Actually the water in the apartments we were staying in tasted quite alright really.....
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| Buf! at Alaro Trying to look relaxed in tufa-land! (Vicky Askew photo) |
So Majorca, what a nice place. This was my 8th visit to the island, the first two I didn't take a harness just a lot of rock shoes, several chalk bags, multiple bikinis and a towel.......travel light when it's a DWS trip! After that I've been on more conventional sports cragging trips and this was the second that was work related.
Majorca is a great place for taking people on sports climbing holidays, there are loads of really nice crags, mostly with easy walk-ins, a good range of grades, friendly bolting, sunshine and everything on the entire island is pretty much within 1.5hours drive. Perfect venue!
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| Andy checking out Cova del Diablo! |
Now I've done quite a number of climbing holidays over the last (I'm not saying how many actually - a lady never reveals her age!) number of years, most of them on the Costa Blanca and now a couple of Majorca and it's a frankly brilliant way to kickstart not just the clients season but also my own.
The working bit involves getting a load of mileage in, often interspersed with a few tricky routes as nearly every client I've ever had is psyched for me to get a bit of climbing in too. In fact sometimes I have to beg for mercy when they are trying to post me up desperate looking routes with some misguided faith in my abilities!
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| Andy not trying too hard at Tijuana - elbow rehab! |
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| Andy trying hard on a route at Les Perxes |
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| Oli in outrageous terrain for 6a+ at Sa Gubia week 1 |
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| Andy and Chris cooled off in week 3 at Cala Magraner! |
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| Kwan multi-pitching week 3 |
On this trip Andy also came out so it was great to have a week off in between courses to get some routes in for ourselves. Typically the perfect blue skies and sunshine we'd been enjoying in the first week deserted us for a few days, which meant that Andy indulged in some ridiculous upside down climbing and I rested up for a couple of days ready to unleash when the time came. And yes the time did come, I really surprised myself by being vaguely competent. I know I've been climbing indoors over the winter and starting to feel like I could pull again but it's always different when you head outside. I suppose I've always been better on real rock in the past so I shouldn't be so surprised but it was nice to feel like I was really climbing again and committing myself to not just getting on routes but trying to do the moves. I actually managed to break back into the 7's in the second week which is a bit of a milestone. One of them was definitely dodgy....but if Rockfax says it's 7a+ then who am I to argue?
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| Vicky trying hard in week 1at Alaro |
We went to some new crags (to me) which was great and some different areas of crags I've visited before, and as usual I now have more routes that I REALLY want to do and as usual they are nearly all WAY TOO HARD! Oh well, I'm sure it's good to dream. The biggest disappointment was not getting to go to Fraguel, I've never even attempted to go there before but Andy was keen and I knew there was a few things I would be able to have a good go at, but when we arrived the road was shut due to some fires! Rubbish. Ah well, looks like I'll need to go back again.
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| Attempting to demonstrate it's "all in the feet"! (Photo- Vicky Askew) |
And next time I am definitely taking my bike, or hiring one in advance. I was gutted to discover that there were none left and I couldn't get out for a ride. Never in all my life have I seen so much lycra, hundreds and hundreds of mostly german lycra clad people pedalling around the island. Up and down the awesome alpine style passes, along the wide open flat roads and hanging out in the numerous cafes everywhere. I think the biggest problem would be deciding what to do every day - maybe a split trip where I get someone to bring the climbing gear out a week later would be the answer and then I couldn't be tempted away from the saddle so easily?
