Costa Blanca Climbing

Wild Side Wall at Sella

The second major area we visited in Spain was Costa Blanca, which is Spain's eastern inland coast. We were all amazed at the variety of climbing in the area, with excellent tufa-strewn overhangs and multi pitch formations with routes from 5-10 pitches.

The local "culture" along the coast itself is very non-Spanish, as many northern Euros come to the Costa Blanca every summer. This has had two nice results for climbers:

1. There is a huge amount of empty lodging during fall, winter, and spring.
2. There will likely be folks nearby who speak something other than Spanish, and who are used to lost visitors in need of help.

As long as you explore some of the towns, winery areas, valleys, etc just up off the coast, you can definitely be surrounded again by real Spanish culture.

The Magic Flute - Bernia

• Climb- Multipitch bolted routes directly above the Mediterranean  Calpe's "Penon d'Ifach" is a  1000' limestone tower that looms above the sea, and hosts routes from 5.9 to 5.13. There is a casual walkoff complete with gatos de cumbre. Multipitch routes near the town of Guadalest and on the Pared de Rosalia look great as well. The best single-pitch zones we visited were Bernia (for Tufa Groove and it's inverse twin Magic flute) as well as Gandia (short climbs, but wild tufas down low) and the best crag in the region, the truly amazing Wild Side at Sella for climbs from 5.12- to 5.14.
• Stay - We rented a super cheap apartment 2 blocks from the beach in Calpe. We could walk to the Penon D'Ifach and it was easy to drive to hundreds of nearby walls - Ours was $200/week and had one bedroom, one futon, and a kitchen. Other friends stayed in the small town of Finestrat, inland from the beach and near Sella.
• Eat - Lots of the cafes and bakeries along the coast are more influenced by northern europe, even the grocery stores have loads of German, British, Scandanavian foods, etc.

• 

  Wild Wide Wall - Sella

  Drive - When in doubt, opt to take the AP-7 expressway over the alternative roads that are all much slower and wander through many slow towns.
• Book - The brand new (Spring '13) Rockfax Guide to Costa Blanca is excellent.
• Season- Any time except June-September, both because the area is much more crowded and expensive with summer tourists, and because it would be very hot. Certain walls (inland and North-facing) would be too cold or much of winter.

Spain: Andalucia, El Chorro, and the South

I just returned home to Leavenworth following 6 weeks in Spain. Rather than go into various details about all the 8a routes I didn't quite send, and the boring minutiae of describing an individual sport climb, I'll just provide some information that will help everyone else who is thinking of going there. Which should be everyone who climbs. Spain is amazing, and pretty cheap. Check out DoYouSpain for cheap car rentals.

• El Chorro

In mid-winter, and for climbers who wont have a car, El Chorro is a great place to go. It's located about 40mins (by car or by train) from Malaga, on the southern coast of Spain. We arrived via a ~5hr drive after renting a car in Madrid. There is a RENFE (Spain's rail system) station stop IN the tiny village of El Chorro, just a 5-20 minute walk from camping, hostels, and hundreds of pitches of limestone. Here are a few things to keep in mind about El Chorro.

Seattle Times Feature Story

I collaborated with friend and neighbor Garrett Grove for a story published on the front of last sunday's Seattle Times travel section about our home of Leavenworth, WA.

Check out a copy of the paper for more of Garrett's photos, or read the entire story online here.