Sant Benet

St Benet is a very special place.  It is located in the heart of Montserrat, above the famous monestary.  It takes over 1000 stairs (or a train ride, but that´s not hardcore, only for the wusses) to get there, and a proud soul to start the rather engaged climbing.  It is one of the places where hard sport climbing started in Cataluña in the 1980s, and it remains special and not that visited given the amount of incredible bolted lines there.  It has also some multipitches where week-end warriors enjoy themselves and bring the girlfriends to show off the view that points to the sea behind Barcelona on the clear days. 

There used to be many hidden hermitages in the surrounding caves.  Many have been destroyed by Napoleon and his happy soldiers, some survived well into the 20th century, but now climbers occupy the refuge, an old church transformed into a hippy squat, and the hermitages remain abandoned, welcoming the passing visitors for a night of full stars, calm, and reflection.

The climbing is very technical on good rock.  Routes are generally short, Frankenjura-style, although longer ones are also there, one just has to scratch below the surface a littke.  Below is the topo from Tranki of the sport climbing at the base of the Elephant, the formation to the left of the famous Mummy (and its Brown Sugar line i still have not done).  The lines are very good, and my plan is to come back to the first thee on the right this winter...