Just had a wicked trip to Catalunya. We had just over two weeks in this climbing paradise with pretty much perfect weather. The first week was hot which is what we wanted after a terrible summer in britain, the second week cooled down a lot so we were able to have a lie in and not get up before the sparrows to go climbing!!

We were lucky enough to stay in Jane Newmans place near Tremp (http://casamauri.wordpress.com/). This provided the ideal base, well away from the main roads and so peaceful it felt like a sanctuary away from the crazy world down below. Many thanks to Jane.

We mainly climbed at Les Bruixes in the Terradets valley and Collegats. We checked out Santa Linya and a few other area too but really enjoyed the former mentioned crags as they were close by and awesome.

My main aim was just to onsight as much as possible and raise my level too. This I did by getting my first 8a+ onsight, Buen Rollito at Collegats. This is the 2nd time I ve tried to onsight this grade so I’m happy to get this. I was thinking I would have to try loads before I got one. I really had to battle too, i was not a push over. The bottom is super steep and hard to read, i was on this section for ages trying to work it out. Starting to wilt i just went for the sequence that looked ok and it worked…

A lot of the harder routes have old draws left in high up, so I took a few for the bottom and had on spare for the headwall well above. After fighting my way up 20 odd metres I was faced with 2 bolts without draws, faced with a massive move above a big run out I decided to keep my lone draw on my harness and just go for it, my reasoning was that at least if I took the massive fall I could just lower off the one below and go home. Anyway I stuck the big jump moves and banged my clip in the next bolt and continued the up 6 more metres to the belay a very happy man.

A tally of what I remember doing on the 11 climbing days…

8a+ x3 ( one onsight)
8a   x4 (two onsight)
7c+ x 8 (four onsight/ two flash)
7c   x5
7b+ x4
7b   x6
7a+ x2
7a+ x1

Since getting back I ve found my summer project wet…. Ah well next year it is..

Had a great day up at the Lad Stones up in the snowy lake district. I ve not been up there since I did Groove Armada many years ago. After a quick tour of the new things my mate Gavin convinced me to have a go at the project left of Groove Armada. With a bit of cleaning with my brush on a pole it looked ready to go. This would have been nice to clean off a rope but i did not have one with me so ground up it had to be. It took a few goes to realise what to do and next minute I was comitted and rocked onto the nose well above the mats and big drop. I inched my way to a jug on the wall and had a few moments to collect my thoughts before questing up the slab to finish. Gav wanted more pics so I did it again without a spotter. Sticking with the Groove Armada theme, Naomi thought to call it ‘Lovebox’ (how sweet), think it felt around font 7b+ but who knows…

I ll write soon about a new E8 7a I did in Yorkshire yesterday, its well cool.

Jordan Buys