played a quick game of poker with rocks collected in Rodellar and then went for dinner at a buffet down the street from the refugio. Right now it is raining slightly but the forecast is still calling for less rain tomorrow and sunny skies on Monday and Tuesday. Today was an Ugly day.

It's not often that I dedicate a post title to a single route. In fact I think I've only done if for Serpentine in Australia. Sure I dedicate post titles to climbing areas but not single routes. Fiesta De Los Biceps deserves its own title. Yesterday Pete and I drove to Riglos to climb this amazing multi-pitch line and I have to say it was one of the most fun climbing days I've ever had. However... while Fiesta deserves its own entry I'm going to bore you with a few other days climbing before talking about that route.

On Wednesday Pete decided to rest an extra day while Evan and I hiked out to do some climbing. It had absolutely poured Wednesday night and there were deep puddles everywhere. It was muggy when Evan and I hiked in but as we descended into the valley it became breezy and actually quite cold. We had seen people climbing at a wall called Lola and decided to head over there. Little did we know that it was probably the coldest wall in Rodellar. Evan decided to warm up on a 7a called Lola and I quickly bundled up in my toque and puffy jacket. Evan surprised me by saying that he was numbing out but he made it to the top. I followed him and badly numbed out. The wind was cold! While we were there some friends showed up; Daniel Martian from Toronto and his friend Tom from Belgium. Daniel was trying Las Chacals, an amazing looking 13d. I watched Daniel on it then decided to try it myself. Daniel gave me the full beta and I went for it. I didn't even make it into the crux before my hands were numb and I couldn't feel anything below my elbows. I sorted out a sequence for the route and lowered off. Even while resting on the route my hands didn't full thaw and it was only after hiking for a bit that the feeling came back. We then decided to go try Egocentrismo for Evan since he hadn't been on it. That cliff was a little sheltered from the wind but the air was cold and damp. Evan managed to get through the bottom but flamed out before getting into the rests. He worked his way to the top but honestly in these conditions it just was not enjoyable. I cleaned the route on TR and we called it a day.

Thursday was Evan's last day so we tried to structure the day around him. His only goal was to get his draws of a 12d project at the Gran Boveda and since the Boveda was soaking wet we were going to wait until near the end of the day to head up there. We decided to warm up at Pince Sans Rire, home of the ultra-classic 12c named Pince Sans Rire. Pete and Evan warmed up in the shade while I lounged in the sun. I went up Pince Sans Rire to hang the draws for Pete and to set up above him to take some photos. It was a perfect climb for me, in the sun with some hard moves and good rests but mostly consistent climbing. Pete wanted to onsight it and he had been putting it off until now. He cruised up the bottom with me shooting some photos, of course my battery ran out and I had to swap batteries mid-climb. Near the top I was in his way and had to self belay the top of the climb but it all worked out and he onsighted it with relative ease. Definitely a must do for anyone who can, or wants to, climb 7b+. Since the sun was out we thought maybe the Gran Boveda would be drying out. Boy were we ever wrong. The tufas were soaked with no hope of drying that day. I onsighted a moderately dry 8a called El Sepes, super fun with a great headwall. Then the adventure started. Evan needed to get his draws back and since we were already there he figured he might as well give it a shot. To his credit he tried hard with hands and feet on wet, slippery tufas. He fell nearing the upper headwall and then dogged his way to the top to get his draws off. After that we hiked over to Surgencia for Pete to try Evasion. His first burn was good but he fell just entering the crux. He then went draw to draw up the climb to sort the beta. I wanted to get back on Las Chacals across the way but when we hiked over there it turns out there was a four person line up for it so we returned to Surgencia where I was going to try and onsight Aporia, a great looking 13c. I actually felt quite strong on my onsight but misread the crux sequence, fired up to a bad undercling with the wrong hand, tried to fight through it and fell. I then reset and climbed to the top. Pete tried Evasion once more but was visibly tired and fell just through the crux. I was a little tired but decided to try Aporia again. However, being dumb I couldn't remember what I did onsighting up to the crux and wasted more energy than I had on my onsight and fell even lower! :). Maybe next go... We finished off the climbing day by watching Evan try to flash Aquest Any Si, then beer and snack up in Rodellar before returning to the campsite.

Ok. Finally. The real reason why you want to read this boring journal. Fiesta De Los Biceps... Actually wait. First we had to get up early to make sure Evan go to Huesca to catch a train to Barcelona. We made it but barely. I walked into the station to go to the bathroom and by the time I came out (not long) Evan was already on the bus and the bus was gone. I then had to go and courier some documents back to Canada. Finally after all that we were on our way to Riglos. Prior to arriving in I had never heard of Riglos, nor Fiesta de los Biceps but since arriving people had been raving about it. Apparently it is quite long with many pitches of overhanging cobble climbing. Conglomerate rock like Maple Canyon but multiple pitches of it! As we drove there we were trying to keep our eyes peeled for some big walls. North of Huesca are quite a few canyons of rock but Riglos is something spectacular. When it finally came into view it was awesome. Just left of the walls is a canyon with some cloud in it while the sky itself was crystal blue. We parked, suited up and hiked in. Sure enough Fiesta de los Biceps is one of the most prominent routes there. It doesn't follow a prominent line but with all the traffic it gets it is pretty chalked and the rock it follows is quite clean. I don't remember how but we had determined that I would take the first two pitches and link them together. I'm not complaining, I just don't remember how we determined to do it. Anyways with 16 draws, a gri-gri, a camera and a spare locking biner I set off. The first pitch was quite dirty and honestly harder than I expected. The entire route was rated 11d but I thought the vertical pitches would be easy and the steep pitches would be hard. I wasn't prepared to have to concentrate down low but there are a few dicey moves on the first pitch and some just plain hard moves on the second pitch. Fortunately the belays were all bomber and I was in direct and belaying Pete soon. The third pitch was definitely the crux. Even as Pete left the belay I was having to pay close attention, not just in case he fell but in case he dislodged a rock onto me. Being absolutely stupid we didn't bring helmets. NOTE - BRING HELMETS! We were fortunate but the climbing isn't steep enough to protect the belayer if the climber dislodges a cobble. Anyways the third pitch is really balancy on bad feet. You climb up this little stem corner and have to move slowly. I wasn't sure it I'd rather lead it or follow it on toprope with a backpack. Way easier to follow with a backpack and actually I moved to the right of the stem corner and climbed the arete more than the stem box. While we were climbing there people on both sides of us on either different towers or just different routes on the same tower. From the ground the walls don't look that big until you actually spot a climber and realize how tiny they are. I was surprised to find us on the wall with six other climbers and probably 10-15 more on other walls around us. Fortunately we were the only ones on this route. The fourth pitch wasn't exceptionally memorable but fun with mabye a few hard moves but above us was now steep climbing. Pete took pitch number five and was literally laughing with how fun the climbing was. It was a spectacular pitch, an amazing setting and a gorgeous day. He had started up the pitch with a similar rack to what I had on the first pitch; 16 or 17 draws, camera, gri-gri and spare locking biner. As he was climbing I thought I saw where the belay should be but he kept climbing. Soon he was well past the halfway mark of a 70m rope and running out of draws. The end of the rope was getting nearer and I started putting on my climbing shoes in case we would have to simul climb. Fortunately he reached the belay with a few feet of rope and a single locking biner, plus a quickdraw attached to the camera. Anyways I started climbing looking at about 60m of overhanging cobbles. I could not believe how much fun it was. Occasionally blowing the feet off just to hang 500-600' in the air off jugs. The people to our right were laughing but so were we. I didn't climb to fast, I wanted to enjoy it but I didn't really stop anywhere. I passed what I thought was the fifth belay but it wasn't as obvious as all the other anchors, there were three bolts but pretty spaced out. I reached Pete and we were both grinning, unable to believe how much fun it was. I started out the now seventh pitch and it was just as good, pausing to hang at the absolute apex of the steep climbing and look down. I got to the seventh pitch anchor but thought it wasn't that much farther to the eight pitch, rope drag wasn't that bad so I kept going. Being the selfish prick that I am I was having way too much fun. Unfortunately the eight pitch was a lot, lot farther than I thought and I was soon skipping bolts and by the time I reached the anchor I was unable to lean out far enough to take photos of Pete on the steep climbing. So in total I probably climbed 120m of steep climbing in one long push, which unfortunately meant Pete was stuck belaying in a hanging belay for all that time. At the top it was amazing how much higher than the other towers we were. It took us about three hours to climb the eight pitches, we were fast at the belays but neither of us were pushing it while climbing. It was a rest day afterall... We paused briefly at the summit for some water and a snack before trying to figure out way down. Marc Bourdon had given us good instructions. To walk off head backwards from the climb just below and right of the ridge line. You'll go about 400 yards and hike around a cross ridge. From there you should be able to follow a good trail with some scrambling necessary to get down what looks like a water gully. There are lots of little rabbit trails so take your time and make sure you are on a trail that you can get back up if necessary. You descend to the right of the climb (looking at the climb). Back in Riglos we talked with a local about some of the other climbs and I was suprised by how many climbs there were and how little we had heard of them. What a day of climbing! An amazing route - not too difficult with lots of vetical terrain, perfect weather and a gorgeous setting. After that it was back to Huesca for some groceries and other errands and then back to Rodellar.

I was thinking about climbing today but after climbing that much steep rock on a 'rest day' I woke up sore and decided to take an actual rest day. It's beautiful here today and hopefully the weather will last a few days at least.

The last few climbing days have been dictated by rainfall. I love climbing on limestone. Absolutely love it. The only problem is that limestone seeps badly and in unpredictable ways. The brightside is that we have managed to get away and climb at a beautiful town called Alquezar and that was a great day.

I awoke early with James (7am) on his last day. It was still dark by the time we arrived at the parking lot for Rodellar and we stayed in the car for a few minutes. He did a few climbs at El Camino before we hiked up to Las Ventanas for him to try and redpoint his major project on the trip, A Cravita, a pretty stout 13b. While James wanted to try A Cravita I thought I'd take a look at one of the many classic hard routes. I decided to try a route rated 14a called Philipe Cuisinere. It looked pretty good with consistent climbing and what looked like a boulder problem near the top. James fell on his first try of A Cravita right near the top again, just past the crux but before you are safe in the next rest. My first try up Philipe Cuisinere I did all the moves and didn't think it felt that hard. On James' second go you could see his motivation slip as he fought through the crux and he sagged below his high point. Redpointing a project under time pressure is never easy. I then tried Philipe again and just past the crux I broke a thumb catch on a pinch and fell. I was tired but I think had I made one more move I would've been able to fight it to the top. It would've been nice to get the redpoint second try but alas, it was not to be. James and I then hiked over to an area to try a super classic 12c called Pince Sans Rire. James wanted to onsight it and I was more than willing to let him. This climb looked amazing! Basically two tufas that start to disappear just as two other tufas appear plus it is long and slightly runout... awesome. Unfortunately James fell right near the top and with time getting short he rested briefly while I ran up it, trying to climb fast and getting super pumped. Fortunately James, still pumped from his last attempt, managed to nail the second try redpoint and bag another classic Rodellar route. James then hiked out to pack and get a ride into Huesca to catch a train to Barcelona. I hiked over to Surgencia to see if I could get a belay from Marc Bourdon. Initially I wanted to try a 13c over there but by the time I got there I was pretty tired. Instead I went for the onsight of a 13b called Evasion and was disappointed to fall just past the crux. I quickly sorted out my feet and continued to the top but was too exhausted to try it a second time. Actually I didn't think I'd do it next go so decided to wait an additional day. I hiked over to Aquest Any Si where MF and Derek were trying yet another classic Rodellar 12c. I had done that route previously but grabbed a quick belay to onsight a 12d that looked like it had a short crux section. It was actually too hard of a cool down and foolishly I pushed through rather than just letting go. I got the onsight but felt sore afterwards. Not injury sore but fatigue sore which is just as bad after only one day of climbing.

On Friday I went out with Pete as Evan wanted another rest day. Pete was psyched to get on El Corridor de la Muerte and I still had my draws on Evasion so we warmed up then wandered over to Surgencia. The sheer size of that cliff is amazing and intimidating. Pete was nervous tying in and I don't blame him. He cruised the lower crux right off the ground and looked calm while resting before the main crux. A few days previous he had trouble sorting out feet through the crux but this time he nailed it and was out of view in the upper rest quickly. The route is so long I just leaned up against the wall and left slack out. Eventually he climbed back into view in the upper roof and didn't break any holds going to the anchors for the redpoint. I managed to do Evasion first try today and it felt pretty good. The routes is pretty short, a mere 35m long... We then hiked over to Gran Boveda. I was hoping to get on Geminis and Pete wanted to do Argo but the draws were off Geminis. While I 'think' I could do that route I'm not sure I wanted to invest the time to placing the draws and then the necessary commitment of getting back on it to redpoint and clean the draws. How lazy am I!!?? Instead I got on a route called Alter Ego that Marc Bourdon had done and some other friends recommended. Marc gave me pretty much move for move beta which was awesome but I didn't even come close to flashing it. The route is quite consistent with a few hard boulder problems and decent rests. On my second go I grabbed a dirty hold, took to clean the hold, then went to the top so hopefully I can do it fast. Pete tried Argo twice but on his second go there was a guy cleaning a new route nearby and was literally dropping shit on Argo and close enough to touch Pete through the crux. A little disconcerting to say the least. That was pretty much our climbing day. We hiked out, had a beer and snack in Rodellar before returning to our campsite. It was MF, Simone and Derek's last climbing day so we ended up having dinner in the restaurant and consuming enough wine to float Noah's Arc.

Saturday was a lazy day to say the least. I don't think we crawled out of bed until after 11am. It was raining a little and while some people went for a hike I stayed back at the bungalow and sorted photos. No run, no climbing, no hiking... just recovery. The sun came out briefly and we played on the slackling but a lazy, lazy day. Ahhh...

Sunday morning was overcast but it had rained hard most of the night before. Since it was overcast we decided to go check out a new area called Alquezar. The town was just over half an hour away and the cliffs face south so we hoped it would be drier. The town of Alquezar is more touristy with many rebuilt buildings and a monastery (or castle, or both). The first wall we went to was directly below the monastery and the routes were all super long. Pete and Marc started by Marc doing a muddy 10c and Pete climbing an 11c that had bees on it. Not very promising for the first two routes. I looked at this one route that was 11c for 25m, then had a 15m extension at 12c, then another extension at 13b. I figured if I felt good at the top of the 11c I'd keep going and if I felt good at the top of the 12c I'd keep going for the 13b. The 11c was awesome and I had a big rest for the 12c. I onsighted the 12c and it was super fun, some of the best overhanding pocket climbing I've ever done. At the top of the 12c I rested on some jugs looking at the 13b. In my mind it looked dirty and didn't have a lot of chalk on it. It also needed at least 5 more quickdraws and I only had three. Oh well... I chickened out, happy with the 12c. Afterwards I did a long 13a that started up a 12a. These routes are soooo long! Marc, Pete and Evan all did the 12c. Evan battled it out for a second try redpoint and one of the most impressive sends I've seen this trip. In the late afternoon we walked back up through the town and down on the other side of the monastery to check out a super steep cave. Unfortunately all the routes were seeping from the rain the night before and were unclimbable. Instead we opted to try a few of the routes outside the cave. Pete was psyched to try this 12c that started with three drilled pockets in a row. I wasn't nearly as psyched but roped up for a 12c beside it. We started about the same time and Pete was breathing hard by the time he hit the third bolt. In contrast my route was pretty easy at the bottom and I wasn't struggling that badly. However it wasn't long before I was sweating and thought I was going to fall. Pete ended up beating me by quite a bit, it took me awhile to figure out the beta but in the end we both onsighted our respective routes. Pete's was harder and in fact I tried it next and couldn't do it. We finished off the day by having a beer and snack at a cafe in Alquezar before returning home for dinner.

It didn't rain Sunday night but the ground still quite wet and all the cliffs were soaking. The Gran Boveda was a write-off and we hiked up to Las Ventanas but there was literally a river of water flowing off the tufas. We turned back down and decided to warm up at Aquest Any Si. We did a few routes there and I managed to onsight a 13a before we headed over to Surgencia. I'm not sure if it was the weather or a poor night of sleep but my motivation was pretty low. I didn't feel up to trying a 13c at Surgencia so instead I decided to try a 13b that Marc had done on our first day there. It was long and stopped before going out the main roof. That seemed like just enough effort for me on this day. Pete tried Evasion and worked out a good sequence while Evan tried a 13a on an arete that was a little wet but not too bad. We hiked out the earliest yet and were actually eating dinner before it was dark out.

Today is another rest day. Actually it was gorgeous today and we probably should've climbed. The forecast is calling for a bit more rain before it clears up and is supposed to be dry for a few days. Hopefully it doesn't rain too much and we can climb tomorrow and the next day with Evan before he leaves on Friday.

Unfortunately as with all good things climbing in Rodellar must come to an end. Sooner for some of us than others but eventually we'll all be gone. When I first arrived there was already five people in the bungalow at El Puente; Pete Lindgren, Luke Zimmerman, Chris Singer, James Fillman and Evan Jones. The day I arrived Chris Singer was leaving and on Monday Luke had to leave.

On Sunday we awoke to a very wet morning. It had rained the previous night and it looked like it rained pretty hard. Since it was down to one of Luke's last days James and I hiked out with him to get some climbing in. Fortunately it wasn't raining while we hiked in and we were dry by the time we arrived at Aquest Any Si. However it quickly started pouring again. We were safe under the cliffs and quickly people started filing in. Soon there were probably 20-25 people there and every route was taken. We had already warmed up but weren't really psyched on hiking anywhere else so we decided to try a few different routes. Luke tried an 8a, figured out some good beta and tried to give me the beta for a flash. I didn't listen to him properly and fell near the top. It was still raining so Luke tried it again, James tried a 12c and I managed to redpoint the 8a 2nd try. The rain stopped but our motivation was pretty low and we hiked out. It was Thanksgiving so a whole group of Canadians got together for dinner. In addition to our group and some friends from Quebec, Marc and Pam Bourdon from Squamish with their little girl Elise are here as well.

Monday was Luke's last day and we woke up to pouring rain. He was determined to get out and we all loaded up for the hike. Once again it wasn't raining when we hiked down and we headed for Gran Boveda. Once again we made it under the cliff before it started raining but today was much warmer and more humid than the previous day. The rock appeared dry though so we roped up and started climbing. There aren't really any good warm-ups at Gran Boveda so we all pretty jumped on hard routes. I watched Luke and Pete go up a 13b called Argo and roped up for the flash. I was going to let go if I felt like I was getting too pumped but fortunately the bottom was quite easy, then there was a good rest and a short crux section. The top eased off again and I managed to flash it. Not a bad warm-up. Then unfortunately the sun came out... I say unfortunately because with all the moisture on the ground it got really humid really fast. I had made a decision to get on a harder route today and walked over to get on Geminis a route rated 14b but most people now consider it 14a. I managed to figure out all the moves but the top was in the sun and it baked me. I did try it a second time but I couldn't really muster up the energy to try hard, I didn't even make it through the bottom crux before falling and lowering to the ground, just way too damn hot. Luke's desire to start another project was pretty low so instead he and Pete decided to go do a multi-pitch across the valley. The first pitch was supposed to be 12b and looked pretty good but near the top you had to pull a small roof and apparently the rock became really poor above the lip. The second pitch went up this looser rock into what appeared to be decent climbing but again I guess the rock was crap. It turned out to be quite an adventure but they made it to the top and rappelled off. James, Pete, Luke and I then ran over and did the via-ferrata quickly before returning to the campsite and driving Luke in Huesca to catch a train.

For Tuesday we hiked over to surgencia, a sector home to some of the longest routes in Rodellar. One of the crag classics is a route called El Corredor de la Muerte (The road of death). Is that a cool route name or what? El corredor... Actually we warmed up at El Camino again and then hiked over to surgencia where Pete quicly roped up to try and onsight El Corredor.... This route is amazing looking. Over 40m long and probably over 20m overhanging. The bottom is ridiculously steep, then it eases off in angle then almost a pure roof to cap the route. Pete was intimidated by the steepness of the route and it showed by his movement down low. He wasted quite a bit of energy down low and ended up taking to work out some moves but made it through to the top. I then roped up for the flash/onsight/first try ascent only to break a hold at the third draw and fall. I called a technical on the broken hold, quickly lowered, retied in and started back up. I was surprised by the difficulty down low and was worried about the top. The crux of the route is definitely near the top of the bottom section and I thought I might fall there but managed to pull it off and recover on the less steep section. The top was mostly big holds and big moves and I finally clipped the anchor. I then had to downclimb to make sure I could lower to the ground. Pete tried it again and made it a bit farther but was visibly tired even leaving the ground. I then tried a super long 14a called Florida, a route that I saw a picture of years ago and is quite possibly the reason I am in Spain right now. I've heard recently that a hold broke near the top but still wanted to try it. The bottom was pretty easy, a few tricky sections but really about 35m of easier climbing. Then I got to the last two bolts and bam! It got hard. I managed to do the moves but barely. I'm not sure I want to commit to a route that requires you to climb 35m for a super hard boulder problem... After surgencia we hiked over to Gran Boveda where it was still really warm and humid. Once again I tried Geminis but it was everything I could do to not take and lower from the second bolt. It was hot, humid and I was tired. Instead I tried hard, fell at the crux and worked it to the top. Pete got on Argo again and then we all hiked out in the dark and had a beer in the town of Rodellar before returning to the campground. I made a pasta dish for dinner that I thought was quite delicious followed by copious amounts of wine and beer. Not a bad way to spend an evening before a rest day.

Today was another rest day. We all slept in a little bit then I made a large breakfast, waited a bit and went for a run. It was cooler in the morning but quickly became warm and humid while I was out running. I came back and had a quick swim in the very, very cold creek before getting ready for dinner.

Tomorrow is James' last day so I think we'll go where ever he wants. I still haven't found a climb that truly excites me. Honestly I still feel out of shape and I'm hoping that just lots of climbing will fix that.

Sweet! Sorry... I mean "Dulce...". I've been in Spain for five days and already climbed three days, plus two rest days (including today). I'll be honest, after not climbing much this summer I was pretty worried about my fitness and ability to enjoy myself here. Couple lack of climbing with a sore rotator cuff and I could be looking at a lot of taking photos from the ground instead of climbing. Fortunately it seems to be working out.

After a rather crappy train ride with bad connections and limited sleep from Paris, including an unexpected transfer to a bus I arrived in Huesca, Spain. Two friends; Pete and Luke from Vancouver were there to pick me up and we immediately headed back into the hills to do some climbing. I had no agenda and was along for the ride. We hiked in, did a few warm-ups then I headed down with Pete to try a 12d called Egocentrisimo. Pete wanted to onsight it and although the beginning looked tricky the rest of it didn't look to bad. He crushed the bottom and cruised to the top leaving me with a flash attempt. It was pretty steep but I felt good and tried to stretch out the whole way up. After that we headed for Las Ventanas, pausing briefly, very briefly at the Ali Baba Cave. The Ali Baba Cave was a disappointment to say the least, while the moves look incredibly difficult it is more like bouldering than route climbing. For a 'cliff' that was supposed to have some of the hardest routes in the world I expected something bigger. Anyways, once up at Las Ventanas Luke decided to take the rest of the day off to rest his skin while Pete and I tried a 13c called Mal de Amores. On my flash attempt I just missed a big jug, trying a mixure of moves from Pete and Luke and a mixture of making up moves on onsight. I didn't do it first try but managed, to my astonishment, to link the route second try. I couldn't believe how pumped I was and how little I could recover on big holds. After not climbing for awhile I guess that's the first thing to go. After two attempts my day was done and we finished it off with some beers and pizza back at the campsite.

I decided to rest a day and get on the climbing schedule of the others rather than force a day, risk injury and get out of sync. I went for a run with Pete then we hiked up through the canyon checking out some cliffs where they had not yet climbed. It was gorgeous out and after travelling it was great to get out and get some exercise.

For the second climbing day we went down to Aquest Any Si to warm up and then made our way to Las Ventanas. At Aquest Any Si I did a short 12a with cool tufas and fortunately greasy holds (easier on the skin), then onsighted a 12c to complete the warm-up. At Las Ventanas Pete did Mal de Amores first try but unfortunately Luke fell right near the top on his second burn of the day, throwing a big wobbler which went beyond annoying to just pure comical. Thanks Luke :). Everyone had projects up there but I didn't want to get on anything too difficult so I decided to try and onsight a few routes. I managed to onsight a 13a and then barely onsighted a spectacular 13b called A Cravita. It was hard to read the sequence and I ended up bouldering way too hard at the top. I almost fell on the jugs at the top, my arms were numb from the elbow down and it was all I could do to clip the anchors.

On Friday we started out again at Aquest Any Si but this day I wanted to go check out some new cliffs - Gran Boveda in particular. I did a new 12c at Aquest Any Si and onsighted a 13a before hiking over to Gran Boveda with two friends from Quebec, Simon Laplante and Marie-Francoise Hamel (MF for short). I really, really wanted to try and onsight this 30m long 13b called Coliseum but wasn't sure I'd have the fitness. Unfortunately for me the quickdraws were not on this route so I had to rack up with almost 20 draws. The bottom was pretty easy but I started getting really pumped as a pulled over a bulge just over half way. My recovery isn't that good right now so even on big holds I felt like I wasn't getting anything back and started to panic a bit. Fortunately it eases off near the top and the last three quickdraws were already in. I actually manged to recover a bit before the top but was still quite tired when I clipped the anchors. Cleaning the route was definitely harder than climbing it though... Simon tried a 8a on the wall but I can't remember the name of it and MF tried a 7c that was pretty scary at the bottom but looked good as well with lots of tufas. I finished off the day with an onsight of Nanuk.

Today is a rest day, and a well deserved one if I do say so myself. We were all planning on going to do a via-ferrata but it ended up just being MF and I. While the others stayed back at the campsite juggling, walking a slackline or just surfing the Internet MF and I hiked into the canyon for the ferrata. We had seen the ferrata from Las Ventanas and Pete had said that it was quite exposed but I didn't prepare myself for the level of exposure. They put the ferrata right up this ridge line and purposefully set them up to lead you out over some cliffs below. At one point you are about 400' up with nothing below you. I felt pretty comfortable up there but I know MF tried not to look down too much. The view from the top was awesome and I'm really glad we did it. One slightly disconcerting thing was that as we were climbing it there were probably 100 or so vultures circling above us... crazy.

After three days in Paris I am headed to Rodellar. As I write this I am sitting on a TGV (Train Grand Vitesse), one of France's high speed trains. It's super flat outside of Paris and the landscape is just flying by. I can't wait to be settled for a few weeks in Rodellar. As much as I love being in new places I hate the actual process of travelling.

The flight to Europe was pretty standard. I booked a really cheap ticket on Air Transat but paid the extra money to get a bulkhead seat (for my long legs). I can't even remember what the three movies were so they could not have been that good. I arrived in Paris on Friday around 2pm and decided to take a taxi to my brother's place because of all my luggage. The taxi driver didn't take credit cards but was pretty sure we could find a bank machine once we got into town. He was talking on the phone when I got in the taxi and talked for about 20 minutes. When he hung up he appologized saying he was talking with his wife whom he was in the process of divorcing but she was still calling him all the time. He wanted to know why she kept calling him if she wanted the divorce? This was all in French and my French isn't that good but I got the gist of it. I just let him rant, no worries on my part. When I got to Josh's, Bridgitte (Josh's girlfriend) and Evan (Josh's 1.5 yr old kid) were home. The last time I saw Evan was at another brother (Frank's) wedding over a year ago when he was only six months old. He's huge! And walking and talking up a storm but no one can understand what he's saying :). Except for "Mama", which seems to mean just about everything, mostly "I want". Of course I spent the next three days trying to get him to say "Uncle Mike". That evening we didn't do too much, ate some food and drank some wine before I crashed around 10pm. After a long travel day I needed some sleep.

On Saturday Josh, Evan and I went to the Champs Elysee, basically the area of the parliment, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph. There was an exhibition going on for 100 years of French aviation, showcasing their latest technologies and past accomplishmenst. For some silly reason I forgot my camera... Fortunately Josh had his and snapped a few decent pics. We walked past the Louvre as well but didn't go in. That evening we went for dinner with some friends of Josh and Bridgitte then back to Josh's appartment. I ended up staying up 'til almost four in the morning since Josh was doing a hockey pool with friends back in Vancouver and it was taking forever!

Sunday involved us taking the metro to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I was actually excited to see this cathedral since I had recently finished the book "Pillars of the Earth" which was based around building cathedrals. We also walked through a few of the older neighbourhoods with narrow streets and quaint cafes. I have no idea how far we walked but somehow we ended up back at their appartment without taking the metro again???

My final day in Paris was spent running errands. I had to print out my train passes and finally, finally get a haircut. I already miss my flowing locks but wouldn't be able to stand camping with my unruly hair. I arrived at the train station a few hours early thinking that you had to check in or at least get your bags checked. It turns out I could've been there only five minutes early and everything would've been fine. I ended up sitting on my bags for over an hour and then managing to squeeze onto the train for a six hour ride to Irun, Spain.

So that's where I am now. Sitting on a train watching the countryside whiz by. I honestly can't wait to sample some european limestone...