2 weeks were spent in El chorro. Climbing, sleeping and eating and not much else.
After arriving in El Chorro I was met by Mark, Jake, Felix and Andy. The flight was cheap £28 return and a very easy train took me straight from the station to walking distance of the main crags and wild camping spots.
Andy had picked me up from the station in his much cherished van. Picking up the shopping for the week I knew this was going to good. Our first stop was climbing at Momia, time to see how the training had been going, 7b second go, not too shabby. Unfortunately for climbing it was getting to hot , it was making us tired and our skin wet.
So off we set in Andys van for the more shady crags of Desplomilandia, according to Mark, who from living in spain for the past 6 months had aquired some spanish – the English translation of Desplomilandia is “overhang land”, a fitting name. We setup camp on the roof of an abandoned house, with views of the lake and nearby mountains. Dinner was cooked in the van and some lovely Spanish rum was tasted into the evening.
Waking up damp from the low cloud we immediately set up trying to dry our kit before heading out for the next days climbing.
The crag of Desplomilandia allowed steep climbing with long pitches on brilliant tufa and pockets. A team ascent of a 7b along with other routes and some brilliant attempts on a beaslty 7c allowed the first use of the rubber knee pad (it truly is cheating).
With the weather cooling we made our way back to the main crags of frontales, enroute we stopped at the bar in El Chorro. El Chorro is a tiny village with all the activity centred around this small climbers hangout bar. Its full of dirtbags and the local spanish climbers. Serving €1 cervesa along with cheap burgers, its hard not to linger.
We had found an ideal camping spot based just in the woods at the base of the crags. A firespot, chairs and walls already had been created for our comfort. Here we spent the majority of the time. We climbed around frontales, taking down a multitude of classic routes and simulclimbing classics such as Amphtrax on our rest days.
As the week passed more of our friends from Manchester arrived, combining of a grounp of 10 climbers from Manchester, including one girl (poor her, we were all very smelly by this point).
As the days became cloudy it was time to head to Makinodromo. Makinodromo is situated away from the main climbing areas, and a hike along the train tracks is needed to access it (of course we didn’t do this). Maki, it’s nickname denoted by Jake, allowed all sorts of climbing with the main appeal of the crag dominated by a huge tufa encrusted wall. The bivi spot was found – a perfect cave, that kept us dry in the rain and offered a multitude of comforts.
The first day at Makinodromo was awesome, are the grades soft or was all this climbing paying off?! 6b+, 7a+, 2 7b and a 7c all onsight in a day can’t be too bad. After exhausting ourselves the cave welcomed us back.
The next day we awoke to rain, there was only one thing for it… Lourdes. This route dominates the crag and is not wet in the rain. It is the classic 8a, 40m of steep tufa. Although not sent it did give great entertainment throughout the day.
Heading back, we finished the trip climbing around the village. Meeting a couple of rouge american climbers. One of which had come to El Chorro to boulder, a funny proposition, but he did have a bag that looked like a scrotum made from one of the several deer he had killed.
On the way back to Manchester we stopped off at Malaga for some much needed rest and slept well on the plane after two weeks of continuous climbing, I will be back!
The Climbing Adventures of Will 