So Christmas time crept up on Ellie and me. Being out in the middle of our climbing travels, the most appropriate way of celebrating was OBVIOUSLY to go around to Chulilla for another round of crazy climbing!!!!
Once again the travelling knackered us, so it was a bit of a slow start to get on climbing, but once it began, boy it was beautiful. We focused on a sector that is incredibly easily accesible from the motorway, from a parking spot, find the wee path down, and there you are!!!! We hadn't the topo (sketch of the different routes to climb in a given area, a guide of sorts), and since it was after noontime, there was no way to gain human contact, and thus no way to get copies of said topos. So we had to simply went up to the wall, found the bolts, and had a guess at what we were about to climb.
The fact that the climbs were so close to the road, no approach, no march up with kilo upon kilo of rope and metal gear to take up to the crag has made this particular sector very popular. Very popular rock gets very VERY polished, we discovererd. So much so that the locals think that a new guide with updated difficulty grades should be published, adding just about one grade to every climb around there. What we picked up for a warmup turned out to be a very slippery 6a+ (now considered a 6b+), very close to the toughness we had encountered back in Ager. However, things were different here. The severely sharp rock of that other place was replaced with glasslike slipperiness stances with slight overhangs. The holds were sometimes nice and big, but that was little help when you felt like you were trying to edge your way up the side of a very very tall nicely polished van that was tipping your way. That was the warmup.
We tried another two climbs that day, and all very similar affairs. Since we had no idea about the grading, and figured they were the easy ones, since they were so published, we felt a bit poo about the whole thing. A lot of huffing and puffing went on, but we did manage to finish them off. Pumpy, they were! Finally, as night crept in on us (with its typical dampening of warmth that just KILLS all the accumulated sun we'd got) we crept away with eyes on the wall right next to us.
Christmas day climbing started appropriately late, and we had a much longer behemoth of a wall in mind. Still no idea about the difficulty, we got the gear ready, set up the rope, tied in, and off!!!! Now this climb had one of those really really easy beginning bits (compared to the rest) whick draws you into a false confidence when you don't know what you're up against. As I laboured up past each bolt, I felt something was wrong, this was WAY hard. The rock was slippier, the holds were smaller, my feet were flying about everywhere!!! But I made it to the top. Obviously, Ellie had to do it too.
Up she went like a hero, and fought a hard fight, she did. I had thought that the Ager climb we'd done had been the hardest yet. But this time it seemed that the rocks were really out there to chuck her down! But she held on, stiffened her lip, and gave it her all, finding little finger holes that I could've never fit my bigger fingers in and pulling herself up step by step all the way up! Wheee Ellie.
The next day, boxing day, we discovered this climb is graded as a 6c. That means we have climbed what will probably appear in the future as a 7a. Probably. Maybe not. But HELL YEAH!!!!!! Our climbing has shot up since we've been out of the plastic caves, and we are well ready to face Moroccan rocks now!!! Off we go to the Todra Gorge, ready for all the awesome foodness and sad about the lack of boozeness... Oh well, life's not fair, is it?
Once again the travelling knackered us, so it was a bit of a slow start to get on climbing, but once it began, boy it was beautiful. We focused on a sector that is incredibly easily accesible from the motorway, from a parking spot, find the wee path down, and there you are!!!! We hadn't the topo (sketch of the different routes to climb in a given area, a guide of sorts), and since it was after noontime, there was no way to gain human contact, and thus no way to get copies of said topos. So we had to simply went up to the wall, found the bolts, and had a guess at what we were about to climb.
The fact that the climbs were so close to the road, no approach, no march up with kilo upon kilo of rope and metal gear to take up to the crag has made this particular sector very popular. Very popular rock gets very VERY polished, we discovererd. So much so that the locals think that a new guide with updated difficulty grades should be published, adding just about one grade to every climb around there. What we picked up for a warmup turned out to be a very slippery 6a+ (now considered a 6b+), very close to the toughness we had encountered back in Ager. However, things were different here. The severely sharp rock of that other place was replaced with glasslike slipperiness stances with slight overhangs. The holds were sometimes nice and big, but that was little help when you felt like you were trying to edge your way up the side of a very very tall nicely polished van that was tipping your way. That was the warmup.
We tried another two climbs that day, and all very similar affairs. Since we had no idea about the grading, and figured they were the easy ones, since they were so published, we felt a bit poo about the whole thing. A lot of huffing and puffing went on, but we did manage to finish them off. Pumpy, they were! Finally, as night crept in on us (with its typical dampening of warmth that just KILLS all the accumulated sun we'd got) we crept away with eyes on the wall right next to us.
Christmas day climbing started appropriately late, and we had a much longer behemoth of a wall in mind. Still no idea about the difficulty, we got the gear ready, set up the rope, tied in, and off!!!! Now this climb had one of those really really easy beginning bits (compared to the rest) whick draws you into a false confidence when you don't know what you're up against. As I laboured up past each bolt, I felt something was wrong, this was WAY hard. The rock was slippier, the holds were smaller, my feet were flying about everywhere!!! But I made it to the top. Obviously, Ellie had to do it too.
Up she went like a hero, and fought a hard fight, she did. I had thought that the Ager climb we'd done had been the hardest yet. But this time it seemed that the rocks were really out there to chuck her down! But she held on, stiffened her lip, and gave it her all, finding little finger holes that I could've never fit my bigger fingers in and pulling herself up step by step all the way up! Wheee Ellie.
The next day, boxing day, we discovered this climb is graded as a 6c. That means we have climbed what will probably appear in the future as a 7a. Probably. Maybe not. But HELL YEAH!!!!!! Our climbing has shot up since we've been out of the plastic caves, and we are well ready to face Moroccan rocks now!!! Off we go to the Todra Gorge, ready for all the awesome foodness and sad about the lack of boozeness... Oh well, life's not fair, is it?
Sounds amazing and well done both of you! going to make the grading in the westway look a little soft now... xxx
ReplyDeleteSo is this before or after the last update? Or is Christmas different in Morroco?
ReplyDelete