The training is going wonderful. I was in the gym for my third time last night since I have been here, and I feel sore due to my experiments with weight belts and weight vests. I've never done that before, climbed with many extra kilos, although I had thought about when I was young. I felt heavier, and thus climbing was much harder. Strange game. Needless to say, my version of training gets me a long way these days. I do things like pull-ups, and some push-ups, and some bouldering, then, like bam, I have stronger muscles the next time I get out there on the rock. Muy bien. Perhaps it's only psychological, but I hope not.
The last weeks have been very exciting. Edu and Chris did La Rambla, which is badass. It was cool to see the different processes the two took in order to climb that massive route, and it definitely broke down some stigma or any previous curses that had been put upon the route. La Rambla is now very doable. Edu just showed up, went up the route once on a really humid day, figured out the moves one try, then fell of the top the next try, then after climbing A Muerte 9a on his next day, fired it after we all got wasted drunk celebrating Yuji's going away party. He tried both in previous years, but put them together pretty quick this time, and I imagine he was hung-over. So we all partied like hell with Edu a second time when we heard he climbed the route, and got drunk again throughout the celebration, and thoroughly worked during a hardcore boulder session altogether that night. The next day Chris climbed it, muy tranquillo, while we were more or less the only two climbers in the whole sector. It was cool.
The Spanish Chica climbing scene was also in full effect, with visiting climbing legends from the south, on a rampage with our friend Mariona Marti for the weekend. Raquel, Pati, and Ruth all climb 8b I think, and seem to keep it pretty damn real every day they go out. Definitely a nice time though, and a good change of energy compared with the serious dude-only-climbing sessions due to the hard routes and lack of sun.
Layla on Ardilla Roja, a nice 7c+.
On my end of the table, I have been trying to clear my plates, filled to the brim with projects, and it's getting easier than the last month at least. This is perfect, as I am much closer to maquina status, and this, as always, is my lifetime goal. I started off by climbing Ingravid Serps, a nice 8c route in Santa Linya, which felt great to send, as it's super physical and not an iota my style. A Muerte, an incredible power-resistance route at the Can Piqui Pugi sector in Siurana, which I did with a full-blown cold, coughing and dying before the actual send, proving to myself strength can't have that much to do with sending, because I felt sick and weak! (The power of the mind, my friends ... who needs big muscles when you can just climb 9a like 8a out of the blue --there is no logic!) More on this route, it has great moves, and a killer sequence of two finger pocket stabs leading into a crux jump encounter off a crimper. Yes, it ends with a really cool jump, and, no, I don't have a photo yet (curses). I also climbed Stoke, a hard 8c in Santa Ana which went down in a day and gave me some serious sore muscles from the shitty holds and massive compression needed to execute the crux moves. Finally, the day following Stoke, I managed an 8b boulder, Reposa del Guerrero. This was cool as it was not my style in any way, shape, or form either, and I battled the fucker down over a couple hours, and even after falling on the last move multiple times, I still did it. Bien. I'm getting more in shape.
On the falling-off tip and project-front here is the news. I have been very close to doing a route called Ursus 8c/8c+, which is a badass five-bolt route on a boulder, but I fell on the last move. I tried a 9a in Santa Linya I want to do called Traversia de Emnienda 9a, which is 50 meters long and really steep, burly and physical. In Perles, another beautiful area, I tried another hard route, which I really want to do called Esclatamasters 9a, a sick blue line of collonettes diagonally into a blue headwall of crimpers and little pinches, and finally I tried Estado Critico 9a in Siurana yesterday, my third hard project, a long crack leading to a giant blue streak, like 40 meters long and crimpy like hell all the way to the anchor. I will try again tomorrow on Estado, and hopefully, after my weight belt training, it will feel much easier. That's my word. All my current hopes and dreams. My glass-world.
Dave in Mont Sant
Chapter Spain continues over the next two weeks so stay tuned. Hopefully it stops raining here, and everything will be forever dry. Wish me luck.
FUEEEEEE RRRZZZZZZZ AAAAAAA!!!!!!
P.S.
On a grading note, I see a lot of people on the Internet over the past year wondering what we climbers think of the grades here in Spain, and in general. First of, I want to say that Dani's routes are fucking hard. He is an incredible climber, and did an incredible amount of hard climbing last year, and the grades he gave accurately represent the difficulty of his routes compared to all the other new routes out there in the world. This is, of course, the modernized grade system, not the classic scale developed over the years. An example is A Muerte. This route would be considered 8c+ on an old-school grade scheme, like Action Directe, and 9a, on a modern scheme. It's the truth that looking back, a fundamental interpretation of the German grade 11, gave birth to what we now understand as 9a. 11 literally meant the step above 8c, but this is fuzzy stuff. Ben Moon and Alex Huber know all about this.
Ursus
Apparently, as route climbing evolved, grades inflated. Maybe due to media, or shorter climbers, or sponsorship and ego, I don't know, but it's the case for sure. I have tried for years to understand the old scale, but it's starting to get confusing. There are old school grades next to new ones these days. What to do for the sport? What is better? What do the professionals do? Is it negative to try and appreciate an old scale, thus downgrading new routes, and being hardcore? Is being open-minded to except what has changed, and let the grades be the way they are? Do grades really matter? Is it cool to care? Is it lame to care? Is there any real value to the situation, or is it just comme ca? Does chipping have to do with grade inflation? I have no clue, but these are good questions. These are the types of questions going through the minds of the top climbers I know. Sometimes we think a route is 8c+, but because everybody else says its 9a, and it is 9a compared to most of the other 9a's out there, yet not compared to a select few other hard routes. Do we look bitchy and negative if we downgrade things all the time? Is it better to shut our mouths and try and not be too much like bitter old men?
In all cases, it'll be all good, it's just going be a bunch of forever-unanswered questions. What is 9a+? Realization, La Rambla, Im Reich des Shogun, maybe Coup de Grace? And is 9a Action Directe, Estado Critico, A Muerte, Kinematix? in each catagory, one asks, are these all the same grade? What's 9a with Bain de Saing involved? Good Lord. Only the people doing these routes know, and we are all pretty lazy, and some not the most driven to know these answers. Time will prove a lot.
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