April Update

Well, what a month April has been - such fantastic hot sunny weather! Earlier on in the month, and fresh from our climbing trip to Spain, I had a good burn on the superb Anstey's Cove F7b sport route 'Empire of the Sun', linking all the crux moves and on-sighting the top half. Awesome! I am hoping to put a few more hours into the route, with the aim of sending it later this year. As the hot weather increased we moved to the shade of Churston Quarries for some sport and esoterica climbing. After an easy ascent of 'Supercalorific', I then led the run-out E3 5b, 'Walking Tall'. This is another fantastic route, but due to the lack of gear in the upper half a slip from the last few moves would result in a ground fall, so you'd better not mess up! Still the sun shone brightly, so I turned my attention to my real climbing passion - Deep Water Soloing (DWS), or Psicobloc. Plenty of superb sessions were had over Torquay climbing the many classic routes on quality rock in amazingly warm and sunny conditions. It was like summer, and I was in my element! Stoked! ;) I also cleaned up, and soloed a great route down on the edge of Brixham Quarry called 'Pigeon Street', an F6a+. It featured steep juggy climbing with an overhanging crux right at the top, which I thoroughly enjoyed. So much so, that I repeated it three times! Love it! :) Now eagerly awaiting my next DWS session! What I love about Psicobloc, is the absolute freedom and pure climbing movement - just you and the rock, and no-one and nothing else. :)

Photo: Elisabeth on 'Watchtower Traverse', F5.

Costa Blanca Climbing Trip

Mid-March, in a bid to escape the cold and wet British winter, we jetted off to the sunny Costa Blanca in Spain for ten days of sport climbing. The first four days were fantastic, with hot and sunny conditions, allowing us to climb in shorts and T-shirts. Awesome! We were based near Pego, North of Alicante, and over the first few days we visited some of the superb local crags, including; Alcalali, L'Ocaive, Gandia, and Pego itself. The rock was excellent, and with climbing to match, we were in heaven! (Well, I was anyway). The climbing at Gandia really suited me, with steep to overhanging routes containing loads of pockets and jugs, and it was here that we met local Dartmoor climbing Legend; Dave Henderson, cruising up a crazy overhanging 7a+ on-sight! Mid-trip we had some wet weather, but that didn't stop us getting out and doing a few mountain walks, despite not getting much of a view due to the low cloud. Once the nice weather returned, we headed off to the coast near Calpe for some more sun drenched sport climbing on some steep slabs, which suited Elisabeth much better. Well, it was her Birthday! ;) The next day we were back at the top sector of Gandia, sweating it out in the scorching hot conditions and climbing some amazing routes. As a break from the full-on sport climbing, we decided to give the Bernia Ridge a crack the following day. This is an all day trek/ scramble/ climb which weaves its way along a stunning rock ridge, and climbs to a height of 1126 meters. It turned out to be an epic nine and a half hour expedition, but the stunning views and mind boggling journey made it all worth while. On the last day of the trip, we headed back to the overhanging sectors at Gandia so I could bag a few harder routes before we flew home. I was well happy with three 6b's and a 6c, especially as they were hard for the grade! :) What with that, and Elisabeth leading some hard routes of her own, it rounded off our fantastic climbing trip a treat. Happy Days! :D We are definitely planning on heading back next year for more of the same, but probably two weeks next time, as there is so much more climbing we'd like to get done on the next trip! :)