Starting to sketch out a route northwards, as we wended our way towards the Bilbao ferry over the following couple of weeks, we were back to the multi-dimensional matrix of date v weather v crag location v campsite, and trying to optimise a sensible itinerary through the sweet spots. I’ll truly be sold on AI when I can ask ChatGPT to plan me a route home with sunny, amenable cragging every day – perhaps I’ll try an experiment and give it a go! (See Footnote)
As it turned out, a cage full of an infinite number of monkeys could probably have done a better job than I did. We chose to use the good day in the forecast window to revisit Zújar, and things looked good as we warmed up on AK47, 5c and very pleasant…
… contemplating the wealth of 30-40m 6cs and 7as on the adjacent sector Los Veteranos. However, a sandbag Lemmy, 6a+, and agonising ankle (the style of climbing seemed to exacerbate my dodgy joints) had me abandoning the first maillon of the trip and swapping it for a sulk instead. That prompted an ill-considered “might as well get some driving done” decision, and before we knew it we’d boxed ourselves into two damp days in the hinterland around Alcoi.
We managed to salvage something from the rain with a visit to Sector Moscu at Pinet (confirming its status as a fast-drying suntrap) and tick a fist-full of routes including: Todas Al Suelo, 6a, and Me Rio con la “a” Jajaja, 6c+
Things perked up considerably as we decided to head over the hill to Vallada in continuous rain, hoping we’d wake to the promised sunshine and that the crag wouldn’t be too drenched to take advantage of it.
Part one of the plan came up trumps – what a great view to wake up to!
Penya de l’Aiguila is a stupendous piece of rock…
Happily, the second part of the plan also came good, with most of the crag climbable apart from a few obvious wet streaks and the odd slimy pocket. Helen was mostly on a rest day so I managed a good haul of ticks (one of the first times my shift in focus from 7as to 6cs has unlocked a load of routes I have previously avoided). Logurt de Xocolate is a brilliant 6a+; Chip y Chop, 6c, has shed some key holds since I last did it; Apocalypto, 6c, is worth at least 3*s; Manolet Apreta un Pouquet, 6c, is pretty straightforward; and Armagedon, 6c+, is a 3* Pembroke E3 with bolts. Note to future self: Un Passer Nomes, 6a+, is now a polished sandbag, best avoided.
Part of our planning conundrum was to target an optimum weather window for a return visit to Torrechiva, and this left us a bit of slack in the schedule. Thecrag.com came up with a possible filler in: Alcublas – SW facing, with a good spread of grades and looking to be in a pretty spot. Let’s give it a look…
We were totally sold on the crag before we even found it, having discovered an absolutely gorgeous van overnight spot between a couple of ancient windmills on top of the hill overlooking the village.
Cracking spot for a sundowner…
… and to admire the sunset…
… and gaze across at some slightly more modern windmills.
To get to the crag you follow the small road that leads up rightwards from the fuente and head to a parking spot here: 39.804233° N 00.716407° W (possible overnight spot but nowhere near as magnificent as the windmills). From here you follow a well-travelled path which skirts along a terrace for about 400m until a signpost points you up and rightwards towards the crag.
A few cairns mark the way up to the first sector Xanxan in about 10mins.
The crag faces mostly west, so doesn’t get the sun until the afternoon, but sector Ravel Aguila has a more southerly aspect and is a good place to start on a cool morning. Helen did Si no tens mans mira peus, 5+ and Fill de puta lultilm, 5 – both recommended.
Further left the rock changes character entirely, from grey and slabby to red, steep and pockety for Sector Pareto.
The routes are listed from R to L (unlike the rest of the crag) which causes initial confusion, and there aren’t many route names, so I played safe and picked one of the couple of named routes:
This turned out to be good but a little fragile in places (I snapped a foothold just after clipping the first bolt).
There are almost 20 routes on this sector from 6a to 7b+, so plenty more to come back for.
Heading back rightwards, the central part of Ravel was now in the sun and Helen did San despedido martir, 6a
Much to our surprise (and theirs) we bumped into a Czech couple who’d spent a few days exploring the crag without meeting a soul. Here’s a pic of them on the Ravel sector:
… and one on Si no tens mans mira peus which Helen had climbed earlier.
We were really taken by the crag and the area and we’ll definitely be back!
Here’s the view from the parking up towards the windmills…
Footnote: A week later I actually did get around to asking ChatGPT to optimise the final week of our trip. I take it all back, it turns out AI is pretty smart already and the human race is either braced for nirvana or totally f@c#ed. It even asked what grade range we’d be looking for and whether we’d be staying in a van or apartment. Scary! Here’s what it came up with:
RockAroundTheWorld 