18 février 2011

Albarracin

I just add this note to inform that I had a 2weeks trip to albarracin this late januari to early february. I went there with friends from belgium raph, mathilde and denis. We had great times there although the weather has not been the best we could hope for... lots of snow... cold temps where great as it gave us a good friction but the temps increased after a couple of days and the snow started to melt quietly making all top outs wet.
 We therefore kind of had to climb in roofs without being able to make the top outs which is pretty lame but what could we do?
Albarracin is a magnificent place near to a remote town which was one circled with fortresses ( you can see the ruins and the remaining of the rampart ). It's really calm and quiet. The boulders are spread around a big surface uphill, most of the surface is protected because of prehistoric drawings and some sectors have opening dates because of birds nesting there. It is really important to respect the rules that are established there as locals have been fighting with the state and land owners to maintain sectors opened. Thereby one must not go around those restrictions :
-No wild fires in the forest
-No littering the place and if you see litter around pick them up to trash them.
-Respect the restrictions about the concerned areas.
-Clean out chalk on the boulders before leaving or at least try to brush as much as you can.
-Do no climb on problem visible from the road or problems near to prehistoric painting.

Friends of mine have been striving for those rules to be respected and have made some videos which can be viewed following this: here's the Link
It in the interest of everyone to accept to accept to make some sacrifices even if sometimes one may want to go around those restrictions for obvious reasons ( no one in the forest so why respect etc)

To talk now a bit more about the trip, it has been for me some kind of a come back to outdoor bouldering after breaks and tiny injuries. I climb a new problem which is kinda nice it's locates when facing "mardi gras" ( 7b+ slab shown in dosage 5) right behind it 5-10 meters to the right. It has a common start with a high 7a+ which doesn't top out. So you start in that 7a+ than traverse left with 2 crimps on a rail to the left to good slopers. It doesn't top out as well it has the same finish as a 6b+ ( or 6a+ duno ). Name's "El perro flauta" and range is around 7b+/c depending on how tall you are.

I also climbed ( without toping out... was wet...) the right version of el astronave which is an 8a situated in the huge roof in sector los techos. The start is common with el astronave but goes right instead of going left. So you reach to a right hand kind of open hand pinch with a thumb catch then have to get the right foot up to an obvious crimp and reach for a big pinch then match it right undercling then go left and head for the main top out. The line going out right is to be cleaned and is probably a project and has probably not been send as well. The left version is either 8a or 8a+ but I'd opt for 8a as it is just a bit harder than el astronave but it seems like some holds may get better or people may come up with easier betas. It doesn't have a name was probably sent for sure but was never listed in guides or anything.

I'll add some photos later if I can get some.