Few weeks ago I headed to Spain with a friend to try and get away from the British weather for a while.
We headed for Costa Blanca. Staying just outside Benidorm we had a good 7ish days of climbing in mixed weather to say the least!
Here's a List of where we visited and what we thought....
We headed for Costa Blanca. Staying just outside Benidorm we had a good 7ish days of climbing in mixed weather to say the least!
Here's a List of where we visited and what we thought....
Harrison Lowering Off After A Good Day At Gandia
Sella
We spent the first day here. Most of the day on the single pitch 5-6b stuff. Really nice rock and in the sun it can get quite warm. Lots of different aspects so you can move around weather depending. When it started to shower we went to hide under a roof and tried some of the harder stuff. This crag also has the benefits of most of the climbing being either road side or a 5-10min walk. There's several car parks depending on which part of the crag you want to go to, (so if you're really lazy can park closest to the part of the crag that you want to go to). There is something for everyone here. Definitely worth at least one day to visit.
More info on the Crag can be found on UKC Here.
We spent the first day here. Most of the day on the single pitch 5-6b stuff. Really nice rock and in the sun it can get quite warm. Lots of different aspects so you can move around weather depending. When it started to shower we went to hide under a roof and tried some of the harder stuff. This crag also has the benefits of most of the climbing being either road side or a 5-10min walk. There's several car parks depending on which part of the crag you want to go to, (so if you're really lazy can park closest to the part of the crag that you want to go to). There is something for everyone here. Definitely worth at least one day to visit.
More info on the Crag can be found on UKC Here.
 Harrison After His First 7a of the trip |  Author Chilling Between Climbs |
Vall De Guadar (Echo Valley)
Aran De Batistot
Headed here for some steep harder climbing and we got it! Really impressive roof up in the mountains, which is again road side! With routes from 6b-8a, (although mostly around 7's). Can be a bit chilly if its windy as its in the shade till mid afternoon. If you visit would recommend having a go at Batistot Twenty Four 7a, awesome first few moves before merging into the 6a+ at about 3/4 height.
More info here on UKC.
Aran De Batistot
Headed here for some steep harder climbing and we got it! Really impressive roof up in the mountains, which is again road side! With routes from 6b-8a, (although mostly around 7's). Can be a bit chilly if its windy as its in the shade till mid afternoon. If you visit would recommend having a go at Batistot Twenty Four 7a, awesome first few moves before merging into the 6a+ at about 3/4 height.
More info here on UKC.
View from Crag
Marin
Third climbing day saw us head to Marin just outside Elda, (northwest Alicante). We'd decided to have an easy day on the slabs doing multi pitch routes in the sun. Everything we climbed that day was top50 or 3* and we did 13pitches altogether! Harrison also got a taste of multi pitch sport routes and belays that are bolted :). Nice, friendly climbing, theres some harder stuff here that we went to have a look at the end of the day, but its definitely not a crag to go to for 6c+ climbing. Would make a nice crag for first multi pitch routes.
UKC link here
Third climbing day saw us head to Marin just outside Elda, (northwest Alicante). We'd decided to have an easy day on the slabs doing multi pitch routes in the sun. Everything we climbed that day was top50 or 3* and we did 13pitches altogether! Harrison also got a taste of multi pitch sport routes and belays that are bolted :). Nice, friendly climbing, theres some harder stuff here that we went to have a look at the end of the day, but its definitely not a crag to go to for 6c+ climbing. Would make a nice crag for first multi pitch routes.
UKC link here
 Harrison enjoying the climbing |  Sun! |
Gandia
We spent 2 days climbing here. Such an awesome crag. Loads of steep/roof stuff set above a massive orange grove. The crag gets sun most of the day and with perma dry sections somewhere that could be visited after some rain too. Routes I would suggest to get on are Bianiulus Gluttulatus 7a, Pepestroika 6b and if you fancy a bouldery challenge get on Espanya no m'apanya 7b+. We barely touched the surface of the climbing here so I will be returning if ever in the area again!
More Info here
We spent 2 days climbing here. Such an awesome crag. Loads of steep/roof stuff set above a massive orange grove. The crag gets sun most of the day and with perma dry sections somewhere that could be visited after some rain too. Routes I would suggest to get on are Bianiulus Gluttulatus 7a, Pepestroika 6b and if you fancy a bouldery challenge get on Espanya no m'apanya 7b+. We barely touched the surface of the climbing here so I will be returning if ever in the area again!
More Info here
 Author on an unmarked 7a |  |
We visited a few other crags to, but nothing worth mentioning, other than if you ever climb in Guadalest take a helmet or face getting shouted at and told you can't climb here without one from the refuge owner that doesnt speak any English. Think staying just outside Benidorm worked well for us because it meant that everywhere we visited was under an hours drive. Even though it was still really early on in the year we had some nice warm, sunny days, but also had some bitterly cold days too and a bit of rain.
Both of us will be going back though!
Both of us will be going back though!
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