By Will Macleod

Objectives

• For everyone to enjoy 2 weeks of sport climbing in the sun!
• For members to improve their sport climbing ability.
• To experience and take advantage of a much better standard of sport climbing than is available in the UK.

There is no doubt that the tour fulfilled its objectives. Everyone had a great time, the quality of sport climbing was excellent, and many people boosted their sport climbing grade by a substantial amount; Sam and Milan boosted their grades from 6a+ to 6c and I went from climbing 6c+ to 7b.

Attendees

1. Will Macleod
2. Andrew Wilkins
3. Hamzah Shami
4. Antje Lenhart
5. Jakov Marelic
6. Cheehan Weereratne
7. Dak Scott
8. Michael Chan
9. Rosanna Nichols
10. Sam Cockman
11. Milan Thakore
12. Jack Beanland
13. Amar Nanda
14. Will Smith
15. Charlie Penny

Friday, September 6th

The first seven of us took our flight in today. Hamzah reinforced his position of club chopper by trying to bring the most lethal looking ice screw I’ve ever seen onto the plane. The security were nice enough not to arrest him, but he did lose his ice-screw-dagger. We arrived in Reus at around 8pm and from there took a taxi straight to the campsite in Siurana. We were immediately greeted by the campsite owners who were really friendly, and kept the kitchen open late to get us all fed! After choosing our rooms in the campsite cabins and moving all our stuff in, we went to bed setting an alarm for an early start tomorrow.

Saturday, September 7th

A thunderstorm looming overhead prevented people from doing much climbing in the morning… off to a good start! Andy and I (Will) set off hitch-hiking to the nearby town Cornudella, to buy food supplies for the next few days. Other than getting hopelessly lost and accidentally hitch-hiking to a huge dam this was successful. Meanwhile the rest of the group spent the day slacklining and meeting other climbers on the campsite. Hannes – one guy we met – was kind enough to drive some of us to a crag later on in the day when it had dried out. Cheehan, Dak and Rosanna arrived today!

Sunday, September 8th

We are all up early to head to a nearby crag – Can Marges - which has a range of easy and hard routes for the day. Everyone gets a good few climbs in. At midday it gets really hot so we have a break, and after another thunderstorm at 5 we head back. This was our first real go on Spanish rock as a group, and everyone founds the climbs hard. This rock will take some getting used to!

Monday, September 9th

The bulk of the group headed to Can Parasit to climb in the morning. We were lucky to have Hannes to drive some of us into town for food shopping! Everyone regroups at the campsite at 4 and then heads back out to Can Parasit. Some of us take fall practice to get confidence sport climbing and some hard routes are attempted until it gets dark.

Tuesday, September 10th

Up super early. Scrambled eggs. The majority of people leave to Can Parasit again as it was popular yesterday. Me Amar Michael and Hannes drive to Arboli, a beautiful crag just out of walking distance. We climb a variety of routes ranging from 6a to 7b+. We had something loosely resembling Piella for tea, took advantage of the unpolluted sky stargazing, then all retreated to bed!

Wednesday, September 11th

We spent the day at Grau del Masetes. There was a nice section of wall with a range of easier routes that became the social hub of the crag. Lunch was Local baguettes with a monstrous portion of nutella. Michael won chopper of the day award by trying to climb one face of a chimney problem making it magnitudes harder, and benighting a small group of us by getting a rope stuck at the top of a route!

Thursday, September 12th

We went to Grau del Masetes again. A portion of the day was spent trying a 6a and 6a+ overhang at the ‘social hub’ of the crag. We also spent a long time all trying a classic 6b nearby, with Michael taking photos from a rope he had set up next to the route.

Friday, September 13th

Rest day today! Much slacklining was done! A number of people visited Siurana village during the day. Charlie, Sam, Will Smith, Milan and Jack arrived later today. Amar had to go back, and the campsite owners were kind enough to offer to drive him all the way to Reus themselves! (A two hour round trip)

Saturday, September 14th

After a morning excursion through a small jungle to a crag we wrongly thought would be big enough for all of us, we headed to Can Melafots. This is the famous crag at Siurana, and with good reason! It consists of a long stretch of amazing overhanging red rock, overlooking a beautiful view of the lake nearby. It was obvious this crag would be visited many more times this trip!

Sunday, September 15th

Due to a number of complaints about it being too hot, some people went to a shaded crag, Reserva India. The rest of the group headed to Can Melafots again.

Monday, September 16th

We spent the day at Grau del Masetes, to show the new-comers the crag. A number of people had a go at a short 7a+ with a really hard boulder move at the top. Only Jack got it! Since everyone feels pretty spent we decided upon a rest day tomorrow. This is great news because it allows us to indulge in all the Spanish wine we can get our hands on with no fear of climbing hung-over!

Tuesday, September 17th

Finally a full rest-day! Everyone had a big lie-in and then we trekked down to the lake for some swimming. A herd of goats pestered us when we were all sitting by the lake. From the lake we headed to Town to buy food and have a few drinks.

Wednesday September 18th

Me, Antje, Will Smith, Charlie, Milan, Jack and Jakov left early to go to the crag El Detot. The rest were chilling out or climbing at Can Melafots. Michael got his 7c project, and I got a 7a I had been trying.

Thursday September 19th

Today is the last day of real climbing! Everyone with projects they want to do has to get the today! Me and Michael had a 7b and 7c+ project at Can Melafots to finish. I got the 7b and was given a gummy-bear as a reward. We all drank a lot with dinner and for some reason had a food-fight with spaghetti…

Friday September 20th

We got the campsite owners to order us a taxi for 3:30. The morning was spent packing and clearing up the huts, primarily removing spaghetti from the walls. We had quite a large amount of euros left over so thought we would splash out on a nice meal for lunch! We went to a pizzeria in Siurana Village with Hannes before saying bye and heading off!