Kohti valoa / Photoblog

Yesterday we hiked up to a nearby crag called Olta to try out the slabs that were highly recommended by our topo book. After 30 minutes of trekking we arrived to the crag and were welcomed by strange-looking old fellow who introduced himself as some sort of local German. This guy was wearing age-old blue spandex pants and was bossing around shirtless with a dark brown solarium tan. When we started climbing he didn't forget to mention (about ten times) that we are climbing his routes. Apparently this guy actually bolted most of the routes some 25 years ago or so. Anyway, I wouldn't be so proud as we had to lower off from single-bolt top anchors and skipped some of the routes due to chipping of extra holds. One of the routes was still a masterpiece. Tai Chi is worth the trek and even though it's not super hard it's still something to remember especially if you're into slab climbing. We didn't have time to try out the other classics but this one route was worth the effort.

Today we went to a crag near Alicante and climbed a few single-pitch routes. Nothing special, just a relaxing day out climbing and recovering for tomorrow's big climb. We are about to wake up early and head out for the mountain called Puig Campana. The route to the top is a 13 pitch / 420m trad climb that should be possible to climb within 6 - 8 hours. I hope everything goes well and we don't have to turn around too early.

Miika practising Tai Chi high above Calpe.

Que?

Teijo climbing a three star route near Alicante.

Elde.

The first note in our tick-lists was about the massive limestone landmark towering the town of Calpe. The rock of Ifach rises from the Mediterranean Sea and is a coastal symbol of the whole Costa Blanca area. It separates two marine promenades and bays and is located just next to the town centre.

There is a huge number of routes that are mostly located at the south face of the Peñón. We decided to climb one of the most popular multi-pitch trad routes that goes all the way to the top of the rock face. Most of the new routes are fully bolted but the old classics are still climbed using cams and wires. We climbed the route in seven pitches after scrambling up from the Club Nautico de Calpe Marina.

Our guide book said that we should start climbing somewhere around 8 AM to finish the wall in the shade and without other teams blocking our way. Of course we were reading this while eating breakfast about 12 PM at our villa. We really liked the idea of climbing the route during the infernal hours of the midday sun while dodging the falling rocks sent down by German bergsteigers. We packed our gear and were standing at the bottom of the route 2 PM in blazing heat.

We roped up into two teams and started climbing the first pitches with four hours of daylight left. We knew it was an easy climb according to the grade but there still could be problems staying on route. The first two pitches we're easy slabs with an interesting traverse to the belay stance of the third crux pitch.
I had read earlier from the topo book that the crux pitch is a vertical crack between two slab pitches. I dreamed of a perfect hand jam crack with good placements and nice moves up to the next belay. It was something else. As this route is a classic among the climbers it means that it's quite popular as well. The crack was horribly polished and all the foot holds were out of the question. At least the Stealth rubber of my Five Ten shoes couldn't fight the slippery limestone. We navigated up the crack using a tricky combination of ass, head, knee and backpack jams and continued to the upper slab of the last four pitches.

When Puise joined me after seconding up the pitch four we noticed that the sun was dropping fast and had a quick look at the watch. It was almost 5 PM and we still had three pitches to go. We needed to climb fast to reach the top before dark. Luckily the upper part of the slab was equipped with sketchy fixed pro which  really helped us while racing against time. After a few scary 8 meter runouts we arrived to a knife edge ridge and had a spectacular view to Calpe some 200m below us.

I finished the crack and small roof of the next pitch as fast as I could and prepared the belay for Puise to climb up the pitch. When he arrived to the belay we had 15 minutes left and it was already getting dark. Teijo and Miika were one pitch behind and climbing as fast as they could. We looked at the last final pitch and decided to go ropeless as it looked very easy and was more or less scrambling. We arrived to the top just before the sunset at 6 PM. Fortunately we had packed some wine to our backpack and enjoyed a wonderful sunset at the top of Peñón de Ifach.

Enjoying the road tolls.

The belay glasses doesn't seem to work too well if you need to arrest the fall by using gloves? But it's the style that counts.

I really like the idea of artificial outdoor boulder walls.

Calpe and Peñón de Ifach.

View after finishing the traverse of the second pitch.

Teijo and Miika taking a rest after scrambling to the ledge from the crux pitch below.

Last pitch before the ridge.

Starting pitch 5.

Helipad just below the route. Encouraging.

Direct finish for the route called Virginia Diez. Our ridge can be seen in the top left corner.

View from the ridge after completing pitch 5.

Other team working on Diedre UBSA.

Teijo and Miika switching leads at the previous pitch.

View from the top of Peñón de Ifach.

Even terrible wine tastes perfect at the right moment.

Benidorm.

Mountains behind Calpe.

Standing at the top after four hours of climbing.

Calpe after the sunset.

Our route to the top.

  We are recovering now for a few days and climbing short easy routes at the crags around Calpe. Today I went to Finestrat to take a couple of pictures of our next long route. Peñón de Ifach was more or less practising for this 13 pitch epic. Here's a couple of shots from Puig Campana.

Finestrat and Puig Campana, 1406m

It took 20 hours to reach our destination and everything went as usual. I slept two hours during the night before our departure and packed most of the gear at 4 AM while trying get rid of the wine inspired delirium. We spent most of the morning in München looking for something to eat and after enjoying a local treat called Curry Wurst we decided to move on and flew to Barcelona. We had still some 500 km left to drive and after numerous pit stops and caffeine powered vitamin shots we arrived to Costa Blanca just before midnight.

It's low season now and the prices are ridiculous. We have a villa with a mountain view just next to the sea under a clear blue sky and it costs us one hundred something euros per person for a two-week stay. No doubt it's a low season because it's only +20C during the day. They are giving out free wine as well. You can get two bottles of wine just for one euro, so if you return the empty bottles and get back the bottle deposit, the wine is basically free.

There's not much to report about climbing yet but I'll post some news when we actually have worked on some of the longer routes that we have planned to climb. So far we've only climbed some easier stuff and enjoyed the surroundings.  

Right now I'm recovering after a long day out in the mountains, drinking wine and listening to our ad hoc band giving hard time to our neighbours by playing reggae-ish Rihanna using a Melodica, iPhone and a guitar. This is something.

Climber's hand luggage. Helmet, Melodica and an outdated man purse.

We decided to travel downtown in München to find something to eat..

...and ended up eating this strange but popular combination of curry powder and sausage.

Our two storey villa in Calpe.

View from the balcony.

Puise enjoying the morning sun by the pool.

I thought I was a geek when I brought my laptop with me but these guys are charging their cigarettes from my USB port.

Orchestra of sweet tunes and harmony.

Easy single pitch routes at Sella.

Unknown Fräulein working on the moves of "Con las manos en la Cosa".

All the surrounding areas are full perfect limestone walls.

Access difficulties still exist in some areas.

View of Mascarat after climbing "Espolón Gris" in Sierra de Toix.

Sunset of Benidorm.