Trasobares is the next village east from Calcena, about six very winding miles (allow 15mins to drive or stroll along the GR90 in a couple of hours) It’s a veritable metropolis by comparison, with a shop, a bar and even a campsite. Not to be outdone, it also has a significant amount of climbing, with around 350 routes scattered across numerous sectors above and below the village.

We’d made a brief rainy day recce on our last trip, and not been overwhelmed (though had barely set foot out of the car). Sure enough, things looked better in the sunshine. There’s a fair bit of info on TheCrag and we also downloaded a complete guidebook from LaPirca.es (a very handy app with guides to a bunch of crags across Spain – cost €10 each with 90% of the proceeds going to the bolt fund).

Here’s a screenshot from La Pirca showing the crags around the village:

… and a GPS track of some of our exploration.

The “main road” (deliberate inverted commas!) skirts the village to the north, and there’s an obvious hairpin just to the east of the village with parking for a couple of vehicles and a signpost for the climbing Barranco des Vinalajuen.

This is arranged around a shallow, grassy valley, studded with olive trees – a charming spot.

There’s climbing on both sides, so you can choose sun or shade. It tends towards the bouldery (or steep and stumpy, if like me you are happier on a 40m vertical endurance fest), but you can’t fault it for ambiance or convenience. Sector Insectus Solarium is just 100m from the parking, has a grassy level base, with shade from the occasional ancient olive tree, and a dozen or so powerful routes from 5b to 6c (though add a grade or two if you aren’t a gym-honed cranking machine!) Perfect spot for a family outing with young children and a picnic, or a quick drive-by fix.

We wandered down into the village in search of something a bit longer and closer to the right side of vertical. It’s a confusing maze of tiny streets, but you won’t go far wrong if you follow signs for the GR90 or just follow your nose towards the river or Fuente Pijosa.

Immediately around the bridge over the river there are little sectors everywhere – there’s been a lot of enthusiasm and investment from somebody! Much of the climbing is shady (great if you are looking for it, but we weren’t) and also falls into the “short and steep” category, and we weren’t hugely taken by the look of any of it (and strictly speaking we were on a semi-rest day sussing trip). We decided to follow the path back up to the road to check out the final group of Rio Isuela crags. These form a west facing escarpment above the river and opposite the GR90. The first of these, Chopera Fuente La Pesquera, didn’t really fit the bill for us either: initially set above a stone aquaduct, the crag gets taller and steeper as you head leftwards uphill, culminating in a great bulging wall of high 7s and 8s.

However, wandering another few hundred metres we finally found something more to our liking. La Galia has half a dozen 5s and 6s on really fun, vertical black rock, strewn with crozzly pockets (a little reminiscent of the Hospital sector in Leonidio)

Here’s Helen on Asterix, 5c, one of a number of fun routes we did named from the comic book.

Next up the hill is Cafe Cortado, with a central overhanging scoop of 7s flanked by more pockety 5s and 6s.

The final sector, not far beneath the road, is La Nevera, and Trasobares had saved its best until last – 30 routes from V to mid 7s, and even an 8a thrown in as a bonus. Enough for us to make a return visit the next day.

You can park pretty much on top of the crag at 41.645411° N 01.647151° W and walk down in only 5mins via a short steep path down from the end of the Armco barrier (more cairns now than there were).

The crag starts to get the sun from around noon, with a couple of the walls having a more southerly orientation. Plenty to go at in the V to 7a range, and all good (though some of the grades are a bit random and not always in a helpful way – those on the central black wall are especially worth taking with a pinch of salt!)

I made a decent stab at Algoritmo, (up the centre of the orange tower in the shot above) another 7a up a crack where it isn’t the cracky bit that’s tricky! I fared better on El 7a Largo, which takes the steep, pockety arete up the front of the same buttress, though it took a couple of goes to figure out a sequence.

Plenty to come back for including a couple of outstanding looking 6cs on the leftmost wall and a re-match with La Marte, the wildly steep 7a+ arete bounding that wall.

Overall verdict on Trasobares: Well worth a visit, especially combining with a stay at Calcena, and between the two you could easily occupy yourself for a couple of weeks.