Adventure #236

Above: The ruins of an ancient Arabic castle sit stop the
limestone cliffs of the Siurana valley.
Next on the list was Coll de Nargo, a small
mountain hamlet to the north of its more
famous neighbour Oliana, which is home
to some of the world’s hardest climbs. The
countryside around Nargo is littered with
limestone crags. We sampled a couple, and
then headed to a cliff-line called Perles, where
we found some bolted multipitch lines of
excellent quality, as well as some single pitch
climbs under an enormous rock arch.
Spain is not known as an international
destination for multipitch climbing, but it has
an abundance. Our next stop, Roca dels Arcs,
near the small town of Villanova de Meia, is
a cliff of limestone 250m high and several
kilometres across. The route we climbed, El
Senor de los Bordillos (translation: the guy
in the kerb), turned out to be deceptively
difficult, weaving through a roof and then up
vertical terrain with nothing but razor-edge
holds to cling to. At the base of the cliff, after
descending, some French climbers directed
us to a nearby monastery at the top of a hill,
a perfect place to pitch a tent and wander
through some ancient ruins.
The next valley over contains the Terradets
canyon - again, a lifetime of climbing here -
and from there we headed to Mont-Rebei, a
place so alluring that we returned once we’d
driven to Barcelona and grabbed another
rental car. (For some reason, it’s cheaper to
rent for 30 days than for 60, so we drove back
and swapped cars after 30.) In the spirit of our
Spanish travels so far, we slept in an old stone
cottage under Cap de Ras, the eastern part of
the same cliff line, and finished our multipitch
adventures on a climb called El Tercer Hombre
(translation: the third man). The climb has the
luxury of being fully bolted, and finishes on a
difficult, vertical face with long moves between
tiny holds.
At the summit, we surveyed the arid, orangespeckled
beauty in all directions. A few ancient
towers could be seen in distant hilltops, where
tiny mountain hamlets survive on goat farming
and tourist visitors. The pace of Spanish life
had been far less frenzied - poo-trastophe
aside - than the mountains around Chamonix.
But, as we discovered, that doesn’t mean
there isn’t much multipitching adventures to be
had: several lifetimes’ worth, in fact, if we only
had several lifetimes at our disposal.
10//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#236
Main image: Chris Baker stretches while climbing ‘The
death of the sponsor’ (7b+, 26) in Siurana