Thankfully the unsettled weather has moved away and the sky has been mostly blue 🙂
During their previous visit, Hannah had not been so happy with her performance on a particular climb, so we made the trip over to Morro Falqui to see if things could be improved. Hannah climbed the route far better, with no falls, although there was a little bit of 'grumbling' along the way!! Still not overly pleased with her performance, despite it being a big improvement. Maybe there will be a revisit again next year.....
We also spent a day at the nearby Murla crag. The sunny setting and beautiful outlook always brings out the smiles and today was no exception. Hannah climbed lots here, I forget how many, but around 5 routes. Jane managed a few leads too, all whilst Hannah concocted perfume from the Rosemary bushes 🙂
Finally the big day out. A traverse of the Ferrer ridge. This towers high above the hamlet of Masserof, and were it not for its nearby big brother of Bernia, would be far more popular than it is. The beauty of the Ferrer is easy of access, stunning location and quality rock scrambling along an exposed ridge, that's very narrow at times. Oh, and it's very, very quiet.
And did I mention the view? Well I should. We were able to see the Serrella mountains, up the coast to Castellon de la Plana, Segaria, Montgo, and way out to Ibiza!
Hannah is the youngest person I know to have traversed the Ferrer ridge, and she skipped across it like a walk in the park, easy. For safety, a rope was involved, and we would urge anybody considering taking children across this to do likewise.
More lunch at the final col before we began the descent proper, then an easy, if longish track back into Masserof, from where we could hear singing from a lunchtime party!!
Me & Kate have enjoyed a few fine days out too. A revisit to the magnificent Bolulla Raco Roig crags, this time to climb on the left hand sector. Having briefly looked this one over during a previous visit, I was eager to check out the climbs as they looked very good. We weren't to be disappointed, the 3 routes we did were all lovely, and challenging. 6a; 6b; 6c felt like good going for us. But the rock is not the most impressive part of a visit to these crags, it's the view. It's the best view from any Costa Blanca crag i've visited, and that's a lot of crags! Also, as these routes don't appear in any guidebooks, they don't attract many visitors, so again we enjoyed complete peace and tranquility, bliss.
Yesterday we had planned to climb on the Toix sea cliffs, but a stiff neck put a stop to this and we opted for a walk instead. Play de la Casa in the Serrella range. At 1379m it's a pretty big hill and feels it during the walk up!!
But the paths are good, the scenery helps too, keeps the mind from being reminded how fast our hearts are beating. The summit had snow and Don was quick to make use of this to quench his thirst 🙂
During the initial descent, we witnessed at very close quarters a herd of Ibex running across the hillside, wow!
All in all another fantastic week. Big thanks to Jane & Hannah. Hope to see you both back in the UK over the summer
Mark
Note: during our ascent of 'Coming Out' at Morro Falqui, a quickdraw (one of my shiny new WC protons) was left behind, clipped to one of the bolts we think. I didn't realise this until the following day. I made a return visit to hopefully retrieve it. Me & Kate climbed the route but it was gone 🙁 We went for a walk with Don and whilst walking could see the crags and noticed climbers up there, a little further along the crag. We headed straight back up there to check if they had found the gear...and yes they had, fantastic. A very big thank you to Ulli & climbing partner from Germany 🙂 We enjoyed some good chat about other crags and climbs in the area. Hope you both had a great holiday.
