After the summer and a quick stop back at our parent’s houses in the French Pyrénées and Catalunya we headed South to the area of Castelló, València and Alacant. Basically the Costa Blanca area. We have never been climbing in this area but we got a lot of recommendations. We visited Culla, Montanejos, Sella, Cabeçó d’Or and Aixortà. We were also told about places like Rincón Bello and Gandía but we didn’t have time for everything in the end.
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| Nami checking out the camper car park in Culla |
First stop: Culla
First two weeks of October
We decided to go to Culla first because everywhere was roughly the same distance in time but Culla is higher up and known to be colder. We found a beautiful village that proudly signposts being one of the prettiest in Spain and just outside of the village towards the path to go to the crag there is a camper car park with free water, sink and waste water station. There are not any toilets but there are public toilets in the centre of the village of Culla. The walk to the crag is quite long and goes mainly downhill so coming back can be a bit tiring but we got used to it, we preferred to follow the yellow and white markings (direction Roca Penyacalva) the path is slightly more gradual and a bit more direct than the track, it is also mainly in the shade as it follows the V of the valley. If you have a smaller car or a motorcycle there is a carpark towards the end of the dirt track that reduces the approach to just 15mins maybe. The crag was amazing, in the shade pretty much all day, the sun would try to come in in the afternoon but by then it was very weak and quickly set. There are two parts to the Fronton crag where we were climbing. One cave like part with 30m ish routes and another more vertical part that gets full sun about 14h onwards. When we arrived some of the routes were a bit wet but they mostly dried whilst we were there and we had a good stay. There is a very good bakery in Culla that does good bread and cocas. The Forn. There is also an observatory as the view of the stars on clear nights is amazing here. The observatory opens for stargazing every Saturday but both Saturdays whilst we were there were really cloudy nights! Sod’s law! The town also has a couple of shops, a small supermarket that has a butcher’s counter and a couple of bars and restaurants. The town itself is lovely to walk around and is topped with the ruins of the old fort/castle that overlooks the entire valley. The views here are truly 360 and on a clear day you can see the sea.
Next stop: Montanejos
Middle of October
This was a pretty cool place with natural springs and strange rock! It reminded us of a mixture between Disblia, Camarassa and Margalef. We thought that there would be more tufas here but there were hardly any! We climbed in the Pilas Alcalinas sector with some pretty spaced out bolts (apparently the local saying is “en Montanejos las chapas están lejos” in Montanejos the bolts are far). We actually preferred the easier routes (7s and 6s) as they were more natural and more sustained, the harder routes tended to be more manufactured and pretty bouldery. On our rest day we walked to Cueva Negra and the natural pools. Cueva negra didn’t inspire us much but some climbers there told us that the routes are good. The natural pools were very pretty but we did think that they would feel warmer! They are a constant 25degrees (apparently) so they are not as cold as a river would normally be though I would describe them as lukewarm. Nevertheless I had a very nice swim through the ravine and felt like I was swimming in somewhere like Thailand and David just dipped his feet.
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| The natural pools in Montanejos |
We had a bit of trouble with solar power here in Montanejos because the carpark we were in was very shaded. For water there wasn’t a problem as there are many fountains dotted around the village and even portaloos near the pools! We met up with Cris and Oscar from Cocrag Films and they filmed a short video of me climbing in Pilas Alcalinas. The route is called Efecto Mariposa and it was a short powerful Margalef style bouldery section followed by fairly easy but droppable climbing on really nice rock. Totally not my style, usually I prefer endurance routes but I had fun working out the boulder and was able to send it after the rest day! I very almost but not quite sent it when Oscar was filming! Check out the video here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBuBAo_NZhu/?igsh=MTVpN2V1aTZpN3pubg==
Oscar is a qualified drone pilot and he and Cris are both video editors so if ever you need something filmed and edited let them know at @cocragfilms_official https://bio.site/Cocragfilms
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| Climbing in Sella (Espacio Tiempo) |
Sella
End of October / start of November
Sella was our next stop! The Valley of Sella is beautiful and I felt like we were in some wilderness area rather than just up the mountain from Benidorm or Calpe. We had a bit of shock when we arrived as the road had a sign saying that only authorised vehicles were allowed past it but after consulting some locals we found out that in typical Spanish style everyone (even the local forest police) ignore that sign. I guess everyone is considered an authorised vehicle!
The car parks here are pretty spacious, fairly flat and one by the refuge even has it’s own tyre swing! We stayed by the Rhino sector I think, just a way up the hill past the refuge and when we arrived the sun still hit the car park for most of the day. In the short time we were there though the sun went lower and pretty soon was hidden by the other side of the valley.
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| Sella valley |
If you are not at all interested in van conversions you can skip this next paragraph :)
Because of the lack of sun our battery power got pretty low. In our van we have a 230A AGM battery powered by two 140W solar panels, our fridge is electric and we can “super”charge the battery with a booster. At the time we converted the van AGM batteries were a lot cheaper than lithium and our logic for having the electric fridge was to have a bit of both. The cooker, oven and water heater are powered by gas, the fridge, ventilator for the heating and lights are powered by electric. We decided not to have everything powered by gas nor everything powered by electric. That being said AGM batteries can get severely damaged if you go below 50% too often and we got pretty close in Sella(!) Too close for David’s liking. We’re friends with the people that own the refuge and they kindly let us plug into their generator one day.
The refuge, or Climber’s hut, is a pretty cool place, and would be great if you want to visit with some friends but don’t know where to stay. Check out their website: https://rockbusters.net/event/climbers-hut-your-base-camp-for-epic-ascents/
Upon arriving in Sella I knew exactly which route I wanted to try. A friend of mine, Doug, had suggested an 8c called Espacio Tiempo to me. I knew nothing about the route apart from the fact that he felt like it would suit me and looking on 8a.nu it sounded like it might be low in the grade. A perfect route to break the grade! When we arrived a local climber called Manu already had his draws in and even shared some of his beta with me. Not all of it suited my style but all in all I made quick progress on the route! There’s a spicy move at the top and I made sure that I repeated and climbed through it from the rest before to the top as many times as possible. I have been working with Kerrin from Mind Control Counselling and this was the first route that I applied some of the new projecting techniques that she has been teaching me. Because I made very fast progress on the route it was a bit difficult sticking to the strategy we worked on together rather than just giving “a muerte” goes from the ground but sending this route has been a huge eye opener for me:
1. What I am capable of
2. How amazingly useful having (and sticking to) a good strategy is
Sometimes it can feel like you’re “wasting time” by working a bit more on the route, or spending a whole day lowpointing rather than sending but in reality I truly believe that it was because of doing all this that I sent. That spicy move at the top? The first time I got to the rest before it sending, I climbed through that spicy move and sent to the top! This realisation hit harder as I watched many others fall in that top section. People that when I started trying the route seemed to be making better progress than me. Kerrin @mindcontrolcounselling has an Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/mindcontrolcounselling?igsh=b20wbGZkM3JkczVo and I highly recommend signing up to her newsletter, she often shares very useful advice on both. https://www.mindcontrolcounselling.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZ6tqDAjhne575CQFEd-na5ky3rx76qJQKFTCmAuEHERj5Ss4eVFfqp80k_aem_jpdOEBxAJB-S7iGJijEpKw
David also had an amazing time in Sella sending pretty much everything he touched and even sending an 8b on his second go!
You can check out David’s edit of me climbing Espacio Tiempo 8c on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/tzlFVP44CR8
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| The valley at Cabeçó d'Or, sector Chorreras on the left, the photo is taken from sector Sherpa |
Cabeçó d’Or
Middle of November
Another must visit if you like hugging tufas. Cabeçó d’Or and in particular it’s Chorreras sector has amazingly long routes (some more than 50m) of tufa madness. Felt like climbing in Kalymnos 😍 here we met Michaela and Roman two Czech climbers who truly inspired us.
The sector stayed mainly in the shade all day, the walk up was about 20mins and depending on the wind the conditions were pretty good.
We also visited Sherpa, a sector that is opposite and a bit higher than Chorreras. The shade comes in at around 14h. Here the routes were less tufa-y and more slopers/crimpy but we only climbed here one day. The hike up was about 35/40min with the last part being loose rock. The day that we were there the bolter was at work cleaning a new route and sent some pretty horrifyingly huge blocks of rock down the hill. You can find most of the routes here as he has a website: https://www.akamerlander.xyz/pena-alicante-deportiva
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| The Arcs on the approach to the Aixorta crag (Congelador/Nevero) |
Aixorta
End of November/Start of December
This ended up being our last stop in this area. Roman and Michaela also came along with two friends Cécile and Xavier. Funny story, we met Xavier at the Mirador just past Tarbena and he was over the moon to see us again. We had climbed one day with them in Chorreras and Xavier was trying what would be his first 8a+. David and I tried and sent it the next day and in doing so left some chalk on a small side pull that David had found. The next day Xavier saw this (having rested the day we climbed) and worked out how we had used it and found that it made the crux so much more comfortable for him. He sent next go and said that 20% of his success was thanks to us ! 😊 What a butterfly effect ! So happy we could help Xavier xx
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| With Roman and Michaela in Aixorta |
Aixorta is another sector a bit like Culla with two parts to it. It has a first slightly more vertical part with juggy physical routes ranging from 6 to 8 and a more overhanging cavelike part with routes 7c+/8a upwards. The routes here are shorter than we are used to ( about 20m ) but intense and most of them from the very first bolt.
There are several car park options each with their own disadvantages / advantages.
Top of the hill: this car park is the closest to the sector but is difficult to get to with a van any bigger than a typical VW due to the hairpin bends and currently has no sun and no coverage and is fairly small.
Bottom of the hill: this was our preferred option. The car park is quietly nestled in the hills with full sun starting early in the morning and space for several vans. There is no coverage but you can walk to the sector up a beautiful, slightly steep, path. It takes about 30mins.
Mirador: this is a lookout point just past Tarbena that many vans also park at. Here there is full sun and coverage plus amazing views but you will have to drive to the sector everyday.
In Tarbena there is a camper car park with free water and waste station.
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| David helping some friends of ours pimp up their camper with extra solar power in the car park near Tarbena, el mirador |
Aixorta is in the shade all day and can get pretty chilly if the wind picks up. We had mixed days here ranging from humid conditions to “ow I cant feel my fingers”. We found the routes fanatical and all of the routes we tried were good, another highly recommendable spot!
If you are wondering about specific route recommendations you can have a look on mine or David’s 8a.nu profiles. We log all our ascents here. I also have a UKC account.
Pru:
David 8a.nu : https://www.8a.nu/user/david-zarco/sportclimbing
Now we are well into December so it’s the time of year where we eat too much and get to see our loved ones ❤️ Happy holidays everyone and see you in the new year!
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