Spain and CORE

Not much has been going on lately. I've been trying to get some endurance by climbing some easier routes around 8a+ - 8b. I feel like my endurance has finally improved enough to start trying the hard routes. We've been climbing mainly in Oliana lately, where all the routes are extremely long, but also a little bit in Margalef where all routes are much shorter. I've been syked on the long routes that are really hard for me, instead of getting on the short ones that I know I can do.

Since there's not much to report right now, here's a bunch of photos instead:

 

Margalef

 Oliana

Humildes pa casa

 

Humildes pa casa, the best tufa in Spain!

Oliana

Dave checking out a boulder project

 

Lleida

Les Avellanes

Lleida

 Oliana

On another topic, Chuck Fryberger's new film CORE is coming out soon. I'll let the trailer speak for itself. Check it out here soon:

Cataluña

I've been sport climbing here in Catalonia, Spain for over a week now and it's been really fun. The bad weather all over Europe made me change my plans and I decided to come here to hang out with the crew. Overall the weather has been pretty good here, but Margalef is still wet for the most part, so we've been climbing a lot in Oliana.

Boira in Les Avillanes

Oliana is an amazing cliff with very long hard routes. Most of the routes are between 8b and 9a+. For a boulderer like me, climbing in Oliana has been very effective endurance training. I actually feel like I've gained a lot endurance in just a week and soon I can seriously start trying some hard routes. I can't wait for Margalef to dry up so we get to try some shorter routes also.

Dave on Fish eye, Oliana

Yesterday I actually managed to climb something by doing the first repeat of Duele la realidad, 8c+ in Oliana. To the right of Duele la realidad is a really hard project, that Chris bolted a few days ago. It has a very hard bouldery start. I managed to do all the moves of the first part yesterday, but linking them is going to be a challenge.

 Jon Cardwell using his Mexican ninja beta on Duele la realidad

We have spent our restdays looking for boulders. From what I understand, not many people boulder here and even fewer actually go looking for boulders, so there's a lot of bouldering to be discovered.

 Nalle Hukkataival trying Identifacation y placas, 8c

Chad filming in Oliana