The bulk of the crags in the Granada guide are north of the city.

We’d chatted to a couple of climbers at Capileira the previous week – a Welsh woman and her Spanish partner – and they’d given us a list of crag recommendations. They’d been somewhat startled that we’d already climbed at most of them, but we ended up with a shortlist of three “must visits”: Moclín, Montefrío and Cogollos de la Vega. Never one to turn down some local wisdom…

Moclín

This pretty little village is set in a patchwork quilt of olive groves, and surrounded by crags. These face all directions making for a year-round venue, but we’d been given a specific mission: check out Sector Gruyer.

We parked beneath the Via Ferrata area, which is home to five sectors and (guess what…) a Via Ferrata.

Might be a fun rest day activity a different time…

… and headed off towards the crags on the opposite side of the road, the centrepiece of which is Gruyer.

No prizes for guessing that it’s peppered with holes. We arrived to find a couple of young families taking their kids climbing on a sunny Saturday, and were a bit non-plussed to find the easiest route on the crag occupied. A little lad of about ten was leading El Rayo, 6a+, whilst the other ninos were improvising a baseball game with a stick.

Feeling a little pressured, I put the rope down beneath the adjacent De Luna, 6b. Happily I didn’t embarrass myself, and more importantly it was a belting route. Super steep but plastered in jugs – you just need to hang on long enough to figure the sinkers from the decoys.

The central line of Nosferatus, 6c, is the route of the crag. Stupendous 4*s in anyone’s book.

You get a better idea of the angle in this shot…

La Colmena, 6b+, is almost as good, and by now we figured we had established enough cred to warm down on the 6a+, which had finally been relinquished by a conveyor belt of kids of ever decreasing sizes. Still enough in the tank.

Tiena

There’s a handy van-parking area in the middle of Moclín, but it was full to bursting on a Saturday night, so we headed a couple of miles up the road to the crag parking for Tiena. This is recommended as a van spot in the guidebook (many of the other crag parking areas also get the nod).

Whilst Tiena didn’t figure on the hit list we’d been given, it looked pretty appealing and very handy, and with an uncertain weather outlook we opted for “the bird in the hand”. The only tiny flaw in the plan was that a sunny Sunday morning saw the place absolutely rammed with locals! Standing room only at Mundo Ponzona…

Helen managed to find a free route and did El Filon, 5+…

… but we soon moved on in search of a bit more tranquility. Sector Pandemico is a bit further up the hill (I’ve lost count of the number of Pandemic / Covid themed crags we’ve encountered – testament to the frustrations and unexpected free time available to climbers around the world to explore whilst “staying local”). Only three routes, and we made it three teams, but the other crews were chilled. We did Respirando el Miedo, a 32m 6a+, and Escaqueos, a slightly shorter and somewhat tougher 6a.

The crowds had thinned out by mid-afternoon, as is typical for a Sunday, and we had the place largely to ourselves. I sampled the couple of sectors of orange rock on offer. On El Murito (catching the sun at the right of this end-of-the-day shot) I did Bad Brains, 6c, tricky arete (even I wasn’t glutton enough to use the skin-shredding jamming crack) followed by a steep and committing sequence. In the centre of the crag, on Pasion de Talibans, I managed Terraplanismo academico, 7a and easy for the grade if you use a bit of cunning through the roof.

More endless olive groves…

Alfacar

Our plans for the remainder of our tick list were disrupted by a dodgy forecast and some logistical challenges. You can’t access Cogollos in a campervan and the parking at Montefrío is also supposed to be a bit limited, but the iffy weather meant we didn’t want to commit to demounting from the truck. In the end we made a return to Alfacar after a gap of eight years.

I did En Buena Compania, the only named route on Sector El Esconchon. Sector La Solana was anything but sunny…

… but that didn’t stop Helen leading the namesake 6a/+ for a high-quality 35m rope-stretcher. I was somewhat less successful on La Raimunda, 6c, and drizzle and chill stopped play before we could venture onto any of the other routes (a couple on the right look worthwhile for a future visit)

Chilly and blowy the following day, and after much indecision we finally settled on the Gran Pizarrin…

… only to discover it is now subject to a bird ban.

Instead, we swapped sides to Sector Dablam, where I did Vicio, 6b (excellent) and Olimpia, 6c+.

Just around the arete, Helen did El Puerto, 5+

… and then the rain came 😕