While Britain was being battered by strong winds and coastal storm surges early in January, I was enjoying some winter sun on the Costa Blanca. Pretty good timing by me.
We flew out on Monday morning, leaving Manchester airport on a typically grey, overcast day. The cloud blanketed the land most of the way South. It wasn't until we started descending into Alicante that the cloud disappeared completely. I thought this was a pretty good sign.
After spending a bit more on the insurance for the hire car than expected. We headed off to find our friends in their villa in Calpe. For those who don't know the area, it's basically the next major destination North from Benidorm. It seems like a lot of the crowds from Benidorm have discovered the slightly less touristy spot, and made it almost as bad. However if you go up the hill slightly, away from the high rise buildings, it's peaceful, calm, and with great views and sunsets. From our villa you could look out over El Peñón de Ifach (also known as Calpe Rock). It's a great place for a normal holiday, but we obviously went for the climbing on offer.
That evening we enjoyed some fine local cuisine... actually we went to an all you can eat Chinese restaurant. We were extremely well fed by the end, but it did feel a bit wrong. We were hoping to find some cute little Spanish restaurant serving tapas, and paella. It turns out that's extremely difficult.
Our first day wasn't as nice as we were hoping, with fairly strong winds, lots of cloud cover, and the odd spot of rain. However we were here to climb. We headed to the single pitch venue of Toix Far Oeste (Far West) on the recommendation of our host Mark. It was a lovely spot, sat above an estate of holiday homes, looking out to sea, but the weather definitely dampened the spirits. After climbing a few 3s and 4s, we bailed from halfway up a 5, when the rain started to come down quite heavily.
The next day we joined Mark again at Olta, this time in beautiful sunshine. Apparently the previous day's weather had been atypical, and our lack of sun cream was actually a bad idea. We managed to find some trees to shade under, and climbed a bunch of 4s and 5s, which were longer but more ledgey than the routes from the previous day. The crag itself was virtually empty. The setting was stunning, looking out over Calpe and the Peñón. As with many of the crags here you can pretty much start at one end, and climb route after route, until you reach the other end. If you're looking for a venue for mileage, there's plenty to keep you going on the Costa Blanca.
That evening we watched the sun set from a little jetty in the middle of the bay. It really is a beautiful part of the world.
For our third day we decided to try a route on the Peñón. It's such an obvious challenge, sitting in the bay, sticking up about a thousand feet almost straight out of the sea.
After an early start, waking at sunrise, we approached the route we had chosen, Diedre UBSA, and the seriousness dawned on us. Once we reached the end of the paved path and started to walk under the imposing cliffs, we decided that it would be prudent to wear our helmets while walking up to the base of the route.
There was a lot of broken rock on the ground, which wasn't very well settled. It looked like the rock was continually falling from the cliff, meaning that footpaths didn't have chance to develop. I hadn't banked on this level of looseness, but we racked up, and started up the first "scramble" pitch. This pitch was exceptionally loose, polished, and devoid of any gear (almost certainly the reason it is described as a scramble). Fortunately the belay was a double bolt belay in good rock, on a large ledge with a bit of protection overhead.
After bringing Stacey up to join me, I set off on the second pitch. I have since described this as the lead of my life. An awkward traverse, with very little gear, polished footholds, but a few chalky holds led the way into the groove. After placing some dodgy cams on flexing flakes I pulled through some steep bulges and got into the groove proper. Fortunately finding a few bolts to ease my concerns. I carried on up the groove, finding easy climbing on large holds,. I still worried all the while that many of them wobbled and could easily come off. At times I had hold of two wobbly jugs, and was standing on two crumbling footholds. This was totally alien to me.
Having climbed mostly on gritstone for the past 5 years, not having to deal with loose rock, I was out of my comfort zone. We were unprepared and felt like we had bitten off more than we could chew. Arriving at the belay after the second pitch I was relieved to find another double bolt belay. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that we were going to bail. Once Stacey had joined me I voiced my concerns and she agreed we should go back down.
Having only brought a single rope we had to abseil each pitch on its own. A few weeks ago I had been a guinea pig for a friend, who wanted a quick refresh before his MIA assessment. Stacked abseils was one of the topics which I hadn't really covered before, but it was now proving to be hugely useful for us to descend safely and efficiently. Once back on terra firma we decided to have a chilled out afternoon on the beach skimming stones, eating lunch, and splashing about in the freezing cold water. We also went for a quick (and I mean super quick) dip in the villa's swimming pool to escape from the heat of the midday sun.
That evening we spent about 2 hours searching for a proper Spanish restaurant. We were keen to have paella for dinner and after much googling and wandering around the streets we found one. El Andaluz offered paella de mariscos on its menu board outside. We ordered the food, and a couple of beers. While we waited the barmaid gave us a small tapas-like snack, and some bread with aioli (I love this stuff). Everything which was presented to us was devoured. Including a couple of free drinks which were brought out to us (probably a way of finishing a bottle of something they can't sell), which was nice, if a little strong.
For our last full day we headed back to the Far Oeste sector of Sierra de Toix, and started at the far right hand end of the crag. We ticked off most of the routes, up to about 6a, and finished off the routes which we hadn't quite managed on the previous visit. It was a far more pleasant environment climbing in the sun.
That evening we headed round to Moraira to visit a friend of Stacey's, and enjoy a less touristy town. Residents Alex and Lisa showed us a nice bar for a quick drink. Then we headed to a local restaurant for amazing tapas and wine. It would be an even better place to have a holiday than Calpe, but the climbing is a slightly further drive.
For our last day in Spain we had chosen a late flight so that we could find somewhere to go climbing on the way back to the airport. Echo Valley was an obvious choice. It wasn't too far from the motorway and the walk in was impressively short. Also as the car was full of all our kit, being able to see it was advantageous. After climbing one fairly unpleasant 4, we decided just to climb a whole bunch of 3s as quickly and efficiently as possible. I think in the half hour we had left we managed to both lead three of the four. It was a fun way to end the holiday.
I would like to thank a few suppliers for their generosity. Without whom this holiday would have been far less enjoyable. Most of all thanks to DMM who supplied me with a sample of an amazing new rucksack (review coming soon). Their lightweight gear helped to keep our luggage under the weight threshold, and whose harness I wore in sublime comfort.
Secondly to Lyon equipment who loaned us a few items of Petzl equipment. Including one of their new Tikka RXP head torches. It was light and bright enough to take with us at all times "just in case". Their new Sirocco helmet (so light and comfortable, we both wore them even when doing short sport routes!). As well as the newish Grigri 2.
Thanks also to Cordee for finding a copy of the guidebook, and getting it to us in time. Finally to Rab for being extremely helpful in our purchase of a down jacket. Despite the temperature reaching 18 degrees C in the daytime, the night temperatures were cold enough to justify packing them.