Spain - El Torcal

August 29, 2007

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We thought our trip around the world was going to involve a lot of rock climbing, but that turned out to not be true. When it came down to it, we realized that we could either experience the cultures of these countries or we could climb rocks there, but we couldn't do both. We chose to store our rope for a few months and be tourists for a while. We definitely made the right decision, but we are SO ready to climb rocks again!

When Kirsten and Karl came out, we got ourselves set up to check out some climbing areas in Andalucia and then go climbing in Mallorca. Our first order of business was to check out a place called El Torcal de Antequera, which is located about an hour and a half from Frigiliana. The drive over was gorgeous and the climbing guidebook was like a beacon drawing us directly to it. We did a little recon and decided to climb at the Sector Siete Vias crag, which had lots of moderate routes.

We strung up a bunch of routes - 7 in total. Kirsten and Karl were super-strong and were our rope-guns for the day. Sarah and I wept at our loss of strength and confidence that can only come when you've taken several months off from climbing. But despite the mourning of our former rock-star selves, we still had a great day. It's always good to be on the rock. Plus, we had a lot of fun taking photos of each other. We tried the "Alex technique" and got some good shots from above and then found some great light on climbs we did near the end of the day and took a bunch of cool shots there.

El Torcal Natural Park