Biking through Teruel, Castellon & Valencia.

We spent last weekend biking along an extremely varied linear route from the remote highlands of Teruel right into the city centre of Valencia. The majority of the route was along the path of a disused narrow gauge railway that was originally built to carry coal from the interior of Spain to the industry and ports on the east coast. Therefore, the terrain was non-technical although for the most part off-road.

We took the bikes on the train to our starting point of Mora de Rubielos, an ancient village situated on a high plateau at over 1000 metres above sea level.

On the first day we completed a route of 60km that took us across the highlands of Teruel and down into the province of Castellon where we spent a night in the historical town of Segorbe.

On the second day we biked 55km from Segorbe, via Sagunto and then down the coast to the city of Valencia where we cycled right into the heart of the city centre to the railway station to catch the train back to Gandia.

The sting in the tail was the road from Gandia back home, a route of 14km from sea level up to 375metres. Furthermore, having biked over 100km on rough tracks without incident, I managed to get a puncture riding through the centre of Gandia!

Walking & Birding in Aragon, Spain.

Over the Easter weekend we took the campervan to the province of Aragon in northern Spain, where the river Ebro has been dammed to form a huge system of reservoirs - known locally as the 'Aragon Sea'. This is the area of Spain with the lowest population density, and it shows! In addition to the vast reservoirs, the area comprises wide open heathland, most of which is completely wild and uncultivated.

The walking in itself is very interesting as the sensation of truly wide open space is special.

However due to the very low human population, the wildlife, especially bird life is exceptional. The nature of the landscape and ecosystem particularly favours birds of prey.

Highlights of the trip were :

Red Kite.

Black Kite - lots of, including one that we watched as it took a fish from the lake.

Booted Eagle.

Egyptian Vulture.

Woodchat Shrike.

Black Eared Wheatear.

An area to be recommended and one that we'll return to.

Additional photos of Sweden that I was going to include in my previous blog, but I hadn't failed to navigate the technology!

Spring time in Sweden

On the 16th of March I returned to southern Sweden to climb with my friends Henrik and Torbjorn. Sweden has also had very good snow and ice conditions this winter, however by the time of this visit the temperatures had risen and the spring thaw set in. The Swedes were keen to start their rock climbing season so we first headed to the woodland crag at Valberget. Where Henrik led Lil Sis a Scandinavian grade 5 in cold conditions. That evening we spent the night camping in a clearing above the crag. My enjoyment of this natural woodland far from road noise and light pollution was crowned by a beautifully clear night sky, that had us lingering outside the tent until the temperatures dipped (-10) and we sought the warmth of our sleeping bags.

The next day we travelled to the nearby crag of Kopegarda where we found some warmth in the afternoon sun. I led Bullshit a Swedish three star grade 5 and Henrik led Rukramman a two star 5-.

Then in the evening we camped at Kullenberg, which is famous for its sea cliff climbing and has something of the atmosphere of Gogarth.

The following day Torbjorn made a welcome return to leading by climbing Tobrud a three star Scandinavian grade 3, which he did extremely smoothly considering the severe knee injury that has limited his mountaineering in recent times. I led Svenskerruten grade 5- and Henrik finished off our trip by leading Tobrud Diekte grade 4.

First Day on Grit

On Sunday Colin, Bev, Paul and me along with Colin's son David and his mates headed for the sheltered gritstone of Lawrencefield Quarry. This was a popular choice for many climbers and most of the popular routes and some less popular ones were seeing ascents by the time that we arrived.

Since this was our first day out on grit we headed for the familiar routes on Gingerbread slab where I led the warm up route (Gingerbread VS 4b) and Paul led Meringue (HVS 5a) both of which were followed by Bev, David and Anthony and soloed by Colin.

Paul Colin and me then top roped Eclair (E1 5b) and Vanilla Slice (E2 5c) and to finish I led Tyrone (HVS 5a).

Malham

On Saturday I had a day out walking round Malham with Jen. This area is blessed with some spectacular limestone scenery, such as Gordale Scar and Malham Cove all contained in a compact area.
We started by following the river into the wooded gorge containing Janets Foss, a waterfall formed by a tufa apron. Thanks to the recent rainfall and snow melt the falls were in full spate.

We continued upstream over the road into Goredale. Goredale Scar is always an impressive place where the valley narrows and the high limestone walls close in and once again the waterfalls were in full spate adding to the dramatic atmosphere.

We retraced our steps back to the road and took the footpath to Malham Cove. The path took us through a field with an iron age settlement, past the Watlowes dry valley and over to the top of the cove. It was on this stretch that we saw our first wheatears of the year, another welcome sign of spring. From here we followed the dry valley northwards past some water sinks and on to Malham Tarn. This is a bleak and exposed stretch of water resonating with the bubbling trill of curlews and on a cold day not a place to hang about. We headed back to the top of the Cove over the limestone pavement and followed steps down to the bottom where we saw a few teams of climbers working on various projects.

Malham Cove is the most impressive limestone feature in the area and proved a fitting finale to a walk full of interest.

Costa Blanca climbing 2010

We have just enyoyed a week staying with Carolina and Dave in their new home near Gandia. We had two days climbing in good warm weather.
On Monday 22nd we had a full day at Font d'Axia which was great once we had found the crag. This is a small crag in a rural setting with lower grade routes, ideal for our first climbing day of the season . We started off very gradually on grade 3+  and 4 routes and worked our way up the grades to grade 5. Two of the best routes were longer grade 5s, Kulore and El Drak. We managed a full "Ganley" without getting too scared or hanging about. Excellent for a first day.

On Thursday, we had a couple of hours climbing with Dave at Aventador before flying home. This is a much larger crag with a mixture of routes in a idyllic setting above a river. We stuck to the grade 5s and did Arcadia and Vent. Although slabby, they both had steeper sections.

During our week, we also had a walk up a peak local to Carolina and Dave's home with good views over their village. We also had 83 on our bird list for the week. White Headed Duck and Marbled Duck, both rarities; Cirl Buntings, Bluethroat (Daves wetland!) and Rufous Bushchat were best ticks.

Valencian Via Ferrata

During Chris & Nick's visit to our place last week, we enjoyed a sunny morning playing on a local via ferrata. The Las Marujas via ferrata is on a crag overlooking the town of Tavernes de Valldigna, close to Gandia. It was installed in 2006 and has a protected route of 180 metres. To get onto the route there's a short abseil followed by a 3-wire rope bridge that spans a small gully.

Once on the route proper, despite the iron rungs, it was surprising strenuous - vertical for the most part with a short overhanging section followed by an 'interesting' traverse. The route is marked by the red line on the photo of the main crag.

The day was complemented by sightings of Black Wheatear, Blue Rockthrush and Sub-Alpine Warbler and concluded by a coffee by the beach - perfect!

Kinlochleven Meet

The March meet was held at the FRCC hut at Kinlochleven with Christine, Nick, Steven and me attending. On Saturday the weather was warm but showery and I decided to bag Glas Bheinn a Corbett behind the hut while Christine and Nick targetted a couple of Munros in the Mamores Sgurr Eilde Mor and Binnein Beag. Steven had already been in the area for a few days and elected to take a walk up to Blackwater reservoir and back.  

I accompanied Nick and Christine up to the Mamore Lodge track where our paths diverged. I continued up to Loch Eilde Mor and onto the summit via Meall na Cruaidhe, the going was soft on the snow but hard ground where the snow had gone. The summit gave views over to the Mamores and Glencoe in between showers. Meanwhile Christine and Nick climbed the shoulder of Sgor Eilde Beag to Coire an Lochan to reach their objectives.

From the summit I descended to the Blackwater reservoir then took the path on the north bank of the River Leven with good views of some fine waterfalls thanks to the melting sonwfields. I reached the hut just before Christine and Nick who had returned by the Grey Mares waterfall path.

Braemar Meet

Christine, Nick, Jago and me arrived at Braemar to find snow down to the roadside and temperatures of minus 14 Centigrade.
On Saturday Jago and me had an early start aiming for West Gulley (IV) on Lochnagar. while descending into the corrie the accumulation of powder snow on top of ice and evidence of windslab avalanches convinced us that gullies weren't a good choice and after some prevarication we finally decided to attempt Central Buttress (II) the sunlit ridge in the picture.

 We soloed up an easy introductory gully then roped up on the east flank of the ridge which gave a couple of pitches of mixed climbing on powder covered rock and heather with the occasional bit of ice. Protection was sparse and although the climbing was technically easy the conditions gave some cause for concern.

By now the sun had disappeared and we were feeling the cold. While shivering on the stances we were aware of being watched by Nick and Christine who had enjoyed a pleasant ascent of Lochnagar in the sunshine.

Once the crest of the ridge was gained the difficulties were over and steady snow slopes led to a small cornice to gain the plateau.

From the summit plateau we had extensive views over the cairngorms and began our return journey in the setting sun.

On Sunday Nick and Christine completed a round of four Munros east of Glenshee in the same excellent conditions while Jago and me returned home.