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Barcelona, Spain.
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Dios!! The New Year was rang in here in Spain with a massive fiesta, which dehibilitated most of the people in the country (especially the climbers) and forced a very tranquilo start to 2007. I am finally recovered enough to use my computer again, and can breath from my nose, which is very special as I got a pretty nasty cold due to the circumstances of the holiday season. The Spanish know how to party, and I am learning. That’s all I can say. They are all psyched and energetic, and can party seemingly forever, dancing like mad, and doing other radical Spanish things. Proven, I am not Spanish, and manage consistently to screw up my big fiestas by not grasping the whole order of operations. I go climbing all day, especially to areas with big hikes, hours away from the house. On the 31st of December, I managed to drive five hours in the car! Why? How? I don’t know! We went to two crags! I wanted to try a 9a [5.14d], and Klemen, at another cliff entirely big 8c [5.14b]! We must be crazy, because before the big noche, most people are taking it easy and chilling out, saving strength, and preparing mentally. I just obliterate myself; get sick, because, all in all, big parties and climbing hard don’t mix too well. Pero bueno, no passa nada, because these days I have at least managed to climb some incredible routes, and since the Christmas and New Year’s madness is over, I am climbing with Dani Andrada, the true maquina, and Klemen Becan, my Slovenian friend who has been here for over a month now. We have visited some incredible areas, and wow, all I can say is that it is so bizarre how the most beautiful, impressive, natural lines, are so damn obscure and unknown!
Dani climbing at Orbin Pass, Spain.
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The report goes as follows: There was a crazy cloud, actually a layer of fog, which unfortunately took off before I could photograph it (the fog was there for three weeks straight!) This horrible thing invaded Lleida, and screwed us all. It’s very cold this crazy fog, and one must live in it for up to a month at a time! You don’t see the sun in the city, just fog, and you have to drive at least one hour, 50 kilometers, and then, like magic, the fog fades and you’re in the sun! The temperature difference must be like 13 degrees Celsius, which is quite strange. That’s one crazy fact of life in Lleida. I am sure it screws some of the property values up in the city because it’s a big draw back. A perpetual, freezing, dark, cold, humid layer of fog. Who would have thought? Wack!
Esclatamasters.
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We have been doing some bouldering when the weather sucks, which has been really fun, finding really cool new places with only nice black Joe's Valley sandstone. Pretty crazy. The route scene has been just mad. Previously freezing and too cold for a week, then hot, and too warm for another week, then fog, then wind the blah, and blah and blah. The conditions have been strenuous but we have been climbing on the best of the best, at least.
I am currently very excited to do Esclatamasters, a beautiful 9a [5.14d], which I have now tried five times, and just need to grow skin for the nasty headwall filled with little sharp, skin-fucking crimpers (cursed little grips). At least the bottom of the route is 25 meters of burly collenette pulling out a crazy prow, which is blue, and very steep! In-between my rare attempts on this badass route, I climbed two other five star vias. These routes are the most bonita and guappa routes I can find in the region, and they happen to be blazing in the sun most of the day, which was perfect. Los Humildes pa Casa, which means the humble stay at home, and it is incredible!
New problems at Chopos.
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Situated in the middle of a huge 70-meter wall, the line starts on some pocketed brown rock, and quickly leads to a blue streak. The blue streak turns into a huge, fat collonette, and goes for 30 meters until the anchor! You climb on the lone tufa, switching off little knee-bars and heel-hooks, all the time squeezing and pinching, desperately using every last drop of resistance you have, until eventually there is a second tufa! This brings on the never ending drop-knees, and layback moves leading to one brutal little slab passito before the anchor, when the tufa actually stops, where you can fall, and when you fall on this route you fall big, with bolts skipped its at least a 15-20 meter fall! I climbed on my second try, which is a big deal for me, as it’s my anti-style, and my new favorite route I have ever done on limestone.
![]() Klemen on Orbin Pass
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Another route is Obrin Pass, which is not as sick as the collonette, but really pretty and crazy as well! There should be a sick extension which Dani has just bolted leading out a crazy prow, after climbing a very steep 8c+ [5.14c] route. Hard. I climbed it to the first anchor, which is hard for 8c [5.14b], but really nice! Bouldery pocket moves in the bottom lead to a mini prow/knee bar structure in the middle of the roof, and with great compression moves, heel hooks, slaps around corners, you make your way out into a very resistant section of quasi-footless maneuvers. Very fun, and very cool. We have top go back and try the extension.
“Too many projects, and too little skin. Too many projects, and too little time.” This is our strange little chant, we tell ourselves day in day out. As we work ourselves into utter madness by trying too many routes, all at once. We pay the very sacred price of being completely obsessed with rock climbing.
Damn life is good.
Happy New Year, and mucho fuerza, to all!
— Dave Graham
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