Tarragona region - La Mussara, and Montsant

This w-end i finally went South instead of North - and still found many things to do! The first day, with my newly found partner Rafael, we explored La Mussara crag in the very picturesque Prades range. Only 1000m high, these pequeñas montañas are perfect for autumn or winter climbing - with views to the sea on one side, and mountain feel to them on the other.

La Mussara is a high quality limestone crag of up to 100m high, with a variety of bolted or not routes available. We went for Hercules Incuarteable route (from 100 best of Cataluña book, old faithful), which is actually completely bolted, long, and roofy. It reminded me a little bit about the Gunks with many horizontal crack-o-roofs to pull through. We also did a somewhat easier, also bolted route on the left there.

The next objective was to try Rif, a harder, and less bolted 4-pitch, ¨perfect crack¨route. I managed to (with many rests) lead the first 5+ pitch, we failed on the secon (6a+) and never reached the upper ones. This route will have to wait for an improved trad-head! But the start was very nice - here is Rafael following the end of the first pitch:

The second day we decided to explore Montsant range. From afar it tricked me into thinking about it as a limestone crag - but as we figured after the approach it actually is as conglomerate as it gets, with pebbles pouring from under your feet with a vengence!


We went for the rock of Falconera (picture above) having in mind the Somm d´Estiu route from the same 100 best book. However we started with Gerard Artiges route on the left (where the shade appears in the center-left of the picture above). Again, after the first 2 pitches we bailed on the third pitch as the bolting got very scarce for our liking. Here is Rafael following the first pitch:


We finished the day with some relaxed cragging at Siurana - although not that relaxed given the rather hard grades we found. But the big old bolts and quality limestone compensated for the hardship! For those looking for topos of Tarragona region, especially Siurana, please have a look here in the "otras zonas de escalada" chapter.

Terradets and Os de Balaguer

This w-end we tried to climb in another new location - Terradets. A 500m limestone wall 10min from the car? Everything is possible in Spain - and welcome to Terradets! The Begasses wall (picture below, some detail here as well as in the Terradets topo) is very impressive - and you literally drive into it while passing the canyon before Terradets dam on the Tremp road. On one side, there is Montsec de Ares (Terradets climbnig walls are its left end), and on the right side the Montsec de Rubies (Vilanova being the climbing location there). Yes, sorting out Spanish namings for crags is not exactly easy!

Unfortunately, the forecast was right this time, and it rained, poured rather, the whole day of Saturday. We hardly could even hike, and explored various coffee offerings at the Alberg-Refugi de Cellers (the cheapest sleeping option 10 min from the walls at 12.5 per night and plenty of topos to explore), the Llac Cafeteria, and differenct cafes and bookshops in Tremp instead. Here is Cathy in front of the Regina wall, another impressive monster just behind the Begasses wall:

Sunday was more clement, but only time for sport climbing remained. We thus chose a conveniently situated sport crag in the canyon close to Os de Balaguer village (different from Alos de Balaguer, where there also is climbing!). It is a very good crag with various grades from 6a and up. Here is a climber on a 6b+ we tried, although i found this one harder than other 6bs there:

And another climber on another route, giving nice perspective of the whole canyon. We enjoyed ourselves as the grades were not exactly very hard and fitted nicely with our style. Definitely a place to come back to!

(Yes, the game is - find the climber! in the previous shots...) View of the Montsec d´Ares chain from Os de Balaguer village on a less rainy day. Autumn is coming!

Andorra

I also managed to visit Andorra for the first time last w-end. It reminded me of another hilly country - Switzerland. It is a pleasant location - some say overbuilt, but that is only the perspective one gets from the valley floor. View of the capital, Andorra la vella, above from up above.

Andorra is the sixth smallest nation in Europe, after Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican City. It has also the highest life expectancy in the world (Wiki) and a very interesting history of how to stay independent for over 800 years with such neighbors as France and Spain encircling it from all sides. Just to keep your interest - its official rulers are both, the bishop of La Seu d´Urgell (yes, the climbing paradise) and Sarcozy!

Otherwise it is also known as tax haven with no income tax - and a ski paradise in winter. Its own native population forms only around 30%, the rest are residents from mainly Spain and France. It manages to strike a balance with all these heteroclit groups and prosper! Its national language is actually catalan - it embodies the independence the Spanish Cataluña has been trying to gain for so long. Overall an interesting refuge for mountain-lovers that want to live in the heart of Europe, close to both, Barcelona and its beach, and Toulouse and France´s industries.

Pared Bucolica, Obaga Negra, Alt Urgell

This w-end, despite the unfortunate weather forecast, we decided to sample the limestone of Pared Bucolica, in the neverending mine of rock, Alt Urgell. We chose Balsame del Tigre from 100 best of Cataluña for our route, hesitating with the easier alternative, very popular Tera de dinosaures (topo here). There is a nice overview of the whole wall here.

The approach is only 15 min and the scenery is very nice in spite of the road and the tunnels not that far away. The route is a very nice 6-pitch climbing - best being the first 3 pitches, and a hard cruxy 6a+ roof (me trying and finally failing to do it on lead below) comes on one before last.

As we definitely did not have enough after this, we went further down the road to sample the Obaga Negra sport climbing (topo here). It has a very nice collection of vertical 6a-bs just perfect for the girls :) We worked a couple of projects, and have to come back to finish one of them! Below myself on the final lead of Sense Pile:

Perles

The next day we went to the village of Perles, passing through another climbers´ bar that covers the near-by crags (Narieda, Perles, Col de Nargo - most of Alt Urgell stuff). This bar is called Tahussa and is located in the center of Col de Nargo village, serving awesome pan con tomate y queso (bread with cheese, Catalan way of having a sandwich in the morning).

Perles is a very high quality crag with mainly one to four pitch routes on classic grey limestone. One has to pay for the popularity - it was full with French, Andorrans and Spanish throughout the day. The topos can be found here. We started with the classic Amistades Pelirrojas that runs up the furthest crag to the left on the overview picture below.

It is a very nice 4-pitch route at around 6a, slab to vertical, suiting perfectly girls´ style. Here is Cathy enjoying herself:

Next, we went for the neighboring 4-pitch Puta de Mosques, with a harder first 6b pitch and very good two 6as after - the cherry on the cake being the traverse under the impressive roof. Here is Cathy following the second pitch after onsighting the first 6b:

And the roof traverse looks exactly like a postcard:


We finished the day with pleasant cragging at the bottom of the cliff and i even managed to find a ride back to Barcelona with engineers from the Spanish Antarctic Station!

St Llorenç de Montgai

This w-end turned out to be a perfect climbing w-end - clear weather, reasonable temperatures, new places, beautiful scenery - and a good partner. What else to want from life! (oh, yes, maybe a car...)

The first place we visited were the crags close to Montroig - Montsec range (overview above). This is a very relaxed climbing area, with a 3 min approach, not many other climbers around, and high quality limestone.

I also discovered the concept of a climbing bar in Spain - apparently most locations have their own hang-out spot, where the local developers would bring topos of routes. As there are dozens of topos, many of which out of print or out of date, that is the place where the most up-to-date information can be found.

However, there are a couple of challenges associated as well. First of all, to locate these bars is not always easy - they are usually normal bars (sometimes the only bar in the village), hidden off the big roads and not necessarily close to the crags in question. Oh, and guidebooks do not always mention them (i.e. 100 best Cataluña book). The only way to get there is by following a local. And second, the topos available are usually home-drawn art works, more valuable for their artistic quality rather than helpfulness.


After visiting such a bar, called Mirador del Lac, in St Llorenç village, we decided to stay with the originally planned route, Isaac Gabriel, from the 100 best guidebook. Despite the 3 min approach we managed to first get on the wrong start, but finally found our destination and deeply enjoyed this beauty and the view:


The route is rather short (5 pitches), which allowed us to check out a sport crag from the Salvatge Oest de Cataluña guidebook, close to the village of Alos de Balaguer. We tried some routes there and headed up to Alt Urgell for the next day´s adventures.

Montserrat Cavall Bernat

Montserrat is mainly known to tourists as the mountain where the 11th century abbey of the Black Virgin is. It is also a climbers´ paradise to the North of Barcelona that is filled with Aguilles of various shapes and sizes, with walls of up to 300 meters. The rock is a very compact conglomerate, that in places reminds of Riglos de Mallos, and in places looks like pure yellowish limestone.

There are supposedly over 4000 climbing routes in Montserrat and several guidebooks. Still following the 100 best routes in Cataluña guidebook, we chose the first one on the list - going up the most outstanding Aguille in Montserrat called Cavall Bernat (picture of Cavall below).

The route is called Punsola Reniu and is truly very enjoyable. It starts with a couple of easy pitches to get one into the conglomerate spirit, and than ends with outstanding 6b pitches on the top vertical part. The exposure gets tremendous very quickly as Montserrat is a stand-alone mountain (similar to Montagne Sainte Victoire in France for example), and the view looks something like this:


The surroundings offer numerous possibilities for exploration, hiking, mountain biking, and certainly more climbing - view of the conglomerate labyrinth below:

Garraf

After my last math classes on Saturday i just had enough time to get out for an afternoon of climbing in Garraf natural park. It is a very relaxing spot South of Barcelona, on the road to Sitges and with a nice view of the beach for added value:


First we did the Reversa route on Puig Martell, an easy 4-pitch undertaking mentioned in the 100 best climbs of Cataluña book. It said to bring trad gear along, but it was hardly needed as the route is well bolted today. This is the wall with the route going in the middle left of the picture, following the dihedral and than the obvious roofs:


We finished the day with one-pitch climbs at Penya Ginesta area, 5 min from the car (directions here) on very good quality limestone of moderate difficulty to please all involved! Last evening look at Casteldefels beach and time to go home:

Barcelona Merce

Barcelona celebrates its day on September 24, and the fiesta usually goes on for a week around that date. The celebration is recent, dating back to only the nineteenth century. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Merce, that supposedly saved the city from plague during the Middle Ages. It comprises different carnavals, fireworks, wine tastings, concerts, giants parade and other usual ingredients of a fiesta.


The most interesting and unusual tradition are the Castellrs - human castles built by teams from different neighbourhoods of the city that go up several floors with 2, 3, or 4 people as a base. This is a purely catalan tradition that originated somewhere in the 18th century. The participants range from biggest men on the bottom and children on top (see below photo of prepartion for the castel).

The result looks like the pictures below and the success is complete when everyone gets safely back to the ground. Sometimes the Castell does collapse, but there are so many people down low that rarely anyone gets hurt.

One of the most difficult figures we saw at the Merce - Castel of eight floors with a base of two (apparently it can go up to 10 floors):

And to finish this Barna-love post, here is a portrait of a goose, another mascote of Barcelona. Eulalia, the official patron, became a martyr when only 13 during the persecution of christians in the roman times. As she used to keep geese before the persecution started, these fat specimen are kept at the cloister of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia to remember the saint virgin.

Pedraforca, Pollego Infrerior

Next stop has been in the vicinity of Berga (very good pastry shop in the center square), - Pedraforca. It is one of those stand-alone wonders with breathtaking views of the surrounding valleys. Located near the village of Saldes, this mountain is very popular with hikers and mushroom-hunters as well, given that there is a welcoming refuge at around 15 min from the road.


We did not stay at the refuge, but only tried the Chors Pienque route on Cara Sur del Pollego Inferior. I say try because we only managed the first 4 pitches, all rather sustained friction climbing on slabby limestone and whimped out of the last 6c pitch.


We finished the day hiking up to the summit col and back down to the road.


The most picturesque Milka-cows were waiting for us to take a picture in the forest below:

St Llorenç de Munt

Since Ren came over to visit, we bought our first spanish guidebook, 100 best climbs in Cataluña, borrowed some maps and talked to Spanish climbers (thanks, Jorge!) - all that with the objective to go out and explore the neighboring gardens of pleasure.

The first stop, one hour from Barna, has been the park of St Llorenc de Munt, on the north side of Montserrat and Matadepera village. Only 10 min walk from the car, these towers greeted us:


And offered first experiences on conglomerate before even starting with Montserrat.

The route, La que Faltaba on the Pared de la Falconera, is only 4 pitches long, but provides for very nice views and exposure. The road makes for some noise - but that is the price to pay for the 10 min approach and 5 min walk-off...

Travel Resume - Spain Special

TOURISM - my new home
- Barcelona and its song and its fiesta la Merce
- Granada and again
- Madrid and Prado and again and again
- Toledo

CLIMBING
Around Barcelona (1hr Radius):
      * Garraf limestone
      * Gelida, and more, best limestone of Penedes, many 6s, even more 7s...
      * Aiguafreda, sandstone paradise of Grau dels Matxos
      * St Llorenç de Munt multipitch (La que Faltaba), and sport climbing

Montserrat Cara Norte:
      * La Punsola en Cavall Bernat
      * Fraguel Rock en Aeri 
      * Valentin Casanovas en Aeri
      * Sanchez Martinez en Pared de Diables
      * Cade en Agulla del Centenar, Frares

Montserrat Sant Benet

Montserrat Cara Sur:
      * la Desdentegada sport and again
      * la Rush and again

      * la BuscaBrega
      * el Vianant and again
      * Sprint Final
      * Lourdes

Heading North:
- Montgrony and again in Ripolles
- Coronas
- Gran Fajol in Ripolles

- Riugreixer close to Berga

- Pedraforca, closest "mountain" to Barcelona 

- Narieda, Alt Urgell, multipitch

- Col de Nargo, sport climbing in Alt Urgell
- Pared Bucolica, Obaga Negra, multipitch and sport in Alt Urgell
- Perles, sport climbing
- Tres Ponts, sport climbing and again

- Vilanova de Meiá in Montsec
- Cubells
- Camarasa the beautiful
- Raco del Segre
- Ager sport climbing

- Terradets in Montsec
- Bruixes
- Collegats
- St Llorenç de Montgai
- Os de Balaguer
- Ager

- Montrebei, Pared de Cataluna - Diedro Gris, the most serious and engaged multipitch in pre-Pyrennees

Pyrennees:
- Val de Boi, Cavallers sport climbing, and more on African Wall
- Ventosa
- Aiguestortes/Capucin Deja-Vu

Heading South:
- La Mussara and Montsant
- La Mussara again and Vilaplana de Prades

- Arboli
- Siurana and again
- Margalef

- la Riba
- Raco de Misa
- Masriudoms

In Aragon:
- Mallos de Riglos multipitch
- Rodellar and again and again

Other Spain:
- Sella, Costa Blanca, close to Alicante
- Chulilla
- La Pedriza, Madrid
- Patones, Madrid
- Naranjo de Bulness, Picos de Europa

SKIING
- Formigal (ski resort, Aragonian Pyrenees)


Here is the list of various useful climbing links for Cataluña and Spain:

Climbing sites- good intro to Cataluna climbing in English with pictures here but also under development new project by Par, ClimbInSpain
- Desnivel - the best climbing journal in Spain
- MadTeam - general, forum
- Escalador - general, forum
- Rocsandpics - general
- Ressenyes - Cataluña summary
- Desnivel topos for various regions
- CaraNorte - more general, forums, piar
- OnaClimb - good selection of info on Cataluña and Spain
- FEEC - gov't agency for Cataluña, refugios page, also forums available (catalan)
- Kpujo - Montserrat topos, forum, and even a webcam from the Monestary
- Amador - has copies of Costa Brava and other topos in "otras zonas de escalada"
- Coronn has info in English on El Chorro and Prades
- Centellas access blog
- Alt Urgell blog
- Col de Nargo blog
- Gelida topos (easy right) and the harder left side
- St Llorenc del Munt topos
- Pared de Cataluna and other topos

- Climbat - bouldering gym, Barcelona
- Freebloc - bouldering gym, Barcelona
- Fess - bouldering gym, Barcelona

Transportation
- transportation in Barcelona TMB- train FGC, Barcelona cercanias and RENFE
- bus from Barcelona to alrededores Alsea
- bus service Andorra-Barcelona
Other
- Weather MeteoRed
- Weather Cataluña- Shoe resoling, Barcelona

Barcelona (Giulia & los Tellarini)

I have not seen Woody's new movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but i hear the soundtrack is really good - and it talks about my new home city :



Giulia & los Tellarini's MySpace page here with more pieces, like Buenos Aires or Mi nina.

And here are some views of the modern Barna in the sun as i see it:
Via Olympica

Port Forum on rollerblades

Narieda, Alt Urgell

I have started exploring the Barcelona alrededores, it is a beautiful countryside with perfect weather.


Cathy has shown me around and told me some interesting stories about her previous experiences. Her photo of the Urgell valley of the pre- Pyrenees below:


And here is a very useful blog for the Alt Urgell region and the topo of the route we did :

Learning Spanish...

Hokusai and Hiroshige

Wondering through Barna, I stumbled upon this exhibition at la Pedrera of Japanese wood prints from the Ukiyo-e school (Edo period, 17-19th centuries). Brought to the light from the dusty shelves of Bibliotheque Nationale de France, these prints are incredible in their mastery of execution and strong feelings they manage to convey with a lightness of a pen stroke. They create an atmosphere of refinement and fantasy, and are based on totally different premises than art in the West.

Two painters that both worked in the first half of the 19th century summerized the beauty of this trend, derived from caligraphy, and that has a distant relation to symbolism and romanticism that was going on in Europe at the same time : Hokusai and Hiroshige.

Hokusai, who started painting at around six, and used over thirty different names during his life, is most famous for his series of thirty six views of Mount Fuji. The sacred Japanese vulcano obsessed him like lillies, hay stacks or cathedrals did Monet. He also published a very famous book of Mangas (12 voloumes of comic sketches) that has influeced modern Japanese manga production.

Hiroshige became famous soon after Hokusai and continued ukiyo-e tradition after Hokusai died. Hiroshige, a favorite of Van Gogh´s and other impressionists, started first as a royal fireman, and devoted his life to art the year Hokusai published his series of Mount Fuji views. One of his most famous work is a series illustrating his journey from Edo to Kiyoto, the so called Tocaido road. More of this series here.

In a nutshell, the exhibition is definitely worth a stop, it is still on until September 14th, and it is free!