Siurana escape

Happy to get the flash on Anabolica 8a (photos: Hot Aches)

After the madness of the past month with doing all the work that came with E11, I escaped for 6 days to Siurana in Spain just in time. Going on a short trip when you haven't climbed for a month is never good for the ego and I got slapped about a bit by the routes there. After another night of fighting with hard routes I decided to take a breather and try to flash something easier. I haven't really tried onsighting on bolts since 2002 so I was a bit rusty. But I grunted up Anabolica for my first 8a flash. I should do more of this type of climbing. It feels much less stressful than hard redpoints! You either do it or you don't. With redpoints there are no excuses in the long run. If you fail it means you didn't put enough effort into your preparation.

Overgripping big time on the crux of Anabolica

Dave Redpath was also on Anabolica and made an inspiring redpoint on the last go of the last day. There is nothing quite like last day pressure to make you finally lose your inhibitions and nerves and just fight 'a muerte' as they say.

Something hard to go back to...

It was interesting for me that the moves on several hard routes I tried didn't feel so bad. I can see a possibility for me to increase my sport climbing level next year if I can make the committment to train for it. I think I'll be back on the Ryanair website soon.

Toni Arbones being filmed by Hot Aches on an attempt on Kalea Borroka 8b+. Toni and his parnter run the Refugi in Siurana village. He is Mr Siurana and can be called upon at any time to provide the correct beta for your holiday project. If you drop into the Siurana camping site bar any evening you can join in the year-round 365 day 'Siurana film festival' with each film being introduced by Toni. There was a good buzz around Siurana with manyof the world's best sport climbers in residence and the routes were going down.

The trip as usual was all too short and just as my body was learning how to climb again it was time to go. Sharma made me especially jealous when I asked him how long he had and he shrugged his shoulders and basically said whenever he had done what he came for. Now its two weeks of frantic lecture touring and catching up with writing before I can climb something again. Maybe I'll see you at one of the dates...