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| CAC! |
A year has passed since the last team trip in Costa Blanca;
this time, Team Crush headed further down south to El Chorro. I, along with my
family travelled the 1500 miles by train, planning to meet the final 12 at
Málaga airport. However, I seem to be ill-fated with trains since my epic
return journey from
Russia
[to read more about my time here: ‘
An Epic
Journey! ]. Our
Eurostar was delayed, not a good start as this was the train leading us to our
‘Hotel Train’, which we hoped would take us all the way from
Paris
to
Madrid. Due to the slight
problem of a fire up ahead, we were sitting on the tracks waiting for an hour,
the same hour we had to get from Paris Nord to Paris Austerlitz. So yet again we
found our selves (this time with the whole family) running through the Metro,
hoping against hope the next train would be delayed by just 5 minutes. It
wasn’t. Nevertheless the parents claimed new tickets which meant we had a small
(quite big actually) detour to
Barcelona.
It also meant we could sneak in some family time and eat out in
Paris,
which was just
soo unbearable…
;)
Finally we arrived in Málaga, tired
but psyched for the week ahead. Getting to the villa in Alora only 5 hours
after our original expected time of arrival!
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| Team Tilley |
We had 6 days of possible climbing in El Chorro however due
to the weather not being the usual Spanish heat wave; we only managed to get 5
in and only 4 days without seepage. However luckily there was only one completely
climbing free day; just watching films. For those of us who didn’t want to stay
inside all day, there was a trip to the local Picasso museum (Malaga).
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| Cosas Caseras 7a+ |
On our first day, we went to Frontales- Poema de Roca
a massive cave. Although I was psyched to get some good sends, I didn’t try
anything massively challenging because it always takes me a day to adjust to
the rock, forget any fear of falling and to trust the ‘stickiness’ of it,
however I found I didn’t need to worry; my Shamans stuck perfectly to the beautifully
formed limestone.
On Monday, the second day into the trip we went to
Desplomilandia- Buena Sombre, on the
way passing through some beautiful lakes and views. Sarah and I took this day
as more of a volume day, hoping to get some crushing done the next day, doing
all the 6 top 50’s. Yogur de coco - 6c, and
Cosas Caseras -7a+, two of the top 50’s, would have to be some of my most
favourite climbs out of the whole trip, they had steady and in interesting
climbing to both the crux’s with amazing no hands rests and incredibly
enjoyable climbing! A quick note to point out however, unlike the guide book
suggests, all the top 50 climbs on this bit of the crag, were not dry after
rain, they were all, in fact, dripping wet, as we found out on the last day.
Rain. Rain. Yet more rain. Let’s visit the Picasso Museum.
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| The Walk to Makinodromo |
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| Eye of the storm- 7c |
On the Thursday we ended up back in Poema de Roca. The rain
battered us back into the cave, away from the more exposed sectors which were
where we originally set out to go. With Amanda eagerly pushing me on, I flashed
a 7b - La villa strangiato, steep,
short and juggy and worked 7c - Eye of
the storm, a climb going straight through the roof of the cave. This was
also full of massive jugs, and awesome toe hooks, a climb I would defiantly
recommend!! I worked this to the top. I know if I were to climb this again when
I was fresh I would top it.
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| Eye of the storm- 7c |
The Final day of climbing arrived and due to the weather being
forecast as showery throughout the day we had to return to Desplomilandia- Buena sombre. The Morning was not
looking bright and the rain was hammering down. The climbs I wanted to try were
wet and the 7a I eventually got on was damp; the jugs were un-holdable. However
after a dodgy fall with Sarah and lots of chocolate consumed to brighten our
spirits I did Fran sin natra - 7b
second go.
The Week had finally come to an end and the train journey
home loomed back over us. However unlike the journey there, the way back was
much smoother and had no glitches. There’s no denying that I was pleased to get
back home!
You might ask, why bother? Why go through the hassle of
travelling by train, when it only takes a few short hours to go by plane? Yes,
to be fair it takes about 8 times as long but you get to meet new people,
practice your Spanish, get an extra day out of your holiday, gain useful
experience and miss an extra day off school, what more could you want?! Oh, and
it saves carbon emissions!
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| The 'Kids' |
A massive thank you to Mark Pashley for organising the whole
trip, Wayne, Richard and Mark, for driving us all around El Chorro, everyone
who cooked, Evolve and Metolious for my gear and for everyone for making the
trip as amazing as it was!
